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Background:In IgG4-related diseases (IgG4-RD), usefulness of18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging for detecting the organ involvement of IgG4-RD have been shown and,18FDG PET/CT was more accurate and appeared to be more sensitive as compared to other imaging technics1,2. However, until now, the studies regarding about quantitative analysis of PET/CT imaging in IgG4-RD were few. To avoid unnecessary biopsy and select suitable lesion for biopsy on multi-organ involvement disease such as IgG4-RD, the information which lesion is suspected as disease-involvement lesion in a non-invasive test is important.Objectives:The purpose of this work is to evaluate the usefulness of18FDG-PE/CT imaging in management of IgG4-RD using quantitative analysis of PET/CT imaging.Methods:21 patients with IgG4-RD, in whom PET/CT was undertaken at the time of diagnosis between December 2009 and July 2018, were enrolled. We retrospectively investigated the association between histological findings in which biopsy was performed for diagnosis of IgG4-RD and findings of PET/CT.18FDG uptake was assessed in site of major organ involvement of IgG4-RD which could be differentiated from the normal uptake of background tissue with18FDG-PET/CT. For quantitative analysis, we measured the highest standardized uptake value (SUV) of the pixels within the region of interest (ROI) (SUVmax) and the average SUV within ROI (SUVmean). We also measured SUVmeanof liver as reference tissue. Then, we calculated ratio between SUVmeanof ROI and SUVmean/liver.Results:The age at diagnosis was 64.5 ± 11.9 years, serum IgG4 was 743.8 ± 584.1 mg/dl, and biopsy was performed at 24 sites (Submandibular gland 10, prostate gland 4, pancreas 2, thyroid gland 1, lung 1, retroperitoneum 1, kidney 1). Histological findings were consistent with IgG4RD (positive) at 19 sites.Although SUVmaxat the biopsy site was not correlated with the biopsy results, SUVmeanat the biopsy site were significantly higher in the biopsy-positive group (figure 1). As similar, SUVmean/liver SUVmeanwere also higher in the biopsy-positive group (2.17 vs 1.52, respectively Pmeanto consider biopsy, A receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve was constructed. ROC curve analysis indicated SUVmean=4.074 as cut-off value which discriminate IgG4-RD related lesion.Conclusion:Our present study suggested that quantitative analysis of18FDG-PET/CT imaging is useful for selecting the biopsy site in IgG4-related disease.Figure 1.XXXXXReferences:[1]Ebbo M, Grados A, Guedj E, et al. Usefulness of 2-[18F]-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography for staging and evaluation of treatment response in IgG4-related disease: a retrospective multicenter study. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) 2014; 66(1): 86-96.[2]Zhang J, Chen H, Ma Y, et al. Characterizing IgG4-related disease with (1)(8)F-FDG PET/CT: a prospective cohort study. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 2014; 41(8): 1624-34.Disclosure of Interests:None declared

To investigate whether trace metals bind to metallothioneins (MTs) in the hepatocytosol of green turtles (Chelonia mydas) and hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata), MT fraction was obtained by ultracentrifugation and gel filtration methods. MTs separated from hepatocytosol were further purified and characterized by high performance liquid chromatography/inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. In addition, the involvement of MTs in the accumulation of trace metals in the liver of sea turtle was examined. Gel filtration analysis showed that significant amounts of Cu, Zn, Ag and Cd were bound to MT in the cytosol of sea turtles, suggesting that such trace metals were primarily detoxified by interaction with MTs in the liver. Elution profiles of these trace metals by anion-exchange chromatography were different between green turtles and hawksbill turtles. These results suggest the presence of multiple isoforms of MT in the liver of both sea turtles; however, constituents of isoforms were different between green and hawksbill turtles. In both species, we observed the elevation of the height of a specific peak in elution profile with an increase in Cu concentration in hepatocytosol. This result suggests the presence of a novel MT isoform related to copper accumulation in the liver of sea turtles.

Concentrations of 19 trace elements (V, Cr, Mn, Co, Cu, Zn, Ga, Se, Rb, Sr, Mo, Ag, Cd, Sb, Cs, Ba, Hg, Tl, and Pb) were determined in liver, kidney, muscle, feather and stomach content of short-tailed albatross and feather of black-footed albatross from Torishima Island, Japan. For most of the elements, concentrations in liver and kidney were higher than those in musde and feather, whereas concentrations of Ga, Sr and Ba were highest in feather of short-tailed albatross. Metal concentrations in tissues of short-tailed albatross were within the range of those reported for albatrosses from other locations. Conceptions of Cr, Mn, Hg and Pb were relatively low in the tissues of short-tailed albatross. indicating less contamination by these metals in this species of Torishima Island. No significant differences were observed in metal concentrations in feather between short-tailed albatross and black-footed albatross. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the trace element accumulation in tissues of short-tailed albatross.

CPPs is characterized by hyperproliferation of keratinocytes (KC) and T-cell (Tc)/DCs activation. IL-32, which induces TNF and activates NFkB and p38 MAPK, is involved in early inflammation. We investigated the role of IL-32 in the pathogenesis of CPPs by IHC, ECL and qRT-PCR analysis. Biopsy tissues were obtained from CPPs patients with active disease (N=20) and healthy human controls (N=15). A mouse Mab against human IL-32 and mouse IgG1 isotype antibody were used. IHC staining of IL-32 was performed on deparaffinized sections of formalin-fixed tissues by an indirect imunoperoxidase method (EnVision, Dako). IL-32 was expressed in basal KC with cytoplasmic granular staining. IL-32 was also expressed in DCs with strong nuclear and cytoplasmic staining in dermis. IL-32 was weakly expressed in the nucleus of KC in healthy human skin. Induction of IL-32 was detected in human KC lysates after stimulation with TNF and IL-1 or cell contact with activated Tc, but not in KC supernatants, indicating IL-32 is not secreted from KC in vitro. ECL/qRT-PCR results showed IL-32 and other CPPs-relevant cytokines (IL-18, IL-20, 22 and 23) were significantly (P

In the Caspian Sea, a die-off of thousands of Caspian seals (Phoca caspica) occurred in 1997 and 2000. While a direct cause for these deaths seems to be canine distemper virus (CDV) infection, immunosuppression due to environmental pollutants is considered as one of the possible explanations for the development of the disease. The purpose of this work is to examine whether exposure to trace metals could be one of the factors involved in the mass mortality of Caspian seals. Concentrations of 13 trace elements were determined in liver, kidney and muscle of Caspian seals found stranded along the coasts of the Caspian Sea in 2000 and 2001. Concentrations of toxic elements (Ag, Cd, Hg, Tl and Pb) in the Caspian seals collected in 2000 and 2001 were comparable to or lower than those in healthy Caspian seals collected in 1993 and 1998 and in seals from other regions, suggesting that these elements would not be the causative agent for the death of Caspian seals. In contrast, Zn and Fe concentrations in the stranded Caspian seals were apparently higher than those in seals from other locations. These results suggest the disturbance in homeostatic control and nutritional statu s of essential elements in the stranded Caspian seals.

The strategic dual image method for obtaining the finite-element solution of unbounded magnetic field problems can be applied to any complex magnetic field distributions with unbounded boundary. However, a difficulty in generalizing the method to magnetic field problems involving ferromagnetic materials has been pointed out. It is shown that this difficulty can be removed by utilizing the B= mu 0(H+M) formulation instead of B= mu H, where B, H, M, mu /sub 0/, and mu are, respectively, the flux density, field intensity, magnetization, permeability of air, and permeability of the ferromagnetic material. The resulting method can be used to obtain the finite-element solution of unbounded saturable magnetic field problems. >

Harmine (HA) induces a jumping behavior in rats when the central dopaminergic function has been activated. Possible involvement of the GABAergic systems and the benzodiazepine receptors (BZA-R) in the jumping behavior induced by HA and apomorphine (APO) was investigated. Pretreatment with GABAergic agonists, muscimol (0.05-0.2 mg/kg) and diazepam (0.2-1.0 mg/kg), and antagonists, picrotoxin (0.1-0.5 mg/kg) and bicuculline (0.1-0.5 mg/kg), suppressed the jumping behavior in a dose-dependent manner in rats treated with HA (10 mg/kg) and APO (2 mg/kg). After treatment with 2, 5 or 10 mg/kg of HA in combination with 2 mg/kg of APO, a decrease in 3H-diazepam binding to the brain regional membranes was observed in the corpus striatum (CS) in a dose-dependent manner, but not in the other brain regions. The decrease in the 3H-diazepam binding to the CS membranes was proportional to the increase in the HA levels in the CS, and the HA levels were correlated with the intensity of jumping behavior. Pretreatment with Ro 15-1788, an antagonist of BZA-R, suppressed the jumping behavior induced by HA and APO. These results indicated the involvement of the GABAergic systems in the jumping behavior and suggested that HA induced the jumping behavior partly as a result of interacting with the BZA-R.

The role of brain monoamine systems in the jumping behavior induced by the combination of harmine and apomorphine was studied by using a MT pick-up to assess jumping behavior in rats. The jumping induced by the combination of harmine 10 mg/kg and apomorphine 2 mg/kg was enhanced by pretreatment with p-chlorophenylalanine, methysergide and by treatment with clonidine, while, it was reduced by pretreatment with 5-hydroxytryptophan, haloperidol, perphenazine, atropine and pilocarpine. The combination of harmaline or harmane and apomorphine also induced jumping with the aid of p-chlorophenylalanine. The combination of benserazide, L-DOPA and harmine induced jumping similar to that induced by harmine and apomorphine. Despite pretreatment with p-chlorophenylalanine the combination of apomorphine and benzylhydrazine, iproniazid, tranylcypromine or pargyline failed to induce jumping. These results suggest that this jumping behavior is induced not by the monoamine oxidase inhibitory effect of harmine but probably by the specific central action of harmine and on condition that the dopaminergic system is activated. The activation of this system appears to be essential, the noradrenergic system plays a facilitatory role, the serotonergic system an inhibitory role and the cholinergic system probably a specific role.

To define highly metastatic esophageal cancers morphologically, desmosomes were evaluated numerically and morphologically under electron microscope. Twenty-six esophageal cancers were analyzed. The prognosis of patients was also analysed with reference to the findings of desmosomes. The number of desmosomes per cell perimeter was significantly reduced in cancer cells (8.9 +/- 3.4/cell), as compared with normal esophageal epithelia (21.0 +/- 2.6/cell), especially in epidermoid carcinoma invading as thin irregular cords of cells or with metastasis to lymph nodes (7.8 +/- 3.1/cell) and distant organs (4.8 +/- 4.3). A positive correlation was found between desmosomes and prognosis. These results suggested that the number of desmosomes was a good parameter for malignancy of esophageal cancer.