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Introduction In Japan, many people over 65 years old are working now. However, elderly working people frequently face to getting lifestyle diseases, so it would be important to control lifestyle diseases. Among lifestyle diseases, diabetes mellitus (DM) is a popular in the world. On the other hand, Osteoporosis is also an important disease for elderly workers, because osteoporosis is a risk to get fracture. There are some reports indicated that fractures was frequently in workers with DM. However, it was also reported that bone mineral density (BMD) in type 2 DM patients was higher than non-diabetic persons. These reports were contradictory. Therefore, we planned to evaluate fracture risk and BMD of persons with type 2 DM comparing with healthy subjects. Material and method We recruited 183 persons with type 2 DM (detail: 101 males, 82 females) under informed consent. We excluded persons with type 1 diabetes, rheumatic diseases. We collected individual data (age, sex, BMI, fasting blood sugar, average fasting blood sugar, HbA1c value, post history of fracture) and measure BMD using ultrasonic bone mass measurement. Result BMD decreased with age. And BMD was higher than healthy subjects (Male and Female). In male, there was a significant positive correlation between MBD and BMI. In female, a significant positive correlation was found between BMD and fasting blood sugar. We didn’t detect the difference concerning to fracture history between persons with DM and healthy persons. Discussion We indicated BMD of DM persons was higher than healthy subjects. In addition, BMD of female was a significant positive correlation with the fasting blood sugar. But we could not indicate higher fracture risk in DM persons. We are planning to check whether fracture frequently happened or not in persons with DM.

Chronic renal failure (CRF) leads to decreased drug renal clearance and glomerular filtration rate. However, little is known about renal tubular excretion and reabsorption in CRF. We examined transport activity of renal transporters using rats with adenine-induced CRF. We examined the effect of adenine-induced CRF on mRNA level, protein expression of transporters expressed in kidney by real-time polymerase chain reaction, and western blotting. In vivo kidney uptake clearances of benzylpenicillin and metformin, which are typical substrates for renal organic anion transporters Oat1 and Oat3 and organic cation transporters Oct1 and Oct2, respectively, were evaluated. Protein and mRNA expression levels of Oat1, Oat 3, Oct1, and Oct2 were significantly decreased in adenine-induced CRF rats. On the contrary, levels of P-glycoprotein and Mdr1b mRNA were significantly increased in adenine-induced CRF rats. The mRNA expression levels of Oatp4c1, Mate1, Urat1, Octn2, and Pept1 were significantly decreased. Kidney uptake clearance of benzylpenicillin and that of metformin were significantly decreased in adenine-induced CRF rats. Also, serum from CRF rats did not affect Oat1, Oat3, Oct1, and Oct2 function. In conclusion, our results indicate that adenine-induced CRF affects renal tubular handling of drugs, especially substrates of Oat1, Oat3, Oct1, and Oct2.

– In recent years, Japanese electric power supply network equipments are almost at the end of their lifetime. It is an urgent necessity to manage their replacements[1]-[2]. In this paper, replacement planning approach for electric power supply network is studied based on the actual network model. The EENS (Expected Energy Not Supplied) is used as an index for reliability of supply network. The aging effect of equipments is also treated. It is assumed that the retransmission failure probability of single circuit fault is increased due to the aging of the equipments. In our previous papers, single supply network connected to one substation is examined[3]-[4]. On the contrary, multiple supply networks connected to different substations are examined in this paper. If the EENS of individual supply network is used for evaluation, the replacement plan may become too severe. However, evaluating the total EENS in multiple supply networks, the replacement plan becomes flexible. Keywords

Effect of humidity on flashover voltage of four kinds of porcelain and one polymer insulators was studied experimentally for several years under natural humidity condition in Japan. It was found that the existing IEC humidity correction seems to be proper for most insulators regardless of the kind of applied voltage but that change may be necessary for pin type insulator under positive lightning impulse voltage application and for unit suspension disk and station post insulators under AC voltage application. Key-Words: Insulators, Flashover voltage, Absolute humidity, Humidity correction

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of α-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (CHC), a lactate efflux inhibitor, and citrate, an alkaline reagent, on statin-induced muscle injury using a human prototypic embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma cell line (RD) as a model of in vitro skeletal muscle and on statin-induced muscle damage in an in vivo study. Statin-induced reduction of cell viability and apoptosis was measured by the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and caspase assay. In an in vivo study, plasma creatine phosphokinase (CPK) level was examined in cerivastatin-treated rats. CHC increased growth inhibition of RD cells induced by cerivastatin, a lipophilic statin, but not these induced by pravastatin, a hydrophilic statin. On the other hand, citrate suppressed cerivastatin-, simvastatin- and atorvastatin-induced reduction of cell viability and caspase activation in RD cells. Moreover, citrate prevented cerivastatin-induced increase in CPK concentration in a concentration-dependent manner. This is first study to evaluate CHC or citrate-induced exacerbation or improvement of statin-induced muscle damage.

In the present study, we examined the mechanisms underlying the cytotoxicity of pitavastatin, a new statin, and we compared the in vitro potencies of muscle cytotoxicity using a prototypic embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma cell line (RD cells), a typical side effect of statins and compared the cholesterol-lowering effects of statins using Hep G2 hepatoma cells. Pitavastatin reduced the number of viable cells and caused caspase-9 and -3/7 activation in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. The comparison of cytotoxities of statins showed that statins significantly reduced cell viability and markedly enhanced activity of caspase-3/7 in concentration-dependent manner. On the other hand, the effects of hydrophilic statins, pravastatin, rosuvastatin were very weak. The rank order of cytotoxicity was cerivastatin > simvastatin acid> fluvastatin > atorvastatin > lovastatin acid > pitavastatin >> rosuvastatin, pravastatin. Statin-induced cytotoxicity is associated with these partition coefficients. On the other hand, the cholesterol-lowering effect of statins did not correlate with these partition coefficients and cytotoxicity. Thus, it is necessary to consider the association between risk of myopathy and cholesterol-lowering effect of a statin for precise use of statins.