Coronary Vasculitis Induced in Mice by Cell Wall Mannoprotein Fractions of Clinically Isolated Candida Species

Kawasaki disease (KD) is an inflammatory disease that was identified by Professor Tomisaku Kawasaki in 1961. Candida albicans-derived substances (CADS) such as the hot water extract of C. albicans and Candida water-soluble fractions (CAWS) induce coronary vasculitis similar to KD in mice. An increasing proportion of deep-seated candidiasis cases are caused by non-albicans Candida and are often resistant to antifungal drugs. We herein investigated whether the mannoprotein fractions (MN fractions) of clinically isolated Candida species induce vasculitis in mice. We prepared MN fractions from 26 strains of Candida species by conventional hot water extraction and compared vasculitis in DBA/2 mice. The results obtained revealed that the induction of vasculitis and resulting heart failure were significantly dependent on the species; namely, death rates on day 200 were as follows: Candida krusei (100%), Candida albicans (84%), Candida dubliniensis (47%), Candida parapsilosis (44%), Candida glabrata (32%), Candida guilliermondii (20%), and Candida tropicalis (20%). Even for C. albicans, some strains did not induce vasculitis. The present results suggest that MN-induced vasculitis is strongly dependent on the species and strains of Candida, and also that the MN fractions of some non-albicans Candida induce similar toxicity to those of C. albicans.

Coronary Vasculitis Induced in Mice by the Cell Wall Mannoprotein of Candida krusei

Kawasaki disease (KD) is an inflammatory disease that was identified by Professor Tomisaku Kawasaki in 1961. Candida albicans-derived substances, such as the hot water extract of C. albicans (CADS) and Candida water-soluble fraction (CAWS), induced coronary vasculitis similar to KD in mice. An increasing proportion of deep-seated candidiasis cases are caused by non-albicans Candida and are often resistant to antifungal drugs. We herein investigated whether the hot water extract of C. krusei, inherently resistant to fluconazole, induces vasculitis in mice. Three strains of C. krusei, NBRC1395, NBRC1162, and NBRC10737, were cultured in natural (Y) and chemically defined (C) media and cell wall mannoprotein (MN) fractions were prepared by autoclaving cells (CKY1395MN, CKC1395MN, CKY1162MN, CKC1162MN, CKY10737MN, and CKC10737MN). All MN fractions reacted strongly with Concanavalin A (Con A) and dectin-2 and induced anaphylactoid shock in ICR mice. MNs induced severe coronary vasculitis in DBA/2 mice, resulting in cardiac hypertrophy. MNs also induced coronary vasculitis in C57Bl/6 mice. These results suggest that the MNs of non-albicans Candida, such as C. krusei, induce similar toxicity to those of C. albicans.

[Basic and clinical evaluation of EIA (pin immuno assay, PIA) kit for antithyroglobulin antibody (TGAb) and antimicrosomal (antiperoxidase) antibody (TMAb)]

Newly developed enzyme immunoassay kit (Pin Immuno Assay, PIA) for quantitative determination of serum antithyroglobulin antibody (TGAb) and antimicrosomal (-peroxidase) antibody (TMAb) was evaluated. The method utilizes the Sandwich ELISA principle with a unique micropin as solid phase coated with antigen. Reproducibilities assessed by intra- and interassay variation were less than 6.9% (CV) and 7.2% for TGAb or 4.2% and 6.0% for TMAb respectively. Changes in the first or second incubation time did not affect both TGAb and TMAb values. Upper normal limits obtained from 47 healthy subjects were 150 IU/ml for TGAb and 25 IU/ml for TMAb. Positive results in TGAb were obtained 60.0% in patients with Graves' disease and 80.0% in chronic thyroiditis and in TMAb 77.8% in Graves' disease and 66.7% in chronic thyroiditis. Patients with other autoimmune diseases such as SLE, RA were also found high incidence of positive results, 48.3% for TGAb and 65.0% for TMAb respectively. These results indicate that the nonradioisotopic assay technique for thyroid autoantibodies are useful in diagnosis of autoimmune diseases especially thyroid diseases.

[Pulmonary function in normal Japanese children 6 to 16 years of age]

We measured pulmonary function on 182 healthy Japanese children 6 to 16 years of age living in the Tokyo area. Static lung volumes, RV/TLC (%), FRC/TLC (%), FVC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC (%), MMFR, MVV, f, VE and VO2 were measured. Multiple regression equations were obtained and the results were compared with those derived from the other equations (Kanagami (1958), Ishida (1955]. The predicted values were about 10 approximately 25% higher with our equations than those obtained from the other equations which were made more than 30 years ago. These differences were attributed to the recent improvement in growth of the Japanese children. For this reason we think it is better now to adopt new equations for the prediction of normal values in Japanese children.