No Evidence for Particular Association Between HLA-Haploidentical Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation and Psychological Distress.

BACKGROUND: The psychological distress experienced by patients scheduled for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is of clinical concern. However, distress experienced by patients scheduled for HLA-haploidentical HSCT vs that of patients scheduled for other types of matched HSCT is unknown. We conducted a retrospective study to clarify whether the type of HSCT influences the appearance of psychological distress in patients anticipating HSCT. METHODS: One hundred fifty-seven patients who had undergone any of 4 types of HSCT at Tokyo Metropolitan Komagome Hospital between October 2013 and September 2016 and had completed the Profile of Mood States (POMS) questionnaire within 2 weeks before the procedure were included. We computed T-scores for the tension-anxiety (TA) and depression (D) subscales, took scores ≥ 60 to represent mood disturbance of clinical concern, and examined scores and other clinical variables in relation to each procedure. RESULTS: Twenty-two (14.0%) patients had a POMS-TA score ≥ 60, and 26 (16.6%) had a POMS-D score ≥ 60. The numbers of POMS-TA and POMS-D scores ≥ 60 did not differ significantly with respect to age, sex, leukemia type, number of previous transplants, disease status, comorbidity index, or transplant type. A multivariate logistic regression analysis confirmed the absence of an influence of the type of HSCT on the incidence of POMS-TA or POMS-D scores ≥60. CONCLUSION: Attention should be paid to the matter of psychological distress in patients with leukemia who will be treated by HSCT, even HLA-haploidentical HSCT. Such patients need psychological support, especially during the waiting period immediately prior to the transplantation procedure.

Correlations for number of sunspots, unemployment rate, and suicide mortality in Japan.

We studied the correlations among sunspot numbers, business cycles, and suicide mortalitites. Based on data from Japan between 1971 and 2001, a significant negative correlation between sunspot numbers and unemployment rate was found, R= -.17. The correlation between suicide mortality and unemployment rate was positive for males (R=.46) and negative for females (R =-.69). Both are statistically significant. The hypothesis that variation of sun activity may affect the economy and the unemployment rate and hence increase the male suicide mortality is raised.

Effects of urbanization, economic development, and migration of workers on suicide mortality in Japan.

The relationships between male or female age-adjusted suicide mortality and social life factors for all 47 Japanese prefectures in 1980, 1985 and 1990 were investigated by stepwise multiple regression analysis after classification of 20 social life indicators by factor analysis. During this period, Japan experienced the second economic crisis (the so-called secondary oil crisis) in 1980-1983 and economic prosperity (bubble economy) in 1986-1990. In all the three years, male suicide mortality was significantly related inversely to the urbanization and economic development factor, the result of which was consistent with the data in our previous study for the years 1970 and 1975. Similarly, the male mortality was positively related to the factor of migration of workers in the three years. No factor significantly related to female mortality for all the three years was found. It is suggested that (1) urbanization was a major determinant which prevented male suicide mortality during the past 20 years (1970-1990) in Japan; (2) migration of workers became an important factor for male suicide mortality during these 10 years; and (3) female suicide mortality was less vulnerable to social life factors for these 20 years than the male mortality.

Correlations of f10.7-cm flux and temperature with male traffic-accident mortality for the years 1980-1999.

Significant positive correlation was found between f10.7-cm flux and male traffic-accident mortality for the years 1980-1999 in Japan. On the other hand, significant negative correlation was found between annual mean temperature and male traffic-accident mortality on the same period.

Differences in properties between human alphaA- and alphaB-crystallin proteins expressed in Escherichia coli cells in response to cold and extreme pH.

It has been reported that alphaA-crystallin has greater protective effects against apoptosis in lens epithelial cells than alphaB-crystallin [Andley, Song, Wawrousek, Fleming and Bassnett (2000) J. Biol. Chem. 275, 36823-36831]. Because the alphaA-crystallin proteins are specifically expressed in the vertebrate lens, we examine the non-specific properties of both alphaA- and alphaB-crystallins in an Escherichia coli system. E. coli cells were transformed with the inducible protein expression vector pET-11a, harbouring the gene for either human alphaA- or alphaB-crystallin, and two other control plasmids, pET-1la vector alone or pGEX-2T vector encoding GST (glutathione S-transferase). These cells were exposed to various stress conditions, such as cold-shock at 4 degrees C or extremely low or high pH environments (pH 4.7 or pH 8.0) for 6 h, and survival of the host cells and the solubility of the expressed target proteins in the cytosol were examined. Under these stress conditions, the cells expressing alphaB-crystallin protein demonstrated significantly improved survival when compared with the other cells, and the expressed protein in the cytosol was almost soluble, in contrast with the alphaA-crystallin protein. Differences in the amino acid sequence between the proteins in a phenylalanine-rich region next to the N-terminal consensus alpha-crystallin domain was considered to be responsible for chaperone activity and cell survival.

Genetic polymorphisms and lung cancer susceptibility: a review.

Lung cancer is a major cause of cancer-related death in the developed countries and the overall survival rate has still an extremely poor. Cigarette smoking is an established risk factor for lung cancer although a possible role for genetic susceptibility in the development of lung cancer has been inferred from familial clustering of the disease and segregation analyzes. Everyone may have a unique combination of polymorphic traits that modify genetic susceptibility and response to drugs, chemicals and carcinogens. Developments in molecular biology have led to growing interest in investigation of biological markers, which may increase predisposition to lung carcinogenesis. Therefore, the high-risk genotype of an individual could be determined easily. As there are the great number of carcinogen-activating and -detoxifying enzymes, the variation in their expression and the complexity of exposures to tobacco carcinogens, the existence of multiple alleles at loci of those enzymes may result in differential susceptibilities of individuals. This review summarize data addressing the relationships of lung cancer to markers of genetic susceptibility genes, including metabolic polymorphisms other than well-investigated cytochrome P450s or glutathione S-transferases, DNA repair genes and the p53 tumor suppressor gene. Among genetic polymorphisms reviewed here, myeloperoxidase gene (a G to A mutation) and microsomal epoxide hydrolase exon 4 polymorphism (substitution of Arg for His) were significantly associated with lung cancer risk. As lung cancer is a multifactorial disease, an improved understanding of the interplay of environmental and genetic polymorphisms at multiple loci may help identify individuals who are at increased risk for lung cancer. Hopefully, in the future we will be able to screen for lung cancer susceptibility by using specific biomarkers.