Expression of fibroblast growth factor receptor-1 in human glioma and meningioma tissues

We examined the expression of fibroblast growth factor receptor-1 (FGFR-1), namely FLG, in tissues of 18 human gliomas, 10 human meningiomas, 3 human metastatic brain tumors, and 2 normal human brains by means of immunohistochemistry. All tissues were positively stained for FGFR-1. Primary brain tumors were more abundantly immunoreactive than normal brain tissues (Mann-Whitney U test, P < 0.05). There was significant correlation between the expression level of basic fibroblast growth factor (basic FGF) and that of FGFR-1 in tissues of human glioma (Spearman's test, P < 0.05). The expression level of FGFR-1 of tumor cells increased in correlation with that of endothelial cells in glioma tissues (Spearman's test, P < 0.001). We previously reported that basic FGF is produced in more than 90% of human glioma and meningioma tissues. Together with these data, it is suggested that basic FGF is involved in autonomous cell growth and tumorigenesis of gliomas and meningiomas as an autocrine growth factor in vivo.

Topographical organization of subicular neurons projecting to subcortical regions

Direct projections from the subiculum to the septum, thalamus, and hypothalamus were studied in the rat by the fluorescent retrograde double-labeling technique with Fast blue and Diamidino yellow. The results confirm and extend the previously reported findings. The dorsal subiculum projects primarily to the lateral septum, anterior and midline thalamus, and mammillary complex. The distribution areas of cell bodies of these projection neurons are substantially segregated, depending on their target region, and few single neurons project to two of the target regions by way of axon collaterals. The ventral subiculum projects mainly to the lateral septum, midline thalamus, and ventromedial hypothalamic area. The distribution areas of cell bodies of these projection neurons are considerably overlapped with one another, and a number of single neurons send axon collaterals to two of the lateral septum, midline thalamus, and ventromedial hypothalamic area. It is, thus, indicated that the populations of subicular neurons projecting to each of the subcortical structures examined are more distinctly segregated in the dorsal subiculum than in the ventral subiculum.

Primary central nervous system lymphoma in Japan--a retrospective, co-operative study by CNS-Lymphoma Study Group in Japan

This manuscript reports the results of the first cooperative study on primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) in Japan. Of 196 patients registered, 170 were judged as having PCNSL. No patients were immunocompromised. Of the 170 patients with PCNSL, 93 were males and 77 were females. The mean was 56.7 years. One hundred and nineteen tumors were confirmed histopathologically, and 51 were diagnosed by neuroimaging alone. All the tumors were non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. According to the Working Formulation for Clinical Usage (WF), 96 out of 119 tumors were classifiable: 53 were diffuse large cell type (55.2%), 17 immunoblastic type (17.7%), 9 diffuse small cleaved type (9.4%), 6 diffuse mixed type (6.3%), 5 polymorphous type (5.2%), 5 small lymphocytic type (5.2%) and 1 small non-cleaved type (1.0%). Of 21 tumors studied immunohistochemically, 18 were B-cell type and 3 were T-cell type. Irradiated patients (144) survived significantly longer than non-irradiated patients, (median survival time, MST: 19.2 and 2.7 months, respectively; p < 0.001). There was a remarkable difference in survival among patients of the intermediate lymphomas; MST (18 months) of patients with large cell lymphoma was significantly shorter than MST (over 96 months) of patients with other intermediate grade lymphomas (small cleaved and mixed) (p < 0.001) and had no significant difference from MST (9 months) of patients with high grade lymphomas. If patients were irradiated with more than 40 Gy, higher doses and different modes of irradiation brought no further survival advantage. Chemotherapy was performed in 87 of 144 irradiated patients (60.4%). No regimens were effective in prolonging survival. Of 144 irradiated patients, a complete or partial response to initial treatment was demonstrated in 91 (63.2%) and 43 patients (29.9%), respectively. Improvement in performance status was confirmed in 82 patients (57.0%). Despite a good response to initial treatments, 88 out of 144 evaluatble patients have died of PCNSL (MST: 19 months). Multivariate analysis based on the Cox hazard model revealed that histology of tumor, age at onset, performance status, and radiotherapy were prognostic factors. Neither chemotherapy nor mode of surgery was a beneficial factor.

The effects of atrial natriuretic peptide on brain edema, intracranial pressure and cerebral energy metabolism in rat congenital hydrocephalus

Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) regulates fluid and electrolyte homeostasis in the central nervous system. In this study, we evaluated the effects of ANP on brain edema, intracranial pressure (ICP) and cerebral energy metabolism in congenital hydrocephalus in rats. Brain edema, indicated by the longitudinal relaxation time (T1), was evaluated by 1H-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The ICP was monitored with a miniature pressure-transducer with telemetric system. Cerebral energy metabolism, indicated by PCr/Pi ratio, was measured by 31P-magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). The rats were given 10 microliters of ANP in the left cerebral ventricle. Three different concentrations of ANP were given; 0.2 (group I), 2.0 (group II) and 20.0 (group III) micrograms/10 microliters, respectively. 10 microliters of saline was injected into the ventricle of the control group rats. There were no significant changes of ICP, T1 value and PCr/Pi ratio among the control group, group I and group II. In group III, in contrast, ICP decreased significantly at 20 minutes after ANP administration and stayed at this ICP level for 60 minutes. The T1 value decreased and PCr/Pi ratio increased 30 minutes after ANP administration. This study revealed that intraventricularly administered ANP could decrease ICP, reduce brain edema and improve the cerebral energy metabolism in rats with congenital hydrocephalus.

Effect of bone resorbing factors on u-PA and its specific receptor in osteosarcoma cell line

This study investigated the effect of bone resorbing factors on the pericellular fibrinolytic system of osteosarcoma NY cells. Parathyroid hormone (PTH), prostaglandin E2, (PGE2) or tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) enhanced the secretion of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u-PA) antigen and suppressed the secretion of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) antigen to the conditioned medium. The former two factors also increased u-PA antigen in the cell surface. Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) enhanced u-PA antigen, but its activity was suppressed due to the increased secretion of PAI-1. The binding assay of [125I]DFP-u-PA to NY cells revealed the presence of a single class of binding sites with a Kd of 5.51 nM and Bmax of 0.92 x 10(5) binding sites/cell. PTH or PGE2 increased Bmax 1.4-fold and enhanced the u-PA receptor (u-PAR) mRNA level 1.4-fold or 2.4-fold, respectively. However, TGF-beta did not alter either the Kd or u-PAR mRNA level. Thus, pericellular fibrinolytic activity by u-PA/u-PAR and PAI-1 is modulated by bone resorbing factors.

Streptomyces subtilisin inhibitor-like proteins are distributed widely in streptomycetes

Streptomyces subtilisin inhibitor-like proteins were found to be distributed widely in streptomycetes by using the combination of the convenient, newly developed plate assay system and an established liquid culture assay. Almost all the strains formerly categorized as Streptoverticillium species produced proteins that exhibited inhibitory activity against both subtilisin BPN' and trypsin. N-terminal regions of three purified proteins showed high structural similarity to those of other previously reported SIL inhibitors.

Haemodynamic study of arteriovenous malformations using a hydraulic model

Despite the accumulation of intraoperative data on arteriovenous malformations (AVMs), details of the haemodynamics have not yet been elucidated. A hydraulic model was constructed from silicone and glass tubes to simulate a high-flow AVM. During stepwise obliteration of the nidus, haemodynamic changes were continuously measured in residual parts of the AVM and in the surrounding brain. The flow in the residual AVM decreased nonlinearly with the advance of obliteration. The feeder pressure increased markedly from 37 mmHg to 94 mmHg, while the drainer pressure decreased gradually. The flow volume in the surrounding brain increased markedly from 40 ml/min to 100 ml/min at an occlusion ratio of 60%, where the pressure gradient across the nidus reached 60 mmHg. In the presence of autoregulation, further obliteration showed no change in the flow volume with the increased pressure gradient to 93.7 mmHg. Under dysautoregulatory conditions the flow volume increased to 122 ml/min, although the pressure gradient was 8.3 mmHg lower than that under autoregulatory conditions. Simulation study is useful in understanding haemodynamic changes during the treatment of AVMs.

A study on the values computed by dieticians and chemical analysis of fats, cholesterol, and P/S ratio in food

Dieticians computed the fat and cholesterol contents of 11 foods that were commercially produced as ready-to-eat food from food component lists and obtained the P/S ratio (polysaturated/saturated fatty acids) from the fatty acid component list. Meanwhile the same foods were diluted and homogenized. The internal standard was combined with hepatadecanoic acid and tricaprin. The samples that had been extracted by the Folch method were analyzed for their lipid content (GC analysis using a HS-SS-10 columns for fatty acids and an OV-1 column for lipid and cholesterol). A significant positive correlation was noted between the results of dieticians' analysis and those obtained from a gas chromatographic analysis of lipid and cholesterol contents and the P/S ratio, proving that lipid analysis of food by dieticians is highly reliable. Therefore for diseases (such as hyperlipemia, arteriosclerosis, obesity, diabetes mellitus, fatty liver, and pancreatitis) in which dietary factors have a significant effect on their clinical course, dietary instructions on dietary fats based on an analysis by dieticians are considered to be effective.

Chemotherapeutic effects of intra-arterial administration of ACNU in primary intracerebral non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

The authors report five patients with primary intracerebral non-Hodgkin's lymphoma who were treated with several cycles of intra-arterial injection of 1-(4-amino-2-methyl-5-pyrimidinyl)-methyl-3-(2-chloroethyl)-3-nitrosourea hydrochloride (ACNU) at doses of 80 to 100 mg/m2/injection at several monthly intervals. There was no simultaneous use of steroids, and no patients had concomitant immunosuppression; no patient was human immunodeficiency virus positive. This therapy was initially used in four patients with advanced recurrent lymphoma. These patients experienced tumor progression despite our institutional standard therapy comprising cranial irradiation followed by repeated courses of systemic multi-agent chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide, vincristine, adriamycin, and prednisolone) more than 3 months previously. Based upon brain computed tomography scans and clinical neurologic examinations, three of the four cases showed partial responses ranging from 10 to 12 months in duration, whereas the other patient remained stable without worsening for 8 months. A fifth case was particularly noteworthy; this patient had no prior therapy and intra-arterial chemotherapy alone induced an 18-month, disease-free remission. No significant therapy-related complications nor neurotoxicity were seen. These results suggest that intra-arterial administration of ACNU may be a potential candidate for intracerebral lymphoma therapy.

Regulation of scu-PA secretion and u-PA receptor expression in osteoblast-like cells

The production of proteolytic enzymes by osteoblasts is considered important for initiating osteoclastic bone resorption. Using the established cell line NY as an example of osteoblast-like cells, the effect of intracellular cyclic AMP (cAMP) and protein kinase C (PKC) on plasminogen activator secretion and its specific binding to the cells were investigated. HT-1080 cells were used as the control. NY cells predominantly secrete single-chain urokinase-type plasminogen activator (scu-PA) and some two-chain u-PA. Both scu-PA and u-PA were present in the cell surface and cell lysate of NY cells, and their distribution in HT-1080 cells was quite similar to that of NY cells. Exposing cells to phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) or dibutyryl cyclic AMP (db cAMP) enhanced the secretion of scu-PA and two-chain u-PA, whereas 1-(5-isoquinolinylsulfonyl)-2-methylpiperazine (H7) decreased scu-PA secretion, indicating that it is enhanced by protein kinase C (PKC) as well as by cAMP in NY cells. On the other hand, in HT-1080 cells, PMA decreased the level of two-chain u-PA secretion into the conditioned medium. The binding assay of 125I-DFP-u-PA to NY cells revealed the presence of a single class of binding sites with a Kd of 2.23 nM and Bmax of 0.82 x 10(6) binding sites/cell. PMA however, altered neither the Kd nor the Bmax. Dibutyryl cAMP increased the Bmax 1.9 fold. Thus, NY cells secrete u-PA and express specific binding sites on the cell surface, which are modulated by cAMP and PKC.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Kinetic analysis of tissue distribution of doxorubicin incorporated in liposomes in rats (II)

The objective of this study is to perform kinetic modelling of the tissue distribution of doxorubicin encapsulated into liposomes (L-DXR), especially to the heart and liver. The release process of doxorubicin (DXR) from liposomes in blood was quantified by a release clearance. This parameter defines a release rate of DXR based on the concentration of L-DXR in blood and was estimated from kinetic modelling of DXR distribution to the heart after L-DXR administration. The distribution of free DXR to the heart was modelled separately. The experimental data for this modelling were reported previously (Harashima et al., Biopharm. Drug. Disposit., 13, 155-170 (1992)). This analysis provided a free DXR concentration profile as well as a release clearance of DXR after L-DXR administration. There was a remarkable difference in the free DXR concentration in blood between free and liposomal administration. The area under the DXR curve in the heart was reduced by approximately one third from that for the first two hours after DXR administration by liposomal encapsulation, which could be the reason for reduced cardiac toxicity. In our previous report, the distribution of L-DXR to the liver was shown to be explained by a sequentially linked two-compartment model with efflux process. The validity of this efflux model was examined in this study by a repeated dose study. The apparent uptake clearance decreased with time and showed a second peak after the repeated dose, which justified the efflux model. These kinetic analyses give quantitative understanding of the effect of liposomal encapsulation on the tissue distribution of DXR.

Scintigraphic detection of xenografted tumors producing human basic fibroblast growth factor

A murine monoclonal antibody 3H3 recognizes the basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF) and inhibits the growth of human glioblastoma cells both in vitro and in vivo. We studied the potential of a scintigraphic technique using the 3H3 antibody to detect tumors that produce basic FGF. 125I- and 111In-labeled 3H3 bound to U87MG human glioblastoma cells in vitro. U87MG cells were inoculated subcutaneously into nude mice. After development of the tumor, radiolabeled 3H3 was injected into the subcutaneous space surrounding the tumor. A high level of radioactivity from 3H3 was retained at the tumor, whereas an irrelevant antibody cleared rapidly from the injected site. Radiolabeled 3H3 was not retained in tumors that did not produce basic FGF. Scintigraphic detection of tumors expressing basic FGF would be valuable for the therapeutic application of the antibody.

Comparison of the ability of lactate dehydrogenase-elevating virus and its virion RNA to infect murine leukemia virus-infected or -uninfected cell lines

Lactate dehydrogenase-elevating virus (LDV) has a strict species specificity. Cells or cell lines other than a particular subset of mouse primary macrophages which can support LDV replication in vitro have not been identified. LDV induces neurological disorders in old C58 or AKR strains, in which the involvement of multiple copies of the endogenous N-tropic murine leukemia virus (MuLV) genome and the Fv-1 locus of the mouse has been implicated. Our previous studies have demonstrated that LDV could infect and replicate in cell lines of the mouse or other species in vitro when they were infected with MuLV. The significance of and the precise mechanism underlying this phenomenon, however, remain unclear. We demonstrated in this study the efficient infection and replication of the virus in vitro by inoculation of its RNA mixed with liposome. No significant difference either in the efficiency of RNA transfection or in the ability to support its replication was observed among the various species' cell lines examined. In addition, by RNA transfection the virus replicated with equal efficiency in MuLV-infected and -uninfected cells or in macrophages derived from mice irrespective of their age. In contrast, the pattern of the infection by virus particles was quite different; LDV replication was observed only in macrophages (particularly from newborn mice) and MuLV-infected cells. By using various LDV isolates, it was demonstrated that the capability of replication between neurovirulent, LDV type C, and the other avirulent strains was almost the same in mouse cell lines when their RNA was introduced into the cells. Higher infectivity of LDV-C to MuLV-infected cells may be due to its efficient incorporation of the particles into MuLV-infected cells.

Short-chain carboxylic acid in the feces in patients with pancreatic insufficiency

Short-chain carboxylic acids in the feces of 12 patients with chronic pancreatitis having steatorrhea and 18 healthy subjects were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography. The fecal amount of the patients with chronic pancreatitis was increased to about twice that of the control, and the fat in the feces increased to eight times. The excretion of short-chain carboxylic acids increased to about three times. The short-chain carboxylic acid concentration regarded as derived from protein or amino acid, such as iso-butyrate, isovalerate, and n-valerate, was significantly increased in patients with chronic pancreatitis. From the above results, our data suggest that there is maldigestion of protein besides that of carbohydrate. And we confirmed that these data are an in-vivo illustration of the phenomena which have been studied in-vitro experiments, when fecal bacteria were incubated with peptide or amino acids as a substrate.

In vivo flow visualization of induced saccular cerebral aneurysms in rats

A surgical procedure to expose the arterial bifurcation at the base of the rat brain was developed without sacrificing the animal. Using this technique, visualization of flow in and around the induced cerebral aneurysm was achieved by detecting and following fluorescent particles in the blood stream. Cerebral aneurysms were produced by ligating one common carotid artery, inducing experimental hypertension and feeding them with beta-aminopropionitrile. Flow studies of the arterial bifurcation with an early aneurysmal formation showed that there were spiral flows proximal and distal to the bifurcation. This was the first direct visualization of the actual flow in and around cerebral aneurysms in a vital state. This technology can add further information on the development, growth and rupture of cerebral aneurysms.

Effects of FL-386 on faecal lipid excretion in humans

A newly synthesized inhibitor of pancreatic lipase and micelle formation, FL-386, was administered at a dose of 400 mg (in the diet, for seven consecutive days) to nine healthy adult volunteers, and changes in faecal mass, frequency of defaecation, and properties of the stools were observed. High performance liquid chromatography and gas-liquid chromatography were used to analyse the faeces for short-chain carboxylic acids, neutral sterols, bile acids, fats and hydroxyfatty acids. FL-386 had little effect on the amounts and composition of short-chain carboxylic acids, neutral sterols, and bile acids excreted, nor did it produce changes in the composition of fatty acids, or the percentages of hydroxyfatty acids in the stool. However, in those patients treated with FL-386, the faecal mass was increased, and stools were softer and contained increased amounts of fatty acids. The compound did not produce particularly fatty stools. It was concluded that FL-386 induces slight disturbance in the digestion and absorption of dietary lipids.

Effect of an alpha-glucosidase inhibitor on intestinal fermentation and faecal lipids in diabetic patients

Eight non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus patients, in whom oral hypoglycaemic agents were not effective, were treated with an alpha-glucosidase inhibitor, AO-128 (0.9 mg/day) for 6 months. After 6 months of treatment there was a statistically significant decrease in the blood glucose level 1 and 2 h postprandially. The 2 h blood glucose level was also significantly reduced after 2 months' treatment. The insulin and HbA1c levels after 2 and 6 months' treatment were lower than those before administration. Faecal weight, the frequency of bowel movements, the ratio of hydroxy fatty acids to total fatty acids, and faecal short-chain carboxylic acid content were all increased significantly during treatment. The initially hard stools became normal or soft, although no actual diarrhoea developed. Both faecal bile-acid excretion and the ratio of primary bile acids to total bile acids were increased significantly after 2 months, but they showed some recovery towards the pretreatment levels after 6 months' treatment. There was no distinct change in neutral sterol and fatty acid excretion. Breath hydrogen excretion showed a slight increase after treatment. These results suggest that intestinal fermentation was promoted and the intestinal transit time was shortened by AO-128 administration.