Characterization of the gene encoding human pituitary-specific transcription factor, Pit-1.

Pit-1 is a pituitary-specific transcription factor that binds to and transactivates promoters of growth hormone- and prolactin-encoding genes. A chromosomal gene related to human Pit-1 isolated from human gene libraries was over 14 kb long and split into six exons. All of the splice donor and acceptor sites conformed to the GT/AG rule. The gene was mapped to human chromosome region 3p11.

Synthesis and structure-activity relationships of carboxylated chalcones: a novel series of CysLT1 (LTD4) receptor antagonists.

The synthesis and CysLT1 antagonistic activities of a new series of 2-, 3-, and 4-(2-quinolinylmethoxy)- and 3- and 4-[2-(2-quinolinyl)ethenyl]-substituted, 2'-, 3'-, 4'-, or 5'-carboxylated chalcones are described. Structure-activity relationship studies indicate a preference for the presence of a negatively charged (acidic) moiety, although in some cases nitrile or ester analogues also exhibit moderate activity. The quinoline moiety may be substituted at either the 3- or the 4-position. Replacement of this heterocycle by other aromatic groups results in compounds with comparable affinities [2-(7-chloroquinoline), 1-(1-methyl-2-benzimidazole), or 1-(2-benzothiazole)] or substantially lower activities [1-(1-ethoxyethyl)-2-benzimidazole, 2-naphthyl, or phenyl]. The quinoline and chalcone moieties may be connected by either an ethenyl or a methoxy spacer. The acidic moiety at the chalcone B ring may be attached to the 2'-, 3'-, 4'-, or 5'-position, for both the 3- and 4-substituted chalcones. There are no general patterns to specify which substitution positions gave the most potent compounds. The series contains several potent CysLT1 receptor antagonists, with K(D) values approaching the nanomolar range, as measured by the displacement of [3H]LTD4 from guinea pig lung membranes. Antagonism of LTD4-induced contraction of guinea pig ileum, the inhibition of antigen-induced contraction of guinea pig trachea in vitro, and the inhibition of LTD4-induced increase of vascular permeability in vivo are determined for chalcones with high CysLT1 receptor affinities (K(D) values below 0.1 microM). 2'-Hydroxy-4-(2-quinolinylmethoxy)-5'-(5-tetrazolyl)chalcone (14, VUF 4819) showed good activity in both in vitro and in vivo assays and has been selected for further evaluation.

Inverted insertion of chromosome 7q and ectrodactyly.

An inverted insertion of a segment 7q22-q34 into 3q21 was found in a mentally normal male infant with ectrodactyly of a hand and the feet. A putative gene for ectrodactyly seems to be assigned at 7q22.

Delineation of the da-Silva syndrome.

We present a 6-month-old boy with agenesis of the corpus callosum, hypertonicity, severe growth and psychomotor retardation, microcephaly, large prominent ears, and delayed bone age. Similarity of his manifestations to these in 3 sibs described by da-Silva in 1988 suggests initial delineation of the da-Silva syndrome.

Two sisters with Toriello-Carey syndrome.

Toriello-Carey syndrome comprises agenesis of the corpus callosum, telecanthus, short palpebral fissures, small nose with anteverted nares, Robin sequence, abnormally shaped ears, cardiac defect, and hypotonia. We describe two Japanese sisters with a Toriello-Carey syndrome whose phenotypes were as severe as reported male cases. The younger sister died suddenly at age 4 months. Our patients with a severe phenotype and possible parental consanguinity suggest autosomal recessive inheritance of Toriello-Carey syndrome.

Craniofacial and dental characteristics of Kabuki syndrome.

We describe oral manifestations in six patients (three females and three males aged 6 to 24 years) with Kabuki syndrome (KS), based on their physical, orthopantomographic, and cephalometric findings. All six patients had a high-arched palate, malocclusion, most commonly unilateral posterior cross-bite (5/6), severe maxillary recession and mid-facial hypoplasia. Other frequently observed oral manifestations included small dental arch and hypodontia. Three patients lacked permanent teeth, mostly the central/lateral incisors. Both tooth size (in primary and permanent teeth) and dental arch (in length and width) tended to be small. We would like to stress that oral care and management is a must for the well-being of KS patients.

Functional disomy for Xq26.3-qter in a boy with an unbalanced t(X;21)(q26.3;p11.2) translocation.

A nine-month-old boy, with functional disomy for Xq26-qter and multiple congenital abnormalities, is reported. The boy had severe pre- and postnatal growth retardation, profound developmental delay, hypotonia, microcephaly, agenesis of the corpus callosum, dysmorphic facial features, cryptorchidism, and left multidysplastic kidney. He developed feeding difficulties and infantile spasms. G-banding analysis of his chromosomes showed additional material on the short arm of chromosome 21. His parents refused to submit to chromosome analysis. Analysis with chromosome microdissection followed by reverse and forward chromosome painting indicated his karyotype as 46,XY,der(21)t(X;21)(q26;p11.2). This is the first description of pure functional disomy for Xq26-qter due to an unbalanced X-autosome translocation.

cDNA cloning, expression, and chromosomal localization of human N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase III (GnT-III).

UDP-N-acetylglucosamine:beta-D-mannoside beta 1,4 N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase III (GnT-III) [EC 2.4.1.144] catalyzes the addition of N-acetylglucosamine in beta 1-4 linkage to the beta-linked mannose of the trimannosyl core of N-linked sugar chains to produce a bisecting GlcNAc residue. We have isolated six independent cDNA clones of human GnT-III from a fetal liver cDNA library. The cDNA sequence has an open reading frame that predicts a protein of 531 amino acids. The homology to rat GnT-III is 86% at the nucleotide level and is 91% at the amino acid level. The amino-terminal transmembrane domain and the catalytic domain are well conserved in the two species. Human GnT-III has a deletion of four amino acids in the "neck" region and several differences in the COOH-terminal region compared with the rat sequence. Using one of the human cDNA clones as the probe, two overlapping genomic clones have been isolated from a human cosmid library. The GnT-III gene has been mapped to chromosome 22q.13.1 using fluorescence in situ hybridization.

A simple and efficient amplification method of DNA with unknown sequences and its application to microdissection/microcloning.

An alternative method for amplification of DNA with unknown sequences was developed. This involves the direct ligation of a primer oligodeoxyribonucleotide itself to restricted DNA fragments with unknown sequences to be amplified by PCR. The oligonucleotide need not be phosphorylated and need not be annealed with its complementary oligonucleotide in advance for ligation. The ligation reaction seems to be independent of the concentration of unknown DNA, proceeds in short time, and is efficient. The ligation efficiency was more than 30% at a low concentration, 10 fg/microliters, of DNA. This method was applied to a microdissection/microcloning of the short arm of human chromosome 2. Of 65 clones screened for the highly repetitive sequences with total human genomic DNA, eleven (17%) were positive. Their inserts ranged in size from 150 to 1,200 bp (average, 460 bp). In Southern blot analysis, thirty consecutive clones all detected signals common to both total human genomic DNA and mouse-human hybrid cell DNA containing only chromosome 2 of human origin. Among them, 24 (80%) were unique sequences, and 6 (20%) were multi-copy (or intermediate-repeat) sequences. Thus, this method is simple and efficient, and provides an alternative way to amplify unknown DNA.

Combination chemotherapy with ifosfamide, 5-fluorouracil, etoposide and cisplatin for metastatic urothelial cancer.

PURPOSE: To investigate the activity of combination chemotherapy with ifosfamide, 5-fluorouracil, etoposide and cisplatin in patients with metastatic urothelial cancer. METHODS: A group of 29 patients were treated with 2000 mg/m2 ifosfamide, 750 mg/m2 5-fluorouracil, 100 mg/m2 etoposide and 20 mg/m2 cisplatin. All four drugs were given intravenously on days 1 through 3 and the treatment was repeated every 3 weeks. Of the 29 patients, 14 had lymph node metastasis alone, and 15 had visceral lesions. RESULTS: An objective response was achieved in 17 patients (59%). There was no difference in response rates according to metastatic site including osseous lesions, which responded well in four of six patients. The 3-year survival rate for all patients was 16% with four patients who had undergone salvage surgery being alive with no evidence of disease 15 to 61 months after initiation of the treatment. A good performance status, lymph node metastasis alone and administration of chemotherapy at the full dosage had a significantly favorable impact on patient survival. Bone marrow toxicity was significant and one patient died of treatment-related sepsis. CONCLUSIONS: Ifosfamide, 5-fluorouracil, etoposide and cisplatin combination chemotherapy appeared to be active in the treatment of metastatic urothelial cancer. Although bone marrow toxicity was significant, the treatment was well tolerated by the majority of the patients. Further study may be warranted.

Ring chromosome 15 involving deletion of the insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor gene in a patient with features of Silver-Russell syndrome.

An 11-year-old girl with de novo r(15) (p12q26.3) with a clinical diagnosis of Silver-Russell syndrome (SRS) is presented. She had prenatal and postnatal growth deficiency with a severe short stature, peculiar facies characterized by a triangular face, a pinched nose with anteverted nostrils and down-turned corners of the mouth, bilateral clinodactyly of the fifth fingers, café-au-lait nevi, mental retardation, and a high level of serum follicular stimulating hormone. Southern blot analysis and chromosome fluorescence in situ hybridization revealed a deletion of the insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor gene (IGF1R) in the patient, the result indicating that IGF1R is assigned to 15q26.3. The deleted segment in our patient and comparisons with those of other reported cases of 15q-suggest that one of the putative SRS loci is at 15q26.3.

[Studies on the shift of cefmetazole into the gastrointestinal tract (author's transl)].

From the studies on the stability of cefmetazole and cefazolin in feces of animals and children, and the determination of the fecal concentration of cefmetazole in three pediatric patients, the following results were obtained. 1) When cefmetazole was kept at 37 degrees C for 24 approximately 48 hours in feces of rats, rabbits, dogs and children, it showed no decrease of the potency. On the other hand, cefazolin kept in the same condition as that of cefmetazole showed a remarkable decrease of the potency. 2) Fecal excretions of cefmetazole were 0, 0.22 and 0.65% of total doses, respectively, in two pediatric patients of scarlet fever and one pediatric patient of serous meningitis.

[Clinical assessments on pre-treatment prognostic factors in 138 patients with advanced prostatic carcinoma (stage D2)].

We investigated the prognostic factors in 138 patients with stage D2 prostatic cancer by univariate and multivariate analyses. Analysis was restricted to 8 pre-treatment parameters, that is, age, general condition (PS), pain, number of metastases on bone scan, acid phosphatase value, Gleason's primary pattern, secondary pattern, and nucleoli grading. In addition, 4 therapeutic modalities except routine endocrine therapy, that is, castration, oral administration of estramustine phosphate, of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) or its analogue, and combination chemotherapy, during the whole treatment period were included in the analysis. Univariate analysis (Kaplan-Meier method) showed only PS to be a significant prognostic factor. Multivariate analysis (Cox's proportional hazard model) revealed that PS, Gleason's primary pattern, oral administration of 5-FU or its analogue and combination chemotherapy were significant prognostic factors. However, patients treated by combination chemotherapy had poorer prognosis and chi 2 values of combination chemotherapy was the highest among the four parameters cited above. These results suggested that the 8 pre-treatment parameters examined in this study were not sufficient for predicting the prognosis of each patient.

[Clonal analysis by fluorescence in situ hybridization in a patient with de nove acute myeloid leukemia with myelodysplasia].

A 12-year-old girl presenting leukocytosis, anemia and thrombocytopenia was diagnosed as de nove acute myeloid leukemia (AML, M2) with concurrent myelodysplastic features in myeloid and erythroid cells. Her karyotype was defined as 47, XX, +8[20]. Though she was treated successfully with multi-drug chemotherapy, she relapsed after 2 years of remission. A bone marrow transplantation from HLA matched her brother was performed to induce hematological remission which persisted for one year. She again relapsed with AML with myelodysplasia, and an abnormal complex karyotype was newly detected. She eventually died without further chemotherapy. We performed FISH on the patient's stained bone marrow smears using DNA probes for chromosome 8 and Y to analyze the clonality. The results showed that the most of blasts and bone marrow cells except lymphoid cells were of trisomy 8 at onset, while in the 1st remission, trisomy 8 clone was slightly detected only in monocytes. At 1st and 2nd relapse, trisomy 8 clone was detected again in most of myeloid cells. Thus, in this case, it was considered that underlying stem cell disorder with trisomy 8 during the entire disease course contributed to leukemogenesis.

[Reevaluation and potential therapeutic effects of estrogen therapy to prostate cancer patients].

Survival time of 65 patients with stage D2 prostate cancer who were treated by estrogen with or without antiplatelet drugs was examined. Survival time of 37 patients with antiplatelet drugs was significantly longer than that of 28 histological control ones. The frequency of death of cardiovascular disease in the former group decreased to 5.3%. Next, progression free time of the 37 patients was compared to the time of 37 patients treated by antiandrogen therapy. The former one was better than the latter. However, survival time after relapse of the estrogen group was shorter than the control. These results suggest that estrogen therapy improved by a combination of antiplatelet drugs has to be reevaluated and contains specific therapeutic effects differing from antiandrogen therapy.

Overexpression of glucose transporter 1 in esophageal squamous cell carcinomas: a marker for poor prognosis.

SUMMARY: Recently, Glut1 (human erythrocyte glucose transporter) expression has been demonstrated in various tumors. The aim of this study is to evaluate the prognostic utility of Glut1 expression in esophageal carcinomas. We studied Glut1 expression by immunohistochemistry of paraffin sections from 63 esophageal squamous cell carcinomas. All 63 carcinomas expressed Glut1. The mean percentage of positively stained tumor cells was 77.8% (median, 84.7%). There were two staining patterns in positive cells: 'strongly positive' and 'weakly positive'. The percentage of 'strongly positive' cells (%Glut1-SP) ranged from 0% to 95.6% (mean, 32.3%; median, 27.4%). The 5-year survival rate for patients with a high %Glut1-SP (> 30%) was significantly lower than that for patients with a low %Glut1-SP (< 30%) (P < 0.01). Statistical analysis revealed that the relative risk of death for patients with high %Glut1-SP was 2.02 times that for patients with low %Glut1-SP (P = 0.064), suggesting a possible independent predictive value for %Glut1-SP.

Megalocornea-mental retardation syndrome: an additional case report.

We report here on a Japanese male infant with megalocornea-mental retardation (MMR) syndrome. He had megalocornea (corneal diameter: 13 mm) without glaucoma, developmental retardation, hypotonia, frontal bossing, high-arched palate, carp-like mouth, micrognathia, and delayed myelination. He seems to be included in Verloes type of the MMR syndrome.

Collimating properties of an axicon for the Cerenkov-radiation-type second-harmonic light from a crystal-cored fiber.

The optical second-harmonic wave generated from a crystal-cored fiber from the Cerenkov-radiation-type phase matching can be collimated by an axicon and then can be focused by a spherical lens to a diffraction-limited spot. Tolerance of the optical system to meet the Maréchal criterion is analyzed; tolerable maximum errors in alignment and fabrication of the axicon lens are evaluated.

Cloning and characterization of the inversion breakpoint at chromosome 2q35 in a patient with Waardenburg syndrome type I.

We described cloning and characterization of an inversion breakpoint of chromosome 2 inv(2)(q35q37.3) observed in a patient with Waardenburg syndrome type I (WSI). Genomic cosmid clones containing the HuP2 gene, which was considered as a candidate for WSI, were isolated from a library constructed from the patient DNA. One of the clones contained the inversion breakpoint and revealed signals at both 2q35 and 2q37 by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), indicating disruption of the HuP2 gene by the inversion. Our result further supports that the HuP2 gene is a candidate for Waardenburg syndrome type I and is located at q35.