Quality of reports on randomized controlled trials conducted in Japan: evaluation of adherence to the CONSORT statement.

OBJECTIVE: The Consolidated Standards for Reporting of Trials (CONSORT) statement was developed to improve the quality of randomized controlled trial (RCT) reports. We assessed the quality of current Japanese RCT reports by conducting a cross-sectional study to examine the extent to which they adhere to the CONSORT statement. METHODS: Reports of RCTs conducted in Japan that were published in medical journals between January and March 2004 were sampled from MEDLINE. The proportion of adherence to each item in the CONSORT checklist was evaluated for each report. Additionally, information on ethics reporting and funding sources was collected. RESULTS: A total of 98 RCT reports from Japan were evaluated, and adherence to the CONSORT statement was found to be suboptimal. Only 6 of 29 items in the checklist were described in more than 80% of reports. Adherence to key methodological items of the CONSORT statement was as follows: 23% for sample size determination, 39% for random sequence generation, 17% for allocation concealment, 29% for blinding, 53% for numbers analyzed, and 6% for inclusion of a flow diagram. Adherence to additional items was 82% for ethics committee approval, 92% for receiving informed consent, and 20% for disclosing funding sources. CONCLUSION: Our study on adherence of recent RCT reports from Japan to the CONSORT statement reveals that there is a significant need for improvement. Further investigation on the quality of RCT reports and ways to improve reporting quality is required.

Cyclic AMP-dependent proteolysis of GATA-6 expressed on the intracellular membrane.

Cyclic AMP-dependent proteolysis of GATA-6 was characterized by fusing GATA-6 with the carboxyl-terminal membrane domain of SREBP-2. When the fusion protein was stably expressed in CHO-K1 cells, it was recovered in the ER membrane. This protein was processed in a similar manner to SREBP-2 upon cholesterol starvation, and the GATA-6 moiety moved into the nucleus. The GATA-6 moiety on the membrane became undetectable in the presence of dbcAMP or cholera toxin. However, H-89, K-252a, MG115 and lactacystin inhibited this decrease, suggesting that the cytoplasmic GATA-6 moiety of the fusion protein was degraded by proteasomes though A-kinase upon elevation of the cellular cAMP concentration.