Synergism of BSF-2/interleukin 6 and interleukin 3 on development of multipotential hemopoietic progenitors in serum-free culture.

We investigated the effects of B cell stimulatory factor 2/interleukin 6 (BSF-2/IL-6) on the development of murine hemopoietic progenitors using serum-containing culture and serum-free culture. In serum-containing culture, BSF-2 mainly supported multipotential blast cell colonies from spleen cells of normal and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-treated mice. In serum-free culture, no colony growth was seen in the presence of BSF-2. Addition of BSF-2 to the serum-free culture containing IL-3 resulted in a significant increase in the number of colonies formed from multipotential progenitors in spleen cells and bone marrow cells of 5-FU-treated mice, whereas no effects were seen on the number of single or oligolineage colonies formed by the spleen cells of normal mice. These results suggested that BSF-2 and IL-3 act synergistically on the multipotential progenitors but not on the maturer progenitors. When BSF-2 was added to a culture containing low concentrations of IL-3 (1 U/ml, 4 U/ml), which had little effect on colony formation, the number of total colonies formed by the spleen cells and bone marrow cells of 5-FU-treated mice increased significantly. The combination of BSF-2 and 40 U/ml of IL-3 resulted in a significant enlargement of GMM colonies. Thus, BSF-2 appears to enhance the sensitivity of multipotential hemopoietic progenitors to IL-3.

Stimulation of connective tissue-type mast cell proliferation by crosslinking of cell-bound IgE.

Crosslinking of cell-bound IgE on mouse connective tissue-type mast cells (CTMC) by multivalent antigen or anti-IgE antibody induced clonal growth of CTMC in methylcellulose culture containing IL-3. Continuous presence of antigen, IgE antibody, and IL-3 in culture was required for extensive proliferation of CTMC. Optimal concentrations of antigen and anti-IgE antibody for proliferation of sensitized CTMC approximately corresponded to those for maximal histamine release from the cells, and it was observed that most dividing cells stimulated by antigen had pericellular degranulation halos in culture. Experiments of both single cell culture and serum free culture provided evidence for a direct effect of antigen stimulation on proliferation of CTMC. Neither accessory cells nor some factors in FCS were required for the clonal growth of CTMC in our culture condition. Compound 48/80, a direct stimulator of CTMC, also triggered histamine release from CTMC but failed to support their proliferation. These results suggest that stimulation of CTMC via IgE receptors not only triggers the release of chemical mediators from the cells but induces clonal growth of CTMC in the presence of IL-3. Our data indicate the possibility that antigen stimulation may play another role in the proliferation of CTMC.

An enzyme immunoassay and immunoblot analysis for curculin, a new type of taste-modifying protein: cross-reactivity of curculin and miraculin to both antibodies.

We have developed an enzyme immunoassay method for curculin, a new type of taste-modifying protein. This method can accurately quantify 0.05-20 ng of curculin, a sensitivity about 3000-times that of the psychometric method. The content of curculin in the fruit of Curculigo latifolia increased gradually until 3 weeks after artificial pollination and dramatically at 4 weeks, to finally reach 1.3 mg per fruit. Immunoblot analysis indicated that antiserum to curculin was faintly reactive with miraculin, but not with thaumatin or monellin.

Delayed in vitro immunoglobulin production by cord lymphocytes.

Pokeweed mitogen-induced immunoglobulin (Ig) production by cord lymphocytes was studied in vitro by Ig-secreting plaque-forming cell (Ig-PFC) assay. Although adult mononuclear cells generated all of IgM-, IgG-, and IgA-PFC, cord mononuclear cells generated only IgM-PFC when cultured for seven days. The number of cord IgM-PFC was 102 +/- 26/10(4) mononuclear cells, being about one fourth of that of adult IgM-PFC. When cultured for 14 days, cord mononuclear cells formed increased numbers of IgM-PFC in contrast to adult cells and yielded IgG-PFC as well, indicating delayed Ig production. Cord T cells were much less effective at helping adult B cells to differentiate into Ig-PFC as compared with adult T cells. Substitution of adult T cells for cord T cell markedly improved the response of cord B cells. The present study demonstrates Ig secretion by cord lymphocytes in response to pokeweed mitogen stimulation. The results further indicate that the delayed Ig production by cord lymphocytes is largely due to functional immaturity of the T cells.

Natural killer cell immunodeficiency in siblings: defective killing in the absence of natural killer cytotoxic factor activity in natural killer and lymphokine-activated killer cytotoxicities.

A immunodeficiency of natural killer cells as effectors for natural killer and lymphokine-activated killer cytotoxicities was first demonstrated in siblings. Two of three male siblings persistently lacked natural killer activity against K562 target cells as assayed by a 51Cr-release assay: percent lysis values were less than 1.0% as compared to the normal lymphocyte values of 43.5% +/- 6.2% (mean +/- SD). Their lymphocytes did not develop natural killer cell activity by changing effector to target ratios, prolonging the incubation time, or stimulating them with interferon-alpha or interleukin 2. Numbers of lymphocytes bearing Leu-7, CD16, or NKH-1 were normal but those of Leu-7-, CD16+ cells were decreased as estimated by flow cytometry. Single cell-in-agarose assays showed normal numbers of natural killer cells capable of binding to a target cell but incapable of killing it. They had depressed levels of lymphokine-activated killer activity, which was totally eliminated by the treatment with OKT3 and complement. This result indicates that the patients' natural killer cells are also defective in the capacity to work as effectors for lymphokine-activated killer activity. The patients' natural killer cells did not produce natural killer cytotoxic factor activity. Antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity and cytotoxic T lymphocyte cytotoxicity were normal. These results demonstrate a selective natural killer cell deficiency as effectors for natural killer and lymphokine-activated killer cytotoxicities with a familial tendency, in which there is defective killing with the absence of natural killer cytotoxic factor activity.

Taste-modifying triterpene glycosides from Staurogyne merguensis.

Five new oleanane-type triterpene glycosides named strogins 1-5 were isolated from leaves of Staurogyne merguensis. Their structures were determined on the basis of chemical and spectral evidence. After strogins 1, 2 and 4 were held in mouth, water elicited a sweet taste. On the other hand, strogins 3 and 5 had no activity. The structure-activity relationship is discussed.

Neurologic deterioration with progressive CT changes in a child with Kearns-Shy syndrome.

A case of the rare juvenile form of Kearns-Shy syndrome with progressive external ophthalmoplegia and lid ptosis, carditis, skeletal muscle weakness, seizures, mental subnormality, short stature, EEG abnormality and deafness is presented. Electromyography revealed a myopathic pattern. Histochemical studies on quadriceps biopsy specimens showed atrophy of type II fibers and "ragged-red fibers." On electron microscopy these muscle cells were seen to contain an increased amount of glycogen particles and abnormal mitochondria were increased in number and size. It is of interest that abrupt deterioration of neurological findings such as seizures, mental subnormality, speech disturbance and deafness was present in our case. Computed tomographic scanning showed progressive changes of cerebral atrophy, low density of cerebral white matter and basal ganglia calcification, which were well associated with the clinical deterioration. A review of the literature also indicated that some patients with this syndrome showed abrupt neurological deterioration in childhood. Involvement of the central nervous system in this syndrome has to be considered as the cause of sudden deterioration and death in childhood.

A case report of infantile striatal necrosis with an acute onset.

We report here an autopsy case, an 8-year-old boy diagnosed as having infantile striatal necrosis, characterized by a preceding febrile illness followed by acute encephalopathy with abrupt obtundation, seizures and dystonia, with remarkable improvement of the disturbed consciousness and intelligence after TRH-T therapy. These clinical symptoms were linked with bilateral necrosis of the striata on CT scanning. The presented case belonged to a newly described subgroup of the heredogenous disorders that produce necrosis of the putamina in children.

Facioscapulohumeral dystrophy associated with sensorineural hearing loss, tortuosity of retinal arterioles, and an early onset and rapid progression of respiratory failure.

Two sibling cases of facioscapulohumeral dystrophy (FSHD) are described. One was characterized by sensorineural hearing loss, marked tortuosity of retinal arterioles, an early onset and progression of severe restrictive-type pulmonary dysfunction, and cor pulmonale. The other had a mild course of FSHD without involvement of any other organ than muscles at the time of diagnosis. Recently, a new nosological entity of FSHD, with sensorineural hearing loss and tortuosity of retinal arterioles, was advocated. Our cases, especially the first case, seem to belong to this newly recognized entity of FSHD. Moreover, it is noteworthy that our first case exhibited rapid aggravation of severe restrictive-type respiratory failure and cor pulmonale, leading to death, which was never seen in any other reported cases.

Massively parallel architectures for large scale neural network simulations.

A toroidal lattice architecture (TLA) and a planar lattice architecture (PLA) are proposed as massively parallel neurocomputer architectures for large-scale simulations. The performance of these architectures is almost proportional to the number of node processors, and they adopt the most efficient two-dimensional processor connections for WSI implementation. They also give a solution to the connectivity problem, the performance degradation caused by the data transmission bottleneck, and the load balancing problem for efficient parallel processing in large-scale neural network simulations. The general neuron model is defined. Implementation of the TLA with transputers is described. A Hopfield neural network and a multilayer perceptron have been implemented and applied to the traveling salesman problem and to identity mapping, respectively. Proof that the performance increases almost in proportion to the number of node processors is given.

[Hereditary spherocytosis first diagnosed upon the development of aplastic crisis; a case report].

We report a Childhood case of hereditary spherocytosis (HS) first diagnosed upon the development of aplastic crisis. A 6-year-old boy presented with fever and anemia. Although there was neither icterus nor splenomegaly at first, mild icterus and splenomegaly gradually developed with improvement of anemia. The diagnosis of HS was made on the basis of the presence of numerous spherocytes on the peripheral smear, increased osmotic fragility and the auto-hemolysis test result. The severe anemia in the early course with a marked decrease in the bone marrow erythroid cells and the absence of icterus and splenomegaly indicate that it was due to aplastic crisis. In the virological study, anti-human parvovirus (HPV) antibody titers were increased: the values of anti-HPV IgM were high and those of anti-HPV IgG were suddenly elevated. We thus considered that this HS case developed aplastic crisis by HPV infection.

[Requirements of diagnostic criteria for aplastic anemia in children].

As a general rule, diagnostic criteria of aplastic anemia in children are the same as adult criteria. However, blood counts of normal children show wide age-related variation, therefore we must establish a system of adjustment for diagnosis of aplastic anemia in children. The data of children with aplastic anemia visiting our institutes from 1966 to 1990 were evaluated for this study. RBC below 350 x 10(4)/microliters, WBC below 4,000/microliters or neutrophils below 1,500/microliters, platelets below 8 x 10(4)/microliters, reticulocytes below 4 x 10(4)/microliters and lymphocytes over 60% were seemed to satisfy the diagnostic criteria of aplastic anemia proposed by the Study Group of hemopoietic Disorders sponsored by the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Japan. Fifteen children (4.6%) did not meet these criteria and as such were diagnosed as atypical aplastic anemia. Thirteen of them were in a pre-aplastic state and developed typical aplastic anemia within 6 months to 8 years after the initial diagnosis. Clinical findings of these patients showed the decrease in number of megakaryocytes and committed stem cells in bone marrow. Three of these patients developed acute non-lymphocytic leukemia, and 2 of them were diagnosed as Fanconi's anemias.

[Clinical evaluation of effects of KRN8601 (rhG-CSF) on neutropenia].

Clinical effects of KRN8601 (recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor:rhG-CSF) were studied in 26 patients with chronic neutropenia including 4 Kostmann's disease, 1 Shwachman's syndrome, 1 Lonsdale's syndrome, 1 glycogen storage disease Ib-associated, 6 chronic benign, 5 chronic hypoplastic, 2 cyclic, 4 autoimmune and 2 miscellaneous neutropenia. The patients were given rhG-CSF intravenously at doses of 20-540 micrograms/m2 or subcutaneously at doses 20-400 micrograms/m2, over the periods of 2-32 weeks. Increases in neutrophil counts occurred after rhG-CSF administration in 23 of the 26 patients. Patients with Kostmann's disease, Shwachman's syndrome and chronic hypoplastic neutropenia responded poorly compared to patients with other types of neutropenia. There were no serious side effects which caused interruption of the study. These results indicated a beneficial effect of KRN8601 in various types of chronic neutropenia.

[Treatment of aplastic anemia with KRN8601 (rhG-CSF)].

Thirty-nine patients with severe or moderate aplastic anemia received treatment with recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rhG-CSF). The first group of eight patients received rhG-CSF in doses of 100 to 400 micrograms/m2/d by a daily 30-minute intravenous infusion for one or two weeks. Doses up to 400 micrograms/m2/d were well tolerated and resulted in increases of neutrophil counts in 5 out of 8 patients. We gave rhG-CSF (400 micrograms/m2/d) to the second group of 26 patients by a daily 30-minute intravenous infusion for two weeks. The treatment resulted in an increase of neutrophil counts in 15 out of 26 patients (3.1 to 29.5 fold). Further, higher doses (800 or 1,200 micrograms/m2/d) were administered in 5 patients who did not respond to the dose of 400 micrograms/m2/d. The treatment increased the neutrophil counts in 3 out of 5 patients. The third group of five patients received rhG-CSF subcutaneously in doses of 20 to 400 micrograms/m2/d. An increase of neutrophil counts was noted in all five patients. Differential counts of bone marrow aspirate revealed an increase of myeloid: erythroid ratios. However, the responses were transient and neutrophil counts returned to basal levels within 1 approximately 2 weeks after discontinuing treatment. No severe toxicity due to rhG-CSF was observed. These results suggest that rhG-CSF is effective on stimulating granulopoiesis in patients with aplastic anemia. This treatment will be particularly useful for the patient with aplastic anemia suffering from bacterial or fungal infections.