UVC-Protective Activity of Lemongrass Among 12 Fat-soluble Herbal Extracts: Rapid Decay Due to Cytotoxicity.

BACKGROUND/AIM: The COVID-19 pandemic led to the rapid spread of the use of ultraviolet C (UVC) sterilizers in many public facilities. Considering the harmful effects of prolonged exposure to UVC, manufacturing of safe skin care products is an important countermeasure. In continuation of our recent study of water-soluble herbal extracts, the present study aimed at searching for anti-UVC components from fat-soluble herbal extracts. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Human dermal fibroblast and melanoma cells were exposed to UVC (1.193 W/m2) for 3 min. Viable cell number was determined by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. Cell-cycle analysis was performed using a cell sorter. UVC-protective activity was quantified by the selective index (SI), i.e., the ratio of the 50% cytotoxic concentration for unirradiated cells to the concentration that restored viability of UVC-treated cells by 50%. RESULTS: Only lemongrass extract, among 12 fat-soluble herbal extracts, showed significant anti-UVC activity, comparable to that of lignified materials and tannins, but exceeding that of N-acetyl-L-cysteine and resveratrol. Lemongrass extract was highly cytotoxic, producing a subG1 cell population. During prolonged incubation in culture medium, the anti-UVC activity of lemongrass extract, sodium ascorbate and vanillic acid declined with an approximate half-life of <0.7, 5.4-21.6, and 27.8-87.0 h, respectively. CONCLUSION: Removal of cytotoxic principle(s) from lemongrass extract is crucial to producing long-lasting UVC-protective effects.

Characteristics of the muscle involvement along the disease progression in a large cohort of oculopharyngodistal myopathy compared to oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Oculopharyngodistal myopathy (OPDM) is an autosomal dominant myopathy clinically characterized by distal muscle weakness. Even though the identification of four causative genes, LRP12, GIPC1, NOTCH2NLC and RILPL1, it is unclear whether the myopathy progressed similarly among OPDM subtypes. We aimed to establish diagnostic clues in muscle imaging of OPDM in comparison with clinicopathologically similar oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD). METHODS: Axial muscle CT and/or T1-weighted MRI data from 54 genetically confirmed patients with OPDM (OPDM_LRP12; n = 43, OPDM_GIPC1; n = 6, OPDM_NOTCH2NLC; n = 5) and 57 with OPMD were evaluated. We scored the degree of fat infiltration in each muscle by modified Mercuri score and performed hierarchical clustering analyses to classify the patients and infer the pattern of involvement on progression. RESULTS: All OPDM subtypes showed a similar pattern of distribution in the affected muscles; soleus and medial gastrocnemius involved in the early stage, followed by tibialis anterior and extensor digitorum longus. For differentiating OPDM and OPMD, severely affected gluteus medius/minimus and adductor magnus was indicative of OPMD. DISCUSSION: We identified a diagnostic muscle involvement pattern in OPDM reflecting its natural history. The results of this study will help in the appropriate intervention based on the diagnosis of OPDM, including its stage.

Inhibitory SMAD6 interferes with BMP-dependent generation of muscle progenitor cells and perturbs proximodistal pattern of murine limb muscles.

The mechanism of pattern formation during limb muscle development remains poorly understood. The canonical view holds that naïve limb muscle progenitor cells (MPCs) invade a pre-established pattern of muscle connective tissue, thereby forming individual muscles. Here, we show that early murine embryonic limb MPCs highly accumulate pSMAD1/5/9, demonstrating active signaling of bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP) in these cells. Overexpression of inhibitory human SMAD6 (huSMAD6) in limb MPCs abrogated BMP signaling, impaired their migration and proliferation, and accelerated myogenic lineage progression. Fewer primary myofibers developed, causing an aberrant proximodistal muscle pattern. Patterning was not disturbed when huSMAD6 was overexpressed in differentiated muscle, implying that the proximodistal muscle pattern depends on BMP-mediated expansion of MPCs before their differentiation. We show that limb MPCs differentially express Hox genes, and Hox-expressing MPCs displayed active BMP signaling. huSMAD6 overexpression caused loss of HOXA11 in early limb MPCs. In conclusion, our data show that BMP signaling controls expansion of embryonic limb MPCs as a prerequisite for establishing the proximodistal muscle pattern, a process that involves expression of Hox genes.

Muscle pathology of antisynthetase syndrome according to antibody subtypes.

Identification of antisynthetase syndrome (ASS) could be challenging due to inaccessibility and technical difficulty of the serology test for the less common non-Jo-1 antibodies. This study aimed to describe ASS antibody-specific myopathology and evaluate the diagnostic utility of myofiber HLA-DR expression. We reviewed 212 ASS muscle biopsies and compared myopathologic features among subtypes. Additionally, we compared their HLA-DR staining pattern with 602 non-ASS myositis and 140 genetically confirmed myopathies known to have an inflammatory component. We used t-test and Fisher's exact for comparisons and used sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values to assess the utility of HLA-DR expression for ASS diagnosis. RNAseq performed from a subset of myositis cases and histologically normal muscle biopsies was used to evaluate interferon (IFN)-signaling pathway-related genes. Anti-OJ ASS showed prominent myopathology with higher scores in muscle fiber (4.6 ± 2.0 vs. 2.8 ± 1.8, p = 0.001) and inflammatory domains (6.8 ± 3.2 vs. 4.5 ± 2.9, p  = 0.006) than non-OJ ASS. HLA-DR expression and IFN-γ-related genes upregulation were prominent in ASS and inclusion body myositis (IBM). When dermatomyositis and IBM were excluded, HLA-DR expression was 95.4% specific and 61.2% sensitive for ASS with a positive predictive value of 85.9% and a negative predictive value of 84.2%; perifascicular HLA-DR pattern is common in anti-Jo-1 ASS than non-Jo-1 ASS (63.1% vs. 5.1%, p < 0.0001). In the appropriate clinicopathological context, myofiber HLA-DR expression help support ASS diagnosis. The presence of HLA-DR expression suggests involvement of IFN-γ in the pathogenesis of ASS, though the detailed mechanisms have yet to be elucidated.

Age distribution and disease severity of COVID-19 patients continued to change in a time-dependent manner from May 2021 to April 2022 in the regional core hospital in Japan.

The present retrospective study aimed to examine the real-world data regarding time-dependent changes in the age distribution of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as well as the severity and infectivity in a regional core hospital in Japan. Patients with COVID-19 who visited the fever outpatient branch in Takagi Hospital during phase I (May 1 to December 31, 2021), and during phase II (January 1 to April 30, 2022) were evaluated. The age distribution of outpatients and the characteristics of inpatients aged > 75 years were compared between phases I and II. The age distribution of outpatients shifted from the older generation in phase I to the younger generation in phase II (p < 0.01). Disease severity might be reduced in a time-dependent manner with a decrease in the hospitalization rate (phase I: 145/368 (39.4%); phase II: 104/1496 (7.0%); p < 0.01) and mortality rate (phase I: 10/368 (2.7%); phase II: 7/1496 (0.5%); p < 0.01). The number of patients increased in phase II (374.0/month) compared to that in phase I (36.8/month). Regarding the older inpatients, the disease severity of COVID-19 and hospitalization days were reduced in phase II compared to those in phase I (p < 0.01, each). In conclusion, the present study suggests a change in the age distribution of patients with COVID-19, a decrease in toxicity, and an increase in infectivity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in a time-dependent manner.

Distinctive chaperonopathy in skeletal muscle associated with the dominant variant in DNAJB4.

DnaJ homolog, subfamily B, member 4, a member of the heat shock protein 40 chaperones encoded by DNAJB4, is highly expressed in myofibers. We identified a heterozygous c.270 T > A (p.F90L) variant in DNAJB4 in a family with a dominantly inherited distal myopathy, in which affected members have specific features on muscle pathology represented by the presence of cytoplasmic inclusions and the accumulation of desmin, p62, HSP70, and DNAJB4 predominantly in type 1 fibers. Both Dnajb4F90L knockin and knockout mice developed muscle weakness and recapitulated the patient muscle pathology in the soleus muscle, where DNAJB4 has the highest expression. These data indicate that the identified variant is causative, resulting in defective chaperone function and selective muscle degeneration in specific muscle fibers. This study demonstrates the importance of DNAJB4 in skeletal muscle proteostasis by identifying the associated chaperonopathy.

RNA-seq analysis, targeted long-read sequencing and in silico prediction to unravel pathogenic intronic events and complicated splicing abnormalities in dystrophinopathy.

Dystrophinopathy is caused by alterations in DMD. Approximately 1% of patients remain genetically undiagnosed, because intronic variations are not detected by standard methods. Here, we combined laboratory and in silico analyses to identify disease-causing genomic variants in genetically undiagnosed patients and determine the regulatory mechanisms underlying abnormal DMD transcript generation. DMD transcripts from 20 genetically undiagnosed dystrophinopathy patients in whom no exon variants were identified, despite dystrophin deficiency on muscle biopsy, were analyzed by transcriptome sequencing. Genome sequencing captured intronic variants and their effects were interpreted using in silico tools. Targeted long-read sequencing was applied in cases with suspected structural genomic abnormalities. Abnormal DMD transcripts were detected in 19 of 20 cases; Exonization of intronic sequences in 15 cases, exon skipping in one case, aberrantly spliced and polyadenylated transcripts in two cases and transcription termination in one case. Intronic single nucleotide variants, chromosomal rearrangements and nucleotide repeat expansion were identified in DMD gene as pathogenic causes of transcript alteration. Our combined analysis approach successfully identified pathogenic events. Detection of diseasing-causing mechanisms in DMD transcripts could inform the therapeutic options for patients with dystrophinopathy.

Multidimensional analyses of the pathomechanism caused by the non-catalytic GNE variant, c.620A>T, in patients with GNE myopathy.

GNE myopathy is a distal myopathy caused by biallelic variants in GNE, which encodes a protein involved in sialic acid biosynthesis. Compound heterozygosity of the second most frequent variant among Japanese GNE myopathy patients, GNE c.620A>T encoding p.D207V, occurs in the expected number of patients; however, homozygotes for this variant are rare; three patients identified while 238 homozygotes are estimated to exist in Japan. The aim of this study was to elucidate the pathomechanism caused by c.620A>T. Identity-by-descent mapping indicated two distinct c.620A>T haplotypes, which were not correlated with age onset or development of myopathy. Patients homozygous for c.620A>T had mildly decreased sialylation, and no additional pathogenic variants in GNE or abnormalities in transcript structure or expression of other genes related to sialic acid biosynthesis in skeletal muscle. Structural modeling of full-length GNE dimers revealed that the variant amino acid localized close to the monomer interface, but far from catalytic sites, suggesting functions in enzymatic product transfer between the epimerase and kinase domains on GNE oligomerization. In conclusion, homozygotes for c.620A>T rarely develop myopathy, while symptoms occur in compound heterozygotes, probably because of mildly decreased sialylation, due to partial defects in oligomerization and product trafficking by the mutated GNE protein.

Intranuclear inclusions in muscle biopsy can differentiate oculopharyngodistal myopathy and oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy.

Oculopharyngodistal myopathy (OPDM) and oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD) are similar and even believed to be indistinguishable in terms of their myopathological features. To address the diagnostic gap, we evaluated the muscle biopsy samples for p62 expression by immunohistochemistry and compared the occurrence and the frequency of intranuclear inclusions among the individuals with OPDM (harboring CGG repeat expansion in LRP12 (n = 19), GIPC1 (n = 6), or NOTCH2NLC (n = 7)), OPMD (n = 15), and other rimmed vacuolar myopathies. We found that myonuclei with p62-positive intra-nuclear inclusions (myo-INIs) were significantly more frequent in OPMD (11.9 ± 1.1%, range 5.9-18.6%) than in OPDM and other rimmed vacuolar myopathies (RVMs) (0.9-1.5% on average, range 0.0-2.8%, p < 0.0001). In contrast, INIs in non-muscle cells such as blood vessels, peripheral nerve bundles, and muscle spindles (non-muscle-INIs) were present in OPDM, but absent in OPMD. These results indicate that OPMD can be differentiated from OPDM and other RVMs by the frequent presence of myo-INIs; and in OPDM, the presence of non-muscle-INIs in muscle pathology should be a diagnostic hallmark.

Relationships of Walking and non-Walking Physical Activities in Daily Life with Cognitive Function and Physical Characteristics in Male Patients with Mild Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

BACKGROUND: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is accompanied by dyspnea on exertion due to airflow limitation caused by bronchial stenosis, with afflicted patients being less physically active. Therefore, physical activity is important for disease management. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine the relationships of walking and non-walking physical activities with cognitive function or physical characteristics of patients with mild COPD in a community without respiratory rehabilitation. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. DATA SOURCES AND METHODS: We included 40 male patients (mean age, 75.7 ± 6.7 years) with stable mild COPD. A three-axis accelerometer was used to evaluate walking and non-walking physical activities in daily life. Cognition, respiratory function, skeletal muscle mass, limb muscle strength, exercise capacity, and health-related quality of life were assessed. RESULTS: Regarding daily exercise amount (metabolic equivalents × hours; Ex), 87.5% of the participants had walking activities of 0-2 Ex, while 67.5% had non-walking activities of 1-3 Ex. Walking activity was significantly correlated with cognitive function (P < .05), walking distance (P < .01), and health-related quality of life (P < .05), but not with muscle mass. However, non-walking activity was significantly correlated with the body mass index (P < .05), muscle mass (P < .05), and walking distance (P < .01), but not with cognitive function. Moreover, the relationship between non-walking activity and health-related quality of life was weaker than the corresponding relationship with walking activity. CONCLUSION: In patients with mild COPD, walking and non-walking physical activities showed different relationships with cognitive function and physical characteristics. The findings suggest that self-management of such patients requires maintenance of both walking and non-walking activities in a balanced manner.

Simultaneous measurement of the size and methylation of chromosome 4qA-D4Z4 repeats in facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy by long-read sequencing.

BACKGROUND: Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is an autosomal dominant muscular disorder characterized by asymmetric muscle wasting and weakness. FSHD can be subdivided into two types: FSHD1, caused by contraction of the D4Z4 repeat on chromosome 4q35, and FSHD2, caused by mild contraction of the D4Z4 repeat plus aberrant hypomethylation mediated by genetic variants in SMCHD1, DNMT3B, or LRIF1. Genetic diagnosis of FSHD is challenging because of the complex procedures required. METHODS: We applied Nanopore CRISPR/Cas9-targeted resequencing for the diagnosis of FSHD by simultaneous detection of D4Z4 repeat length and methylation status at nucleotide level in genetically-confirmed and suspected patients. RESULTS: We found significant hypomethylation of contracted 4q-D4Z4 repeats in FSHD1, and both 4q- and 10q-D4Z4 repeats in FSHD2. We also found that the hypomethylation in the contracted D4Z4 in FSHD1 is moderately correlated with patient phenotypes. CONCLUSIONS: Our method contributes to the development for the diagnosis of FSHD using Nanopore long-read sequencing. This finding might give insight into the mechanisms by which repeat contraction causes disease pathogenesis.

Verification of dose distribution in high dose-rate brachytherapy for cervical cancer using a normoxic N-vinylpyrrolidone polymer gel dosimeter.

The polymer gel dosimeter has been proposed for use as a 3D dosimeter for complex dose distribution measurement of high dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy. However, various shapes of catheter/applicator for sealed radioactive source transport used in clinical cases must be placed in the gel sample. The absorbed dose readout for the magnetic resonance (MR)-based polymer gel dosimeters requires calibration data for the dose-transverse relaxation rate (R2) response. In this study, we evaluated in detail the dose uncertainty and dose resolution of three calibration methods, the multi-sample and distance methods using the Ir-192 source and the linear accelerator (linac) method using 6MV X-rays. The use of Ir-192 sources increases dose uncertainty with steep dose gradients. We clarified that the uniformly irradiated gel sample improved the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) due to the large slice thickness of MR images and could acquire an accurate calibration curve using the linac method. The curved tandem and ovoid applicator used for intracavitary irradiation of HDR brachytherapy for cervical cancer were reproduced with a glass tube to verify the dose distribution. The results of comparison with the treatment planning system (TPS) calculation by gamma analysis on the 3%/2 mm criterion were in good agreement with a gamma pass rate of 90%. In addition, the prescription dose could be evaluated accurately. We conclude that it is easy to place catheter/applicator in the polymer gel dosimeters, making them a useful tool for verifying the 3D dose distribution of HDR brachytherapy with accurate calibration methods.

Muscle biochemical and pathological diagnosis in Pompe disease.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Pompe disease is reportedly less prevalent in Japan than in neighbouring countries, raising a possibility that some patients may be overlooked. Therefore, all muscle biopsy samples received at our institute were screened for Pompe disease to determine the accuracy of the disease prevalence. METHODS: The acid α-glucosidase (GAA) activity was assayed using 10 µm frozen muscle sections from 2408 muscle biopsies received between July 2015 and January 2018. Genetic analysis was performed for samples with decreased activity. The number of myopathologically diagnosed patients was retrospectively assessed. RESULTS: The GAA activity was distributed similarly to previous results from dried blood spot screening. GAA activity measured using muscle sections corresponded to that measured using muscle blocks. Of 163 patients with GAA activity <3 nmol/hour/mg protein, 43 (26%) patients had homozygous pseudodeficiency alleles in GAA (p.G576S and p.E689K). In the retrospective analysis, the number of patients diagnosed with Pompe disease via muscle biopsies decreased to zero over time. DISCUSSION: Muscle pathology is an accurate method to diagnose Pompe disease. It is unlikely that a significant number of patients with Pompe disease are overlooked. Pathological variants were rare, and the majority carried a pseudodeficiency allele, which further supports our conclusion.

Impact of Percutaneous Transluminal Renal Angioplasty on Autonomic Nervous System and Natriuresis in Hypertensive Patients With Renal Artery Stenosis.

Background We investigated the early postoperative effect of percutaneous transluminal renal angioplasty on ambulatory blood pressure (BP) and the circadian characteristics of natriuresis and autonomic nerve activity. Methods and Results A total of 64 patients with hypertension with hemodynamically significant renal artery stenosis (mean age, 60.0±21.0 years; 31.3% fibromuscular dysplasia) who underwent angioplasty were included, and circadian characteristics of natriuresis as well as heart rate variability indices, including 24-hour BP, low-frequency and high-frequency (HF) components, and the percentage of differences between adjacent normal R-R intervals >50 ms were evaluated using an oscillometric device, TM-2425, both at baseline and 3 days after angioplasty. In both the fibromuscular dysplasia and atherosclerotic stenosis groups, 24-hour systolic BP (fibromuscular dysplasia, -19±14; atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis, -11±9 mm Hg), percentage of differences between adjacent normal R-R intervals >50 ms, HF, brain natriuretic peptide, and nighttime urinary sodium excretion decreased (all P<0.01), and heart rate increased (both P<0.05) after angioplasty. In both groups, revascularization increased the night/day ratios of percentage of differences between adjacent normal R-R intervals >50 ms (both P<0.01) and HF, and decreased those of low frequency/HF (all P<0.05) and nighttime urinary sodium excretion (fibromuscular dysplasia, 1.17±0.15 to 0.78±0.09; atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis, 1.37±0.10 to 0.99±0.06, both P<0.01). Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that a 1-SD increase in baseline low frequency/HF was associated with at least a 15% decrease in 24-hour systolic BP after angioplasty (odds ratio, 2.30 [95% CI, 1.03-5.67]; P<0.05). Conclusions Successful revascularization results in a significant BP decrease in the early postoperative period. Intrarenal perfusion might be a key modulator of the circadian patterns of autonomic nerve activity and natriuresis, and pretreatment heart rate variability evaluation seems to be important for treatment success.

Deep convolutional neural network-based algorithm for muscle biopsy diagnosis.

Histopathologic evaluation of muscle biopsy samples is essential for classifying and diagnosing muscle diseases. However, the numbers of experienced specialists and pathologists are limited. Although new technologies such as artificial intelligence are expected to improve medical reach, their use with rare diseases, such as muscle diseases, is challenging because of the limited availability of training datasets. To address this gap, we developed an algorithm based on deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and collected 4041 microscopic images of 1400 hematoxylin-and-eosin-stained pathology slides stored in the National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry for training CNNs. Our trained algorithm differentiated idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (mostly treatable) from hereditary muscle diseases (mostly non-treatable) with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.996 and achieved better sensitivity and specificity than the diagnoses done by nine physicians under limited diseases and conditions. Furthermore, it successfully and accurately classified four subtypes of the idiopathic inflammatory myopathies with an average AUC of 0.958 and classified seven subtypes of hereditary muscle disease with an average AUC of 0.936. We also established a method to validate the similarity between the predictions made by the algorithm and the seven physicians using visualization technology and clarified the validity of the predictions. These results support the reliability of the algorithm and suggest that our algorithm has the potential to be used straightforwardly in a clinical setting.

Intranuclear inclusions in skin biopsies are not limited to neuronal intranuclear inclusion disease but can also be seen in oculopharyngodistal myopathy.

AIMS: Oculopharyngodistal myopathy (OPDM) is caused by the expansion of CGG repeats in NOTCH2NLC (OPDM_NOTCH2NLC) GIPC1 (OPDM_GIPC1), or LRP12 (OPDM_LRP12). Neuronal intranuclear inclusion disease (NIID) is clinically distinct from OPDM but is also caused by the expansion of CGG repeats in NOTCH2NLC, which may be an indicator of intranuclear inclusion in skin biopsy. We investigated the presence of intranuclear inclusions in skin biopsies from patients with OPDM and muscle diseases with a similar pathology to evaluate whether they will have similar diagnostic findings on skin biopsy. METHODS: We analysed the frequency of p62-positive intranuclear inclusions in sweat gland cells, adipocytes and fibroblasts in skin biopsy samples from patients with OPDM (OPDM_NOTCH2NLC [n = 2], OPDM_GIPC1 [n = 6] and OPDM_LRP12 [n = 3]), NIID (n = 1), OPMD (n = 1), IBM (n = 4) and GNE myopathy (n = 2). RESULTS: The p62-postive intranuclear inclusions were observed in all three cell types in both patients with OPDM_NOTCH2NLC and a patient with NIID, in at least one cell type in all six patients with OPDM_GIPC1, and all in three cell types in one of the three patients with OPDM_LRP12. These findings were not observed in patients with OPMD, IBM or GNE myopathy. CONCLUSION: Intranuclear inclusions in skin biopsy samples are not specific to NIID and are found in all three types of genetically confirmed OPDM, suggesting that the underlying mechanism of OPDM may be similar to NIID, regardless of causative genes.

Dermatomyositis: Muscle Pathology According to Antibody Subtypes.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Discoveries of dermatomyositis-specific antibodies (DMSAs) in patients with dermatomyositis raised awareness of various myopathologic features among antibody subtypes. However, only perifascicular atrophy and perifascicular myxovirus resistant protein A (MxA) overexpression were officially included as definitive pathologic criteria for dermatomyositis classification. We aimed to demonstrate myopathologic features in MxA-positive dermatomyositis to determine characteristic myopathologic features in different DMSA subtypes. METHODS: We performed a retrospective pathology review of muscle biopsies of patients with dermatomyositis diagnosed between January 2009 and December 2020 in a tertiary laboratory for muscle diseases. We included all muscle biopsies with sarcoplasmic expression for MxA and seropositivity for DMSAs. MxA-positive muscle biopsies that tested negative for all DMSAs were included as seronegative dermatomyositis. We evaluated histologic features stratified according to 4 pathology domains (muscle fiber, inflammatory, vascular, and connective tissue) and histologic features of interest by histochemistry, enzyme histochemistry, and immunohistochemical study commonly used in the diagnosis of inflammatory myopathy. We performed ultrastructural studies of 54 available specimens. RESULTS: A total of 256 patients were included. Of these, 249 patients were positive for 1 of the 5 DMSAs (seropositive patients: 87 anti-transcription intermediary factor 1-γ [TIF1-γ], 40 anti-complex nucleosome remodeling histone deacetylase [Mi-2], 29 anti-melanoma differentiation gene 5 [MDA5], 83 anti-nuclear matrix protein 2 [NXP-2], and 10 anti-small ubiquitin-like modifier-activating enzyme [SAE] dermatomyositis) and 7 patients were negative for all 5 DMSAs (seronegative patients). Characteristic myopathologic features in each DMSA subtype were as follows: anti-TIF1-γ with vacuolated/punched out fibers (64.7%; p < 0.001) and perifascicular enhancement in HLA-ABC stain (75.9%; p < 0.001); anti-Mi-2 with prominent muscle fiber damage (score 4.9 ± 2.1; p < 0.001), inflammatory cell infiltration (score 8.0 ± 3.0; p = 0.002), perifascicular atrophy (67.5%; p = 0.02), perifascicular necrosis (52.5%; p < 0.001), increased perimysial alkaline phosphatase activity (70.0%; p < 0.001), central necrotic peripheral regenerating fibers (45.0%; p = 0.002), and sarcolemmal membrane attack complex deposition (67.5%; p < 0.001); anti-MDA5 with scattered/diffuse staining pattern of MxA (65.5%; p < 0.001) with less muscle pathology and inflammatory features; anti-NXP-2 with microinfarction (26.5%; p < 0.001); and anti-SAE and seronegative dermatomyositis with HLA-DR expression (50.0%; p = 0.02 and 57.1%; p = 0.02, respectively). DISCUSSION: We describe a comprehensive serologic-pathologic correlation of dermatomyositis primarily using MxA expression as an inclusion criterion. In our study, DMSAs were associated with distinctive myopathologic features suggesting different underlying pathobiologic mechanisms in each subtype.

Walking distance in incremental shuttle walking test as a predictor of physical activity in patients diagnosed with low-risk chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

OBJECTIVES: Research on the determinants of physical activity in mildly symptomatic patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is lacking. This study examined the predictors of physical activity in patients with low-risk chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. METHODS: A total of 41 male patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease belonging to Group A of the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease were included. Regarding the objective index, the physical activity (number of steps/day and the amount of Ex (metabolic equivalent × hours)/day) of the participants was measured with a tri-axis accelerometer. In addition, regarding the evaluation index, respiratory function and dynamic lung hyperinflation were measured by a spirometer, skeletal muscle mass was measured using bioelectrical impedance analysis, skeletal muscle strength (grip and lower limb muscle strength) was measured using a dynamometer, exercise capacity was measured by the incremental shuttle walking test, and health-related quality of life was measured. RESULTS: Significant correlations were found between the number of steps per day and age (ρ = -0.501, p < 0.01), forced vital capacity predictive values (ρ = 0.381, p < 0.05), dynamic lung hyperinflation (ρ = 0.454, p < 0.01), grip strength (ρ = 0.318, p < 0.05), and walking distance in incremental shuttle walking test (ρ = 0.779, p < 0.01), but not skeletal muscle mass, lower limb muscle strength, or health-related quality of life. A multiple-regression analysis with the number of steps per day as the dependent variable extracted only walking distance in incremental shuttle walking test, yielding a moderate single-regression equation (steps/day = -934.909 + 11.052 × walking distance in incremental shuttle walking test, adjusted R2 = 0.548, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: It was suggested that the amount of physical activity of patients with low-risk chronic obstructive pulmonary disease could be predicted by walking distance in incremental shuttle walking test.