Breast carcinoma with myeloid metaplasia--a case report

A 49 year-old female had been suffering from primary myelofibrosis since February 1987 without receiving any treatment. In 1994, a breast mass was detected. Breast tumor biopsy revealed tubular carcinoma with intraductal components and multinucleated giant cells in the loose and myxoid stroma. The giant cells were thought to be megakaryocytes because both Factor VIII and platelet glycoprotein GP IIIa were detected in their cytoplasm. While additional mastectomy specimens and the axillary lymph nodes also revealed prominent myeloid metaplasia, there was no proliferation of the cancer cells. Granulocytic series stained for chloroacetate esterase and very few erythrocytic series were observed. This is the first case in which breast carcinoma and myeloid metaplasia coexisted in the same breast tumor.     

Limitations of the method using peroxidase activity of hemoglobin for detecting lipid hydroperoxides

The method using peroxidase activity of hemoglobin (Hb) for the determination of lipid peroxides was examined by using pure methyl linoleate hydroperoxides, trilinoleoylglycerol hydroperoxides and egg yolk phosphatidylcholine hydroperoxides as substrates and tetramethyl benzidine as electron donor for the peroxidase reaction of Hb. The reactivities of these substrates were quite varied. Furthermore, some electron donors were tested for peroxidase activity of Hb, but none showed a complete reduction of methyl linoleate hydroperoxides. From these results, it seems the Hb method needs to be carefully applied to biological materials that contain mixtures of different types of lipid classes.     

Impact of Crystalline Phase of Ni-FUSI Gate Electrode on Bias Temperature Instability and Gate Dielectric Breakdown of HfSiON MOSFETs

We investigated the influences of gate metals (n⁺/p⁺ poly-Si, Ni silicide (NiSi), Ni₃Si) on the time dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) reliability and negative/positive bias temperature instability (NBTI/PBTI) of phase-controlled Ni-full-silicide (Ni-FUSI)/HfSiON/SiO ₂ FETs. The TDDB reliability of NiSi-electrode n-FETs was comparable to that of n⁺-poly-Si-electrode n-FETs. However, further Ni enriching of the electrode to Ni₃Si degraded the reliability. A degradation of the base SiO₂ layer seems to have been responsible for this. A higher compressive strain was observed for the Ni₃Si sample, which may have caused the degradation of the bottom SiO₂. In contrast, the TDDB reliability of p-FETs improved much by using Ni₃Si. We attribute this improvement to the lower cathode energy and/or the absence of boron in the gate electrode. The PBTI of the n-FETs was negligible and was not degraded by Ni enrichment of the gate electrode and additional annealing, suggesting that HfSiON was stable against the Ni-FUSI process. The threshold voltage (V_T) shift in NBTI of p-FETs did not depend much on the gate materials. The major component of the V _T shift in NBTI, however, was changed by Ni enriching from the generation of interface traps to the trapping of holes by the HfSiON bulk     

A solution to combinatorial optimization problems using an accelerated hopfield neural network

Hopfield has shown that the combinatorial optimization problem can be solved on an artificial neural network system by minimizing the quadratic energy function. One of the difficulties in applying the network to actual problems is that the network converges to local minimum solutions very slowly because the sigmoid function is used for an input-output function of the neuron. To overcome this difficulty, this paper proposes an accelerated Hopfield neural network which can control the speed of convergence near the local minima by an acceleration parameter. Computational results for the combinatorial problems with two and twenty-five variables show that: (1) the proposed model converges to the local minima more quickly than the conventional model; (2) that the acceleration of convergence makes the attraction region of each local minimum change and worsens the accuracy of the solution; and (3) that if an initial point is selected around the center of the unit hypercube, the proposed network converges to a local minimum very quickly with high accuracy, and these good properties remain unchanged by the acceleration parameter.     

Application of proteomic technologies to discover and identify biomarkers for periodontal diseases in gingival crevicular fluid: A review

Periodontal disease is a bacterial infection that destroys the gingiva and surrounding tissues of the oral cavity. In recent years, studies have shown a definite association between periodontal disease and other inflammatory conditions of the body. High-throughput analysis of proteins has become possible with the development of MS technology. This breakthrough in proteome technology enables comparative studies of comprehensive protein expression and identification of protein. In case of periodontal disease, proteome analysis using 2DE, as well as gel-free methods, has been reported. As a fluid lying in close proximity to periodontal tissue, the gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) is the principal target in the search for biomarkers of periodontal disease, because its protein composition may reflect the disease pathophysiology. Biochemical marker analysis of GCF is effective for objective diagnosis in the early and advanced stages of periodontal disease. Increasing numbers of recent reports have provided evidence that the proteomic approach is a promising tool for the discovery and identification of biochemical markers of periodontal disease. This search is of continuing interest in the field of experimental and clinical periodontal disease research. In this article, we summarize recent comprehensive proteomic studies aimed at discovering and identifying biomarkers of periodontal disease in GCF.     

Protective effects of quercetin-3-rhamnoglucoside (rutin) on ischemia-reperfusion injury in rat small intestine

Quercetin-3-rhamnoglucoside (rutin) has a wide spectrum of biochemical and pharmacological activities. Orally administered compounds are absorbed in the intestine. Although absorption of rutin from the jejunum of the rat was good, binding of rutin to the intestinal wall components may limit its absorption from the small intestine. The physiological importance of an orally administered compound depends on its interaction with target tissues. Since there is limited information on the importance of rutin in vivo, we focused on the protective effect of rutin on intestinal injury. The intestinal mucosa is extremely sensitive to reactive oxygen species. We used a rat mesenteric ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury model as a model of oxidative injury and investigated the antioxidant activities of rutin in vivo. We found that rutin, which has combined antioxidant activity from radical-scavenging, xanthine oxidase inhibition and chain-breaking effects, exhibits a protective effect on I/R injury in the rat small intestine.     

Purification and characterization of enterotoxin produced by Aeromonas sobria

We purified the toxin of Aeromonas sobria capable of inducing a positive response in the mouse intestinal loop assay. The purified toxin showed a positive response not only in the loop assay but also in a hemolytic assay. Subsequently, we cloned the toxin gene and demonstrated that the product of this gene possessed both hemolytic and enterotoxic activities. These results showed that the enterotoxin of A. sobria possesses hemolytic activity. Nucleotide sequence determination of the toxin gene and amino acid sequence analysis of the purified toxin revealed that it is synthesized as a precursor composed of 488 amino acid residues, and that the 24 amino-terminal amino acid residues of the precursor is removed in the mature toxin. As antiserum against the purified toxin neutralized the fluid accumulation induced by living cells not only of A. sobria but also of A. hydrophila, this and antigenically related toxin(s) are thought to play an essential role in the induction of diarrhea by these organisms. The toxin-injured Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells induced the release of intracellular lactose dehydrogenase (LDH). The release of LDH from CHO cells and the lysis of erythrocytes by the toxin were repressed by the addition of dextran to the reaction solution, indicating that the toxin forms pores in the membranes and that the cells were injured by the osmotic gradient developed due to pore formation. However, the histopathological examination of intestinal cells exposed to the toxin showed that it caused fluid accumulation in the mouse intestinal loop without causing cellular damage.     

Acute myeloblastic leukemia associated with an intermediate state between the healthy carrier state and adult T-cell leukemia

This report describes an intermediate state between the human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) healthy carrier and adult T-cell Leukemia (ATL) who developed acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML, FAB subtype M2). The polyclonal integration of HTLV-I proviral DNA was demonstrated in the peripheral blood lymphoid cells, whereas AML cells had no HTLV-I proviral DNA. The patient achieved remission after combination chemotherapy but cells with lobulated nuclei persist at a low level and the polyclonal integration of HTLV-I proviral DNA is still demonstrated. We suggest that the patients with the integration of HTLV-I proviral DNA might develop secondary neoplasms more frequently than healthy carriers and this case stresses the need to exercise caution with these patients. The relationship between HTLV-I and AML is briefly discussed.     

Acute arterial thrombosis due to platelet aggregation in a patient receiving granulocyte colony-stimulating factor

We describe a 44-year-old man with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma receiving granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) who developed an acute arterial thrombosis. The removed thrombus contained large amounts of platelet aggregation. A rapid increase of platelets and increased adenosine diphosphate (ADP)- and collagen-induced platelet aggregation were observed at the time of the thrombotic event. A challenge test of G-CSF showed an increase in the platelet count and an augmentation of ADP- and collagen-induced platelet aggregation. In the use of GCSF. patients who produce a rapid increase in platelet levels could be at greater risk for thrombotic events and need to be followed-up carefully.     

Changes in electronic structure of Li2−xCuO2

A single phase of Li₂CuO₂ was successfully prepared by solid state reaction. The crystal structure was refined by Rietveld method using a synchrotron radiation source. Electronic structures of x = 0 and 1 in Li_2−xCuO₂ were determined using the first principle calculation. We will discuss electrochemical properties of Li₂CuO₂ and changes in electronic structure of Li_2−xCuO₂, using both the information obtained from the calculation and that obtained experimentally. These results confirmed that Li-extraction of Li₂CuO₂ resulted in the oxidation of Cu²⁺ or O²⁻. The cuprate-based cathode materials have the potential showing high energy density. The calculation of electronic state will play a major role in designing the materials for Li-batteries.