Identification of crude-oil components and microorganisms that cause souring under anaerobic conditions.

Oil souring has important implications with respect to energy resources. Understanding the physiology of the microorganisms that play a role and the biological mechanisms are both important for the maintenance of infrastructure and mitigation of corrosion processes. The objective of this study was to identify crude-oil components and microorganisms in oil-field water that contribute to crude-oil souring. To identify the crude-oil components and microorganisms that are responsible for anaerobic souring in oil reservoirs, biological conversion of crude-oil components under anaerobic conditions was investigated. Microorganisms in oil field water in Akita, Japan degraded alkanes and aromatics to volatile fatty acids (VFAs) under anaerobic conditions, and fermenting bacteria such as Fusibacter sp. were involved in VFA production. Aromatics such as toluene and ethylbenzene were degraded by sulfate-reducing bacteria (Desulfotignum sp.) via the fumarate-addition pathway and not only degradation of VFA but also degradation of aromatics by sulfate-reducing bacteria was the cause of souring. Naphthenic acid and 2,4-xylenol were not converted.

Altered spatial patterns of functional thalamocortical connections in the barrel cortex after neonatal infraorbital nerve cut revealed by optical recording.

In rodents, the somatosensory cortex has a cell aggregation cluster termed the barrel, reflecting a whisker vibrissa, and this barrel formation is disrupted by infraorbital nerve cut at birth. In the present study, we prepared thalamocortical slice preparations from rats that received infraorbital nerve cut either at birth or at postnatal day (P) 7 and those from normal rats, recorded the optical response reflecting neural excitation in the somatosensory cortex with a voltage-sensitive dye (RH482) and compared the optical responses from lesioned rats with those from normal rats. In normal rats at P10, the optical response elicited electrically by thalamic stimulation propagated to the cortex, and then several patchy clusters appeared in layer IV. The size and location of these patchy responses precisely matched either barrels identified by cytochrome oxidase staining or terminal arbors of thalamocortial axons stained with biotinylated dextran amine. In contrast, at P10 in P0-lesioned rats, clusters having a wider horizontal width but smaller amplitude than those seen in normal rats appeared in layer IV. Correspondingly, neither cytochrome oxidase staining nor biotinylated dextran amine labeling of thalamocortical axons showed any barrel-like clusters or glomerular axon terminals. Likewise, at P5-P6, the tangential width of clusters in layer IV were larger than that in normal rats. At P10 in P7-lesioned rats, small cluster-matched barrels were seen in the optical response as well as in normal rats. These results suggest that P0 infraorbital nerve cut interrupted segregation of functional synapses into the barrels and retarded the maturation of thalamocortical transmission.

[Macrocytic anemia with anisocytosis due to alcohol abuse and vitamin B6 deficiency].

Megaloblastic anemia due to folic acid deficiency and ringed sideroblastic anemia have been reported in alcohol abusers. It has also been reported that vitamin B6 deficiency causes ringed sideroblastic anemia as well as microcytic anemia that is not associated with ringed sideroblasts. We encountered a case of macrocytic anemia with anisocytosis in a 75-year-old alcohol abuser who suffered vitamin B6 deficiency. Neither megaloblastic changes nor ringed sideroblasts were observed in specimens of the patient's bone marrow. Analyses of porphyrin content and heme biosynthetic enzyme activity suggested a decline in ALA-synthase activity (an enzyme that depends on vitamin B6) as well as decreased ferrochelatase activity or abnormal iron metabolism. Abstention from alcohol led to a reduction in mean corpuscular volume and the disappearance of Pappenheimer bodies commonly observed in the red blood cells of drinkers. Follow-up supplements of vitamin B6 resolved the patient's anisocytosis and anemia.

Stop and branch behaviors of geniculocortical axons: a time-lapse study in organotypic cocultures.

The behavior of growing thalamic axons was studied in an organotypic coculture of the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) with the visual cortex (VC) to reveal cellular interactions that underlie the formation of lamina-specific thalamocortical connections. The LGN explant was placed at the ventral side, pial surface, or lateral edge of the VC explant, and fluorescent dye-labeled LGN axons were observed by confocal microscopy in fixed and living tissue. The axonal projection pattern in fixed cocultures after 1 week in vitro demonstrated that, in all three configurations, LGN axons formed primitive branches mainly in layer 4. A time-lapse study further examined axonal growth and branch formation in the living cortical explant. The majority of branches emerged within layer 4 behind the axonal tip, regardless of the direction of axonal entry. In addition, most axons entering from the ventral or pial side of the VC exhibited a transient or persistent stop of axonal growth in and around layer 4, whereas those entering from the lateral edge of the VC traveled along layer 4 without exhibiting stop behavior. The axonal stop often was accompanied by growth cone collapse and a slight retraction. These results suggest the existence of branch and stop cues in layer 4 of the cortex that are recognized by LGN axons.

Fat embolism syndrome caused by vegetable oil injection.

We present a case of fat embolism syndrome following vegetable oil injection for augmentation mammaplasty. Although vegetable oil is a stable neutral fat under usual storage conditions, it caused fat embolism and pulmonary injury in this patient. We investigated this mechanism by compound analysis of the injected oil, transbronchial lung biopsy and special staining of alveolar macrophages. This is the first description of the human response to vegetable oil injection. These data should aid in the investigation of the side effects of many types of lipids which may be applied to humans for various purposes in the future.

[Experience with 241 sporotrichosis cases in Chiba/Japan]. / Erfarungen mit 241 Sporotrichose-Fällen in Chiba/Japan.

Between 1965 and 1991, 241 cases of sporotrichosis have been seen in the Department of Dermatology at Chiba University Hospital. Children under the age of 12 and patients older than 40 years had a higher rate of infection. Most affected were the upper extremities, followed by lesions of the face. One hundred twenty-four patients (51.5%) were farmers. The decrease in the number of patients observed since 1983 is attributed mainly to a drop in the percentage of the local population involved in agriculture. There was no correlation between the number of infections and the amount of precipitation, as had been suggested earlier. The patients were treated with potassium iodide and in some cases with additional thermotherapy.

Detecting of the minimal residual disease contaminated in peripheral blood stem cell transplantation in the B-cell malignant lymphoma patients.

For sufficient collection of hemopoietic stem cells from peripheral blood for autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT), four patients with B-cell-type non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL) were examined for the appearance of circulating hemopoietic progenitors in blood (PSC) during the hemopoietic recovery phase following marrow ablative therapy in combination with or without administration of recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rhG-CSF). Each patient received only chemotherapy in the first course, and rhG-CSF (1 microgram/kg/day) was administered for 14 consecutive days from the last day of the second chemotherapy. In the second chemotherapy course with rhG-CSF administration, white blood cell (WBC) counts demonstrated two peaks, and the appearance of granulocyte-macrophage precursor cells (CFU-GM) in blood at the maximum level was coincident with the second peak of WBC elevation. Erythroid precursor cells (BFU-E) were also detectable in blood after chemotherapy but the peak level was not enhanced by the use of rhG-CSF. To determine whether the minimal residual disease (MRD) cells were contaminated in PSC corrected from blood, kappa-lambda imaging (KLI) analysis was performed to detect the malignant B-cell population (mBp) before and after chemotherapy. No mBp was found in two of four patients in blood, although three of them were involved with mBp in bone marrow. The presence of mBp was detected in two patients both before and after chemotherapy, even though these cells were hardly detected morphologically, suggesting the necessity of judging for the incidence of contamination of MRD cells when collecting PSCs.

Laminar specificity of extrinsic cortical connections studied in coculture preparations.

The formation of specific neural connections in the cerebral cortex was studied using organotypic coculture preparations composed of subcortical and cortical regions. Morphological and electrophysiological analysis indicated that several cortical efferent and afferent connections, such as the corticothalamic, thalamocortical, corticocortical, and corticotectal connections, were established in the cocultures with essentially the same laminar specificity as that found in the adult cerebral cortex, but without specificity of sensory modality. This suggests the existence of a cell-cell recognition system between cortical or subcortical neurons and their final targets. This interaction produces lamina-specific connections, but is probably insufficient for the formation of the modality-specific connections.

[MR imaging of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis].

Magnetic resonance imaging (MR imaging) provides a sensitive method for mapping the normal and pathological distribution of iron in the brain. High field strength MR imaging (1.5 T) was used to evaluate eight patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and 49 neurological normal control patients. All eight ALS patients showed decreased signal intensity in the motor cortex on T2-weighted images, while only one of the normal control patients showed this finding. The results suggested that the decreased signal intensity in the motor cortex in ALS was caused by the deposition of iron in this area.

[Multicenter clinical evaluation of red cell concentrates stored up to 6 weeks in MAP, a new additive solution].

The clinical safety and efficacy of transfusion of red cell concentrates stored in MAP solution (MAP-CRC) containing mannitol, adenine, glucose, phosphate and citrate, into 39 anemic patients were evaluated. In 23 patients, infusion of MAP-CRC was alternated with infusion of ordinary CRC as a control. The MAP-CRC and CRC used in this study were stored at 4 degrees C for an average of 38.2 +/- 2.6 days (n = 52) and 18.1 +/- 2.2 days (n = 26), respectively. Red cell recovery was 77.5% for MAP-CRC and 82.5% for CRC, based on calculation of the increase in hemoglobin level one day after transfusion. There were no differences between patients transfused with MAP-CRC and those transfused with CRC in clinical findings or biochemical data. No major side-effects other than pyrexia associated with the underlying infections were seen in patients transfused with MAP-CRC. MAP-CRC stored up to 42 days is apparently as safe and effective as stored CRC. This new additive solution may therefore be useful for the future expansion of the indications for autologous blood transfusion by facilitating the collection and storage of more blood in the liquid state for a longer period, and may also be useful in obtaining more plasma from whole blood as source plasma.

[Prognosis of intra-arterial chemo-embolization in metastatic liver cancer].

We treated 63 patients (pts) suffering from metastatic liver cancer with intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy, and analysed 44 of their for survival since the first treatment with regard to the primary foci of cancer and the method of intra-arterial therapy. Via the superficial femoral artery, we performed superselective hepatic catheterization by Seldinger's method. Three types of intraarterial therapy were used: Gelfoam embolization with mitomycin-C (MMC) in 12 pts (GS-TAE), capillary chemo-embolization with MMC-Lipiodol emulsion in 28 pts (LP-TAI) and "one-shot" slow infusion of MMC or cisplatinum in 4 pts. Fifty-percent survival was 189 days in pts with metastases from colo-rectal cancer (n = 20), 109 days from gastric cancer (n = 9), 100 days from pancreatobiliary cancer (n = 5) and 240 days from breast cancer (n = 7). More than one-year survival was obtained in 13 out of the 40 pts (32.5%). Survival of 12 pts, treated with GS-TAE regimen, was not significantly superior to that of 28 pts with LP-TAI regimen. Hence, we conclude that LP-TAI is the treatment of choice in chemo-embolization for unresectable liver metastases, because it causes less damage to the hepatic arterial beds, and facilitates repeat intraarterial therapy in these pts.