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Objectives: We report the prevalence of eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) and describe oral corticosteroid (OCS) use and disease burden before and after the mepolizumab approval in 2018 for EGPA in Japan. Methods: Two retrospective studies (GSK IDs: 218083 and 218084) used two databases: (1) the JMDC insurer database (Japanese health insurer claims) was used to report annual EGPA prevalence and OCS use in mepolizumab-treated patients and (2) Medical Data Vision database was used to report annual treatment use, OCS dose, relapses, and healthcare resource utilization in patients with EGPA. Results: EGPA prevalence (95% confidence interval) increased from 4.2 (0.1, 23.4) in 2005 to 58.6 (53.2, 64.5) per 1,000,000 in 2020. Median OCS dose (mg/day) decreased from a range of 4.8–7.7 during 2010–2017 to 4.5–4.8 during 2018–2020 (lowest dose in 2020). The proportion of patients with prednisolone-equivalent daily OCS dose >10 mg decreased from 2017 (11.9%) to 2020 (10.3%), while the median dose halved. The proportion of patients with EGPA relapses (64.3% to 41.6%) and hospitalization (27.8% to 23.6%) decreased from 2010 to 2020. Conclusions: EGPA prevalence increased between 2005 and 2020. With the introduction of mepolizumab for EGPA in 2018, real-world OCS use, relapses, and healthcare resource utilization decreased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that intestinal ischemia results in an early preconditioning against myocardial infarction and that the mechanism of the early preconditioning involves the activation of protein kinase C-mitochondrial KATP channel signaling pathway in anesthetized rats. Methods: Rats were either preconditioned with a 25-min occlusion of the superior mesenteric artery followed by 15 min of reperfusion or underwent a 40-min sham period. Subsequently, all rats were subjected to a sustained 30 min of coronary occlusion and 180 min of reperfusion. Infarct size was determined by triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining. Results: In sham-operated rats receiving no pharmacological intervention, the percentage of myocardial infarct within the area at risk and left ventricle was 73±4% and 31±2%, respectively, and these were significantly reduced to 44±4% and 23±1% (P<0.01) after intestinal ischemia preconditioning. Intravenous injection of protein kinase C inhibitors chelerythrine (5 mg/kg) and staurosporine (50 μg/kg) or a specific mitochondrial KATP channel inhibitor 5-hydroxydecanoate (5 mg/kg) 5 min before sustained myocardial ischemia abolished the preconditioning afforded by intestinal ischemia. However, hexamethonium, a ganglion blocker, did not attenuate the preconditioning. Conclusions: These data provide pharmacological evidence that protein kinase C and mitochondrial KATP channel are involved in the mechanism of the early preconditioning induced by intestinal ischemia. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A low-vacuum scanning electron microscope (SEM) allows microscopy of insulating specimens without metal coating, and so preserves the intact colour information on the specimen surface. We have attempted a new approach to characterize constituent distribution of food tissues by a histo-chemical method utilizing a colour SEM with an optical microscope and the low-vacuum SEM through digital image processing. To observe food tissues such as brown rice and adzuki bean, a colour SEM image of the specimen that has been stained by a modified method used in optical microscope histochemistry has proved to provide information of both the microscopic structure and constituent distribution on the specimen surface. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A variety of MgO crystals are directly observed by means of a high resolution SEM, which was recently developed as an “in-lens” type field emission SEM, model S-900, having a probe size of 0.8 nm at 30 kV. Effective resolution estimated from a small cubic of MgO at 10 kV was 1 to 2 nm which almost coincides to the calculated probe radius. This resolution seems slightly superior to that obtained by TEM-replica method estimated with MgO. Then, the necessity of a strict comparison for microtopographical studies between a direct SEM observation and TEM-replica method is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]