Factors associated with the practice of nursing staff sharing information about patients' nutritional status with their colleagues in hospitals.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Nursing staff have an important role in patients' nutritional care. The aim of this study was to demonstrate how the practice of sharing a patient's nutritional status with colleagues was affected by the nursing staff's attitude, knowledge and their priority to provide nutritional care. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The participants were 492 nursing staff. We obtained participants' demographic data, the practice of sharing patients' nutritional information and information about participants' knowledge, attitude and priority of providing nutritional care by the questionnaire. We performed partial correlation analyses and linear regression analyses to describe the relationship between the total scores of the practice of sharing patients' nutritional information based on their knowledge, attitude and priority to provide nutritional care. RESULTS: Among the 492 participants, 396 nursing staff (80.5%) completed the questionnaire and were included in analyses. Mean±s.d. of total score of the 396 participants was 8.4±3.1. Nursing staff shared information when they had a high nutritional knowledge (r=0.36, P<0.01) and attitude (r=0.13, P<0.05); however, their correlation coefficients were low. In the linear regression analyses, job categories (ß=-0.28, P<0.01), knowledge (ß=0.33, P<0.01) and attitude (ß=0.10, P<0.05) were independently associated with the practice of sharing information. Nursing staff's priority to provide nutritional care practice was not significantly associated with the practice of sharing information. CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge and attitude were independently associated with the practice of sharing patients' nutrition information with colleagues, regardless of their priority to provide nutritional care. An effective approach should be taken to improve the practice of providing nutritional care practice.

Abnormal asymmetries in subcortical brain volume in schizophrenia.

Subcortical structures, which include the basal ganglia and parts of the limbic system, have key roles in learning, motor control and emotion, but also contribute to higher-order executive functions. Prior studies have reported volumetric alterations in subcortical regions in schizophrenia. Reported results have sometimes been heterogeneous, and few large-scale investigations have been conducted. Moreover, few large-scale studies have assessed asymmetries of subcortical volumes in schizophrenia. Here, as a work completely independent of a study performed by the ENIGMA consortium, we conducted a large-scale multisite study of subcortical volumetric differences between patients with schizophrenia and controls. We also explored the laterality of subcortical regions to identify characteristic similarities and differences between them. T1-weighted images from 1680 healthy individuals and 884 patients with schizophrenia, obtained with 15 imaging protocols at 11 sites, were processed with FreeSurfer. Group differences were calculated for each protocol and meta-analyzed. Compared with controls, patients with schizophrenia demonstrated smaller bilateral hippocampus, amygdala, thalamus and accumbens volumes as well as intracranial volume, but larger bilateral caudate, putamen, pallidum and lateral ventricle volumes. We replicated the rank order of effect sizes for subcortical volumetric changes in schizophrenia reported by the ENIGMA consortium. Further, we revealed leftward asymmetry for thalamus, lateral ventricle, caudate and putamen volumes, and rightward asymmetry for amygdala and hippocampal volumes in both controls and patients with schizophrenia. Also, we demonstrated a schizophrenia-specific leftward asymmetry for pallidum volume. These findings suggest the possibility of aberrant laterality in neural pathways and connectivity patterns related to the pallidum in schizophrenia.

Molecular cloning and expression of a mouse thiamin pyrophosphokinase cDNA.

Thiamin pyrophosphokinase (EC 2.7.6.2) catalyzes the pyrophosphorylation of thiamin with adenosine 5'-triphosphate to form thiamin pyrophosphate. A mouse thiamin pyrophosphokinase cDNA clone (mTPK1) was isolated using a combination of mouse expressed sequence tag database analysis, a two-step polymerase chain reaction procedure, and functional complementation screening with a Saccharomyces cerevisiae thiamin pyrophosphokinase-deficient mutant (thi80). The predicted protein contained 243 amino acid residues with a calculated molecular weight of 27,068. When the intact mTPK1 open reading frame was expressed as a glutathione S-transferase fusion protein in Escherichia coli lacking thiamin pyrophosphokinase, marked enzyme activity was detected in the bacterial cells. The corresponding 2.5-kilobase pair mRNA was expressed in a tissue-dependent manner and was found at relatively high levels in the kidney and liver, indicating that the mode of expression of mTPK1 genes differs with cell type. The expression of mTPK1 genes in cultured mouse neuroblastoma and normal liver cells was unaffected by the thiamin concentration in the medium (10 microM versus 3.0 nM). This is the first report on identification of the primary sequence for mammalian thiamin pyrophosphokinase.

[The efficacy of oral vitamin A supplementation for measles and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection].

Recently, the efficacy of oral vitamin A supplementation for measles and respiratory syncytial (RSV) infection has been evaluated in developing countries. However, in developed countries where vitamin A deficiency is little worth consideration, few studies have been conducted on the effect of vitamin A supplementation. The effect of oral vitamin A (100,000 IU) supplementation was evaluated in 105 children with measles (age 5 months to 4 years) and in 96 children with RSV infection (ages a month to 2.5 years) in Fukushima, Japan. Comparisons were made of clinical signs, duration of hospitalization and complications between treated groups and non-treated groups. Treated group (measles n = 47, RSV n = 54) and non-treated groups (measles n = 58, RSV n = 42) had similar baseline characteristics. Patients with measles given a vitamin A supplementation had a shorter duration of cough (7.2 +/- 1.6 vs 9.2 +/- 1.8 days, p < 0.05) and patients with severe RSV infection given a vitamin A supplementation had a shorter duration of retraction (3.6 +/- 1.4 vs 5.3 +/- 0.8 days, p < 0.05) and wheezing (4.4 +/- 1.7 vs 6.3 +/- 1.5 days, p < 0.05). Toxicities, including excess vomiting and bulging fontanel were not observed. Our findings may suggest the efficacy of oral vitamin A supplementation for measles and severe RSV infection, in children who have no malnutrition.

Role of class B scavenger receptor type I in phagocytosis of apoptotic rat spermatogenic cells by Sertoli cells.

Rat Sertoli cells phagocytose apoptotic spermatogenic cells, which consist mostly of spermatocytes, in primary culture by recognizing phosphatidylserine (PS) exposed on the surface of degenerating spermatogenic cells. We compared the mode of phagocytosis using spermatogenic cells at different stages of spermatogenesis. Spermatogenic cells were separated into several groups based on their ploidy, with purities of 60-90%. When the fractionated spermatogenic cell populations were subjected to a phagocytosis assay, cells with ploidies of 1n, 2n, and 4n were almost equally phagocytosed by Sertoli cells. All the cell populations exposed PS on the cell surface, and phagocytosis of all cell populations was similarly inhibited by the addition of PS-containing liposomes. Class B scavenger receptor type I (SR-BI), a candidate for the PS receptor, was detected in Sertoli cells. Overexpression of the rat SR-BI cDNA increased the PS-mediated phagocytic activity of Sertoli cell-derived cell lines. Moreover, phagocytosis of spermatogenic cells by Sertoli cells was inhibited in the presence of an anti-SR-BI antibody. Finally, the addition of high density lipoprotein, a ligand specific for SR-BI, decreased both phagocytosis of spermatogenic cells and incorporation of PS-containing liposomes by Sertoli cells. In conclusion, SR-BI functions at least partly as a PS receptor, enabling Sertoli cells to recognize and phagocytose apoptotic spermatogenic cells at all stages of differentiation.

A defect in the mitochondrial import of mutant Mn-superoxide dismutase produced in Sf21 cells.

Wild-type and several mutant human manganese superoxide dismutases (Mn-SODs) were produced in a baculovirus/insect cell system and characterized. The enzymatic activity of a homogenate of Sf21 cells, infected with baculovirus carrying wild-type Mn-SOD and grown in the conventional medium, was indistinguishable from that of control cells, but was augmented by supplementation with Mn2+. The protein produced was largely imported into the mitochondria, as judged from the enrichment in the mitochondrial fraction, the mobility of the protein on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and the results of N-terminal processing, which was confirmed by sequencing of the purified enzyme. However, a significant amount of precursor was also detected by an antibody raised against the human Mn-SOD signal peptide. While both Mn2+ and Fe3+ stimulated Mn-SOD accumulation within mitochondria, the active form was produced in the presence of submillimolar Mn2+ only. Amino acid substitutions at a signal peptide-cleavage site, His-Ser-Leu4 to Pro-Met-Va14, in the mature Mn-SOD prevented the processing of the precursor protein, and thus resulted in the accumulation of the precursor protein within mitochondria, as judged on immunostaining with an anti-Mn-SOD antibody. Mutant Mn-SODs with a truncated signal peptide or carboxyl region (8, 13, and 42 amino acid residues in the mature form) were barely solubilized, even with a nonionic detergent, and exhibited no activity, suggesting inappropriate folding of these mutant SODs. They were also susceptible to proteolytic degradation, while the wild-type and precursor forms were resistant. Thus, the baculovirus/insect cell expression system appears to be adequate for the analysis of mitochondrial import using intact cells as well as for the large scale production of active Mn-SOD.

P300 and the thought disorder factor extracted by factor-analytic procedures in schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: In order to clarify the clinical significance of P300 as a biologic marker that can reflect schizophrenic symptomatology, many previous studies have evaluated the relationship of P300 with the symptoms on the basis of a positive/negative dichotomy, but yielded inconsistent conclusions. Such a dichotomy has been criticized as being too reductionistic. Recently, most studies with factor-analytic procedures have extracted some symptom factors outside this dichotomy. Therefore, it is important to examine associations of P300 with the symptom factors extracted by these statistical analyses. METHODS: In the present study, the amplitudes of P300 were measured by using an auditory oddball paradigm for 73 schizophrenics whose psychopathology was assessed with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). RESULTS: The principal component analysis of the PANSS items revealed five factors labeled the thought disorder, negative, hostile/excitable, delusional/hallucinatory, and depressive factors. The score for the thought disorder factor correlated negatively with the amplitude of P300 recorded at Pz T5, and T6, but that for the other factors did not. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that the reduction of P300 amplitudes recorded at the midline parietal and bilateral temporoparietal regions may be one of the electrophysiologic indices representing the thought disorder clinically observed in schizophrenia.

Evolution of phosphagen kinase. Isolation, characterization and cDNA-derived amino acid sequence of two-domain arginine kinase from the sea anemone Anthopleura japonicus.

Arginine kinase (AK) was isolated from the body wall muscle of the primitive sea anemone Anthopleura japonicus by Ultrogel AcA34 gel filtration, DEAE-32 chromatography and elution on a Cosmogel-SP column. The denatured molecular mass as determined with SDS/PAGE was 80 kDa, twice that of the usual AK subunit, indicating that this AK has an unusual two-domain structure. The native form was eluted on a Superose 12 column with the same retention time as that of rabbit homodimeric creatine kinase, indicating that Anthopleura AK is a monomer of 80 kDa. The isolated enzyme gave a specific activity of 100-120 micromol of Pi/min per mg of protein in the pH range 7.9-9.1 for the forward reaction. The enzyme is fully activated by Ca2+, as it is with Mg2+. The cDNA-derived amino acid sequence of 715 residues of Anthopleura AK was determined. The validity of the sequence was supported by chemical sequencing of internal tryptic peptides. A bridge intron of 686 bp, which separates the two domains of Anthopleura AK, is present between the second and third nucleotide in the codon of Ala-364. This is the first two-domain AK to be sequenced. Anthopleura AK shows 48-54% amino acid sequence identity with known invertebrate AKs, and also shows a lower, but significant, similarity (39-46%) to marine worm glycocyamine kinase and rabbit creatine kinase.

Mutation thi81 causing a deficiency in the signal transduction of thiamine pyrophosphate in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

We isolated a strain carrying a recessive constitutive mutation (thi81) for the expression of thiamine metabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The thi81 mutant exhibits significant thiamine transport, thiamine-repressible acid phosphatase (T-rAPase) activities and significant activities of enzymes involved in thiamine biosynthesis which are repressed in the wild-type strain in medium supplemented with thiamine (2 x 10(-7) M). The thi81 mutant exhibited the same level of thiamine pyrophosphokinase activity and intracellular thiamine pyrophosphate concentration as the wild-type strain in medium supplemented with exogenous thiamine. The mutant strain constitutively produced PHO3 mRNA encoding T-rAPase in medium supplemented with thiamine. These results suggest that the thi81 mutant lacks a negative factor involved in the regulation of the genes encoding proteins involved in yeast thiamine metabolism.

Simultaneous observation of regional cerebral blood flow and event-related potential during performance of an auditory task.

Reduced amplitude of the P300 component has been reported consistently in patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders. It is unclear, however, how such patients' cognitive dysfunction is related to their P300 abnormality. Further basic knowledge regarding neural substrates for P300 generation is required for gaining an understanding of the pathological significance of the P300 amplitude reduction. To determine the brain structures involved in P300 generation, we observed the event-related potential and the regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in 10 normal subjects performing an oddball discrimination of pure tones. The rCBF value was assessed quantitatively with the aid of single photon emission computed tomography using technetium-99m hexamethylpropylene amine oxime. During the task performance, significant activation was observed in the posterior superior temporal and inferior parietal regions of the right hemisphere. In addition, positive correlation of the task-related increase in rCBF with the simultaneously recorded P300 amplitude was observed in the right but not the left posterior superior temporal region. These findings indicate that activation of the right non-verbal auditory area might modulate P300 generation during pure-tone discrimination.

Secoiridoid glucosides from Swertia mileensis.

Five new acyl secoiridoid glucosides along with three known secoiridoid glucosides, swertiamarin, 2'-O-acetylswertiamarin, and amarogentin, were isolated from the aerial parts of Swertia mileensis. The structures of these compounds were determined to be 2'-O-acetyl-4'-O-trans-feruloylswertiamarin, 2'-O-acetyl-4'-O-cis-feruloylswertiamarin, 2'-O-acetyl-4'-O-trans-p-coumaroylswertiamarin, 2'-O-acetyl-4'-O-cis-p-coumaroylswertiamarin, and 4'-O-trans-p-coumaroylswertiamarin from spectroscopic evidence.

Identification of adducts formed by reaction of purine bases with a mutagenic anthraquinone, lucidin: mechanism of mutagenicity by anthraquinones occurring in rubiaceae plants.

A mutagenic anthraquinone, lucidin (1), occurring in Rubiaceae plants, reacted with nucleic bases under physiological conditions to form adducts. The order of the reactivity is as follows: adenine > guanine >> pyrimidine bases approximately 0. By spectroscopic analyses, the isolated purine base adducts were identified as condensed reactants at the benzylic position of 1 with a nitrogen atom of a purine base. The results indicate a strong possibility of the formation of an exomethylenic compound as an electrophile intermediate.

[Experimental investigation of 201TlCl-scintigraphy in evaluating therapeutic effect of hyperthermia].

We investigated the usefulness of 201Tl-scintigraphy in the evaluation of therapeutic effect of hyperthermia. Satoh's experimental lung cancer tumors implanted in the right thighs of donryu rats were treated with hyperthermia using water bath. Tumors were heated at 44 degrees C or 46 degrees C for 15 min. 201Tl-scintigraphy was obtained before, immediately after and 24 hrs after treatment. Counts ratio of the tumor to the normal muscle (T/N ratio) was measured by gamma camera. We examined blood flow of the tumor, and relative tumor growth rate, and performed autoradiogram and histopathological examination of the tumor after 201Tl-scintigraphy. Immediately after hyperthermia, T/N ratio and blood flow of the tumor significantly decreased (p < 0.05). Autoradiogram showed that the accumulation of 201TlCl in the tumor decreased diffusely. Histopathological finding showed congestion, thrombosis, and swelling of endothelial cells. These results suggest that the decrease in T/N ratio may be caused by the vascular damage due to hyperthermia. The T/N ratio recovered 24 hrs after hyperthermia but was still lower than that for the control. Autoradiogram showed that 201TlCl greatly accumulated in the viable tumor tissue but was hardly seen in the necrotic tumor tissue. These results suggest that the decrease in T/N ratio may be caused by increase of necrotic areas. The T/N ratio 24 hrs after hyperthermia correlated (r = 0.83) with relative tumor growth rate on 7th day after hyperthermia and, therefore, can be used as an indicator of relative tumor growth rate. 201Tl-scintigraphy can be useful for prediction of therapeutic effect of hyperthermia.

The mutagenic constituents of Rubia tinctorum.

Twenty compounds were isolated from the roots of Rubia tinctorum which are used as a commercial source of madder color. Among these compounds, mollugin (1), 1-hydroxy-2-methylanthraquinone (2), 2-ethoxymethylanthraquinone(11), rubiadin (13), 1,3-dihydroxyanthraqunone (14), 7-hydroxy-2-methylanthraquinone (16), lucidin (17), 1-methoxymethylanthraquinone (18) and lucidin-3-O-primeveroside (19) showed mutagenicity with Salmonella typhimurium TA 100 and/or TA 98. Since the mutagenic compounds isolated are anthraquinone derivatives with the exception of compound 1, structure-mutagenicity relationships of the anthraquinones were also studied. The results suggested that the greatest activity is exhibited by 1,3-dihydroxyanthraquinones possessing methyl or hydroxylmethyl group on carbon 2.

[Morphometric study of the magnocellular basal forebrain system in patients with Alzheimer's disease].

Morphometric study of neurons within the magnocellular basal forebrain system (MBFS) in the three normal controls and three cases with Alzheimer's disease (AD) was studied. Immunocytochemical staining using anti-acetylcholinesterase was performed to identify the measuring areas of the MBFS, and cross sectional areas of all neurons within the MBFS in one preparation was measured making use of cresyl violet staining. About 50% of the entire neuronal cells within the MBFS were decreased and case 2 had neurofibrillary tangles in the substantia innominata. In the septal nucleus neuronal cell depopulation was observed through the all range of the neuronal cell size, and in the diagonal band of Broca neuronal cells of which cross sectional areas were more than 200 microns2 were preferentially decreased and case 3 had inverse increase of the neurons of which cross sectional areas were less than 200 microns2. In the basal nucleus of Meynert in the substantia innominata neurons of which cross sectional areas were more than 250 microns2 were markedly decreased and neurons of which cross sectional areas less than 250 microns2 were well preserved. The large neurons within the basal nucleus and diagonal band of Broca were more affected in AD. In the septal nucleus and diagonal band it was suspected that non-cholinergic neurons were also decreased and these findings suggested that other series of monoamines also bore a relationship to the dementia and neuropsychological symptoms in AD.

Synthesis and antitumor activity of tropolone derivatives. 4.

Modifications of monotropolone 2 having poor potency against P388 in mice were studied. The alpha-ethoxy group of 2, prepared from hinokitiol and benzaldehyde diethyl acetal, was replaced with a phenolic or heteroaromatic compound by heating 2 with the appropriate nucleophile. Structure-activity relationships indicated that an acidic hydroxyl and a proton-accepting group situated in the neighboring position, which permits the formation of a chelate with a metal ion, contributed to enhanced activity. Among the compounds studied, the 8-hydroxyquinoline analogue 10f was the most favorable compound.