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Background Repaglinide is widely prescribed to reduce postprandial hyperglycemia and elevated glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels associated with type 2 diabetes, and clopidogrel is a thienopyridine antiplatelet agent and widely used in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. It has been suggested that the concomitant use of repaglinide with clopidogrel may inhibit repaglinide metabolism, because repaglinide is a substrate of cytochrome P450 2C8 (CYP2C8) and the main metabolite of clopidogrel acyl-β-D-glucuronide inhibits CYP2C8 activity. In this study, we retrospectively investigated the effect of clopidogrel with repaglinide on plasma glucose and the risk of hypoglycemia associated with the combination of both drugs. Method Patients were taking clopidogrel (75 mg/day) and started taking glinide (1.5 mg/day repaglinide or 30 mg/day mitiglinide) for the first time from April 2012 to March 2017. We targeted subjects who were hospitalized at the start of glinide and whose preprandial plasma glucose was measured by a nurse. The glucose levels were collected for up to 5 days before and after the glinide start date. Results Average fasting plasma glucose levels (before breakfast) in the repaglinide and clopidogrel group before and after starting repaglinide were 180.1±35.5 and 136.5 ± 44.1 mg/dL, with a mean decrease of 43.6 ± 33.6 mg/dL. In contrast, there was only a moderate decrease of 11.6 ± 30.0 mg/dL in the mitiglinide and clopidogrel group. Minimum plasma glucose levels in the repaglinide and clopidogrel group before and after starting repaglinide were 145.2 ± 42.9 and 93.3 ± 36.3 mg/dL, respectively. Decrease in minimum levels after starting glinide in the repaglinide and clopidogrel group (51.9 ± 47.5 mg/dL) was more significant than those in the mitiglinide and clopidogrel group (only 2.1 ± 29.1 mg/dL), and the repaglinide group (without clopidogrel, 15.5 ± 20.0 mg/dL). Hypoglycemia was observed in 6 of 15 patients in the repaglinide and clopidogrel group, but only 1 of 15 patients in the mitiglinide and clopidogrel group, and no patients in the repaglinide group. Conclusion These findings indicate that minimum plasma glucose levels were significantly decreased in patients taking repaglinide and clopidogrel. Considering the risk of hypoglycemia associated with taking repaglinide and clopidogrel, when a glinide is required in patients taking clopidogrel, mitiglinide may be a better choice.

This paper addresses online calibration of an asynchronous microphone array. Although microphone array techniques are effective for sound localization and separation, these techniques have two issues; geometry information on a microphone array or time-consuming measurements of transfer functions between a microphone array and a sound source is necessary, and a fully synchronous multichannel analog-to-digital converter should be used. To solve these issues, we proposed an online framework for microphone array calibration by combining simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), and beamforming. SLAM simultaneously calibrates locations of microphones and a sound source, and clocks differences between microphones every time a microphone array observes a sound event. Beamforming works as a cost function to decide the convergence of calibration by localizing the sound using the transfer functions calculated from the estimated microphone locations and clock differences. We implemented a prototype syst...

Noise-robust Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is essential for robots which are expected to communicate with human in a daily environment. In such an environment, Voice Activity Detection (VAD) performance becomes poor, and ASR performance deteriorates due to noises and VAD failures. To cope with these problems, it is said that humans improve speech recognition performance by using visual information like lip reading. Thus, we propose two-layered audio-visual integration framework for VAD and ASR. The two-layered AV integration framework includes three crucial methods. The first is Audio-Visual Voice Activity Detection (AV-VAD) based on Bayesian network. The second is a new lip-related visual feature which is robust for visual noises. The last one is microphone array processing to improve Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of input signal. We implemented prototype audio-visual speech recognition system based on our proposed framework using HARK which is our robot audition system. Through voice activity detection and speech recognition experiments, we showed the effectiveness of Audio-Visual integration, microphone array processing, and their combination for VAD and ASR. Preliminary results show that our system improves 20 and 9.7 points of ASR results with/without microphone array processing, respectively, and also improves robustness against several auditory/visual noise conditions.

In this study, disturbance of immune response as a pathogenic mechanism for human volume hypertension was investigated and compared to nephritis in its correlation with the metals such as zinc, iron and aluminum as environmental factors. Urinary gamma-GTP excretions in patients with nephritis or hypertension were higher than in healthy people, whereas the plasma renin activity in these patients were lower on the average than in healthy individuals. Hypertensive patients participating in this study were diagnosed as the volume hypertension type from our clinical and other results. The serum IgM and IgA levels in renal patients showed a tendency to be lower than in the healthy people used as control. Urinary IgA excretion in hypertensive patients was increased in association with increasing excretions of aluminum and/or iron into urine. The values of regression coefficients in the urine samples for aluminum and iron vs. IgA, respectively, were very high at r = 0.900 (n = 9, p0.05) and 0.736 (n = 9, p0.05). These correlations were shown to be very useful indicators in diagnosing volume hypertension. Moreover, hypertensive patients in this study were demonstrated to have a high regression coefficient (r = -0.702, n = 7; p0.05) for calcium vs. renin in the serum. In the hypertension, augmentation of serum calcium significantly decreased plasma renin activity.

This paper addresses an active audio-visual integration framework which integrates audio and visual information with a robot's active motion for noise-robust Voice Activity Detection (VAD). VAD is crucial for noise robust Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) because speech captured by a robot's microphones is usually contaminated with other noise sources. To realize such noise-robust VAD, we propose Active Audio-Visual (AAV) integration framework which integrates auditory, visual and motion information using a Causal Bayesian Network (CBN). CBN is a subclass of Bayesian networks, which is able to estimate the effect on VAD performance caused by active motions. Since CBN is a general framework for information integration, we can naturally introduce various types of information such as the location of a speaker and a noise source which affect VAD performance to CBN, and CBN selects the optimal active motion for better perception of the robot using “intervention” mechanism in CBN. We implemented a prototype system based on the proposed framework on a humanoid robot called Hearbo. The proposed AAV-VAD is compared with three types of AV-VAD; simple AAV-VAD, multi-regression-based AAV-VAD, and stationary (not active) AV-VAD. A preliminary experiment using the prototype system showed that the VAD performance of the proposed AV-VAD was 14.4, 26.0, and 30.3 points higher than that of the simple active, multi-regression-based active, and stationary AV-VAD, respectively.

This paper addresses the online calibration of an asynchronous microphone array for robots. Conventional microphone array technologies require a lot of measurements of transfer functions to calibrate microphone locations, and a multi-channel A/D converter for inter-microphone synchronization. We solve these two problems using a framework combining Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) and beamforming in an online manner. To do this, we assume that estimations of microphone locations, a sound source location, and microphone clock difference correspond to mapping, self-localization, observation errors in SLAM, respectively. In our framework, the SLAM process calibrates locations and clock differences of microphones every time a microphone array observes a sound like a human's clapping, and a beamforming process works as a cost function to decide the convergence of calibration by localizing the sound with the estimated locations and clock differences. After calibration, beamforming is used for sound source localization. We implemented a prototype system using Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) based SLAM and Delay-and-Sum Beamforming (DS-BF). The experimental results showed that microphone locations and clock differences were estimated properly with 10–15 sound events (handclaps), and the error of sound source localization with the estimated information was less than the grid size of beamforming, that is, the lowest error was theoretically attained.

This paper presents the design and implementation of selectable sound separation functions on the telepresence system “Texai” using the robot audition software “HARK.” An operator of Texai can “walk” around a faraway office to attend a meeting or talk with people through video-conference instead of meeting in person. With a normal microphone, the operator has difficulty recognizing the auditory scene of the Texai, e.g., he/she cannot know the number and the locations of sounds. To solve this problem, we design selectable sound separation functions with 8 microphones in two modes, overview and filter modes, and implement them using HARK's sound source localization and separation. The overview mode visualizes the direction-of-arrival of surrounding sounds, while the filter mode provides sounds that originate from the range of directions he/she specifies. The functions enable the operator to be aware of a sound even if it comes from behind the Texai, and to concentrate on a particular sound. The design and implementation was completed in five days due to the portability of HARK. Experimental evaluations with actual and simulated data show that the resulting system localizes sound sources with a tolerance of 5 degrees.

The robustness and high performance of ASR is required for robot audition, because people usually speak to each other to communicate. This paper presents two-layered audio-visual integration to make automatic speech recognition (ASR) more robust against speaker's distance and interfering talkers or environmental noises. It consists of Audio-Visual Voice Activity Detection (AV-VAD) and Audio-Visual Speech Recognition (AVSR). The AV-VAD layer integrates several AV features based on a Bayesian network to robustly detect voice activity, or speaker's utterance duration. This is because the performance of VAD strongly affects that of ASR. The AVSR layer integrates the reliability estimation of acoustic features and that of visual features by using a missing-feature theory method. The reliability of audio features is more weighted in a clean acoustic environment, while that of visual features is more weighted in a noisy environment. This AVSR layer integration can cope with dynamically-changing environments in acoustics or vision. The proposed AV integrated ASR is implemented on HARK, our open-sourced robot audition software, with an 8 ch microphone array. Empirical results show that our system improves 9.9 and 16.7 points of ASR results with/without microphone array processing, respectively, and also improves robustness against several auditory/visual noise conditions.

Background: The aim of the present study is to undertake a survey of childhood asthma and details of the use of inhaled therapy from mothers with asthmatic children ≤15 years old, using the Internet. Methods: This study was done on a nationwide scale in Japan during the latter half of July 2001. Results: Responses were obtained from 748 mothers. Four hundred and three children (53.9%) had been diagnosed with asthma when ≤2 years old and 263 children (35.2%) when 2–5 years old. Three hundred and ninety-seven children (53.1%) were in remission or had mild asthma, 295 children (39.4%) had moderate asthma, and 56 (7.5%) had severe asthma. Of 563 children who required some pharmacological treatment, 266 used inhaled therapy. One hundred and forty-four children used metered-dose inhaler (MDI), 136 used powered nebulizer, and 34 used dry powder inhaler (DPI). Of children treated with inhaled sodium cromoglycate, 63 used MDI, 129 used nebulizer solution and 23 used DPI. Of children treated with inhaled corticosteroids, 43 used MDI and six used DPI. Of children using powered nebulizer, 48 were well satisfied and 76 were slightly satisfied. More than 90% of mothers commented that this form of treatment improved the quality of life both of the asthmatic children and of the family. Conclusion: Internet survey of childhood asthma is effective, and powered nebulizer therapy may be encouraged more acceptable by infants and young children in the treatment of asthma.

The MAST Allergen System is a new assay for serum specific IgE, and allows up to 35 allergens to be tested simultaneously. We evaluated this system in 264 children with allergic diseases. Good correlation was obtained between MAST and RAST in 24 out of 35 allergens, with correlation coefficient more than 0.60. The positive rate of inhalant allergens by the MAST system were 88% Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, 82% Dermatophagoides farinae, 77% house dust, 39% cat epithelium, 34% dog epithelium and 26% Japanese ceder, The positive rate of food allergens were 35% soy bean, 24% egg white, 23% rice, 22% barley and 20% wheat. The positive rate for children, suffering from both allergic respiratory and skin diseases, was higher than that of those suffering from only one of the two. We found that the types of allergens varied with their age. Food allergens predominated in infancy and early childhood, and decreased with age. In contrast, specific IgE to inhalant allergens developed later in childhood and generally persisted. There was a sharp increase in the positive rate of house dust and mites, followed by a slow increase of animal epithelia and pollens. The incidence of mould allergens remained unchanged, and started to increase garadually as the patients reached a certain age. Among 35 allergens, an average of 7.5 different allergens were simultaneously detected in one serum sample. More than five allergens were detected in 57% of 264 cases. Based on these findings we must conclude that simultaneous determination of specific IgE using the MAST system is useful in diagnosing specific allergens in children suffering from a variety of allergies.

Background: Efficacy and limits in preventing perinatal infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) have been examined in a model area in Japan. Methods: In Shizuoka (population of 3.6 million), immunoprophylaxis of perinatal HBV infection was started in 1980 in four institutions (Hamamatsu Medical College, Shimada City Hospital, Shizuoka Kodomo Hospital and Numazu City Hospital). Babies born to carrier mothers with hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) in serum received hepatitis B immune globulins at birth and 2 months thereafter and vaccines at 2, 3 and 5 months after birth. Results: Overall, 980 of the 1030 babies born to HBeAg-positive carrier mothers were protected by the immunoprophylaxis during the 15 years from 1980 to 1994 with an efficacy of 95.1%. From 1986 to 1994 while the national immunoprophylaxis was conducted, 329 674 of the 346 637 (95.1%) expectant mothers were tested, and 2081 (0.63%) of them were positive for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). The immunoprophylaxis was given only to babies born to 764 (36.7%) of the 2081 mothers who tested positive for HBeAg. Of the 494 babies receiving immunoprophylaxis, in whom HBsAg was followed monthly after birth, 462 (93.5%) were protected. The HBV carrier state developed in the remaining 32 (6.5%) babies, 10 of whom (31.3% of the 32) turned positive for HBsAg within 1 month after birth, most likely owing to infection in utero. Conclusions: Passive–active immunoprophylasxis of high-risk babies was highly efficacious in preventing perinatal transmission of the HBV carrier state. Most failures (approximately 70%) occurred in the high-risk babies who were exposed to HBV after birth, and would have been avoided by careful and extensive execution of the immunoprophylaxis.

Background: Imbalances of IL-4 and IFN-γ production are widely known to increase IgE synthesis in allergic individuals, and IL-5 is known to play a critical role in the pathogenesis of various allergic diseases. However, little is known about how Th cells specific to house dust mite (HDM) develop the capacity to produce these cytokines in children with atopic dermatitis (AD). Objective: This study aims to clarify when HDM-specific Th cells develop the capacity to produce IL-4, IL-5 and IFN-γ in children with AD. Methods: The production of IL-4, IL-5 and IFN-γ by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) upon stimulation with HDM was measured in 91 children with AD and 37 control subjects. The changes in the cytokine production with age were analyzed transectionally and longitudinally. Results: IL-4 production by HDM-stimulated PBMCs in children with AD was already increased before age 1. Thereafter, it continuously rose until reaching a near-maximum level at age 2. Growth-related changes in the production of IL-5 resembled those in the production of IL-4 and peaked at age 1. The production of these cytokines was very low in control subjects up to age 2 and then gradually increased, albeit never above the levels measured in AD children. The production of IFN-γ in children with AD reached a near-maximum level during the first year of life and diminished after age 3. Although IFN-γ production in controls was lower than that in AD children during infancy, it continuously rose even after age 3 and surpassed the levels measured in AD children. The level of serum HDM-specific IgE antibody began to increase after age 1 following the rise of IL-4 production. Essentially the same relationship among IL-4, IFN-γ and IgE synthesis was seen in a longitudinal study of 6 AD infants, in whom HDM-specific IgE was initially negative but later turned positive. Conclusions: These findings suggest that the capacity of HDM-specific Th cells to produce IL-4, IL-5 and IFN-γ develops and effectively matures during the first 3 years of life in children with AD.

Although IL-4, IL-13, and IFN-gamma are known to affect IgE synthesis, it remains unclear which one plays the most important role in in vivo IgE synthesis in atopic patients.The aim of this study is to clarify the difference in importance among these cytokines in up-regulation of IgE synthesis in atopic patients.We measured IL-4, IL-13, and IFN-gamma production by PBMCs on stimulation with house dust mite (HDM) in 23 children, 3 to 15 years old, with bronchial asthma (BA) and analyzed the correlation with HDM-specific IgE antibody levels expressed as HDM IgE radioallergosorbent test (RAST) results.The production of IL-4 and IL-13 by PBMCs on stimulation with HDM was significantly higher in children with BA than in nonatopic control subjects (IL-4, 752.9 +/- 365.9 vs 312.3 +/- 230.0 fg/mL, P.001; IL-13, 21.9 pg/ml [12.0-77.6] vs12.0, P.01). IL-4 production showed a close positive correlation with HDM IgE RAST (r = 0.71, P.001), which was distinctly stronger than that between IL-13 production and HDM IgE RAST (r = 0.46, P.05). IFN-gamma production was neither different between children with BA and nonatopic control subjects (7. 24 [1.54-33.90] pg/mL vs 11.2 [1.66-75.9] pg/mL) nor correlated with HDM IgE RAST levels. Essentially the same result was obtained by stimulation of PBMCs with a purified HDM major allergen Der f 1.IL-4 is likely to be the most important cytokine in up-regulation of in vivo IgE synthesis against HDM in children with BA.

Although the level of house dust mite (HDM)-specific lymphocyte proliferation is high in infants with atopic dermatitis (AD), the level of HDM-specific IgE antibody (HDM-IgE-RAST) is usually very low or negative. To elucidate the cause of the deficient HDM-specific IgE antibody formation in infants with AD, we examined the profile of IL-4 and IFN-gamma production by HDM-stimulated PBMCs. The amount of IL-4 production was higher in infants with AD and in children with AD (3 to 15 years) than in the nonatopic control subjects. Although the amount of IFN-gamma production in children with AD was lower than that found in nonatopic children, it was higher in infants with AD than in nonatopic infants. This result suggests that HDM-specific helper T lymphocytes in infants with AD have not yet differentiated into TH2 but rather stayed at the stage of TH0. The level of IgE-RAST for egg white (EW) is already elevated in infants with AD. The amount of IL-4 produced by EW-stimulated PBMCs was comparable to that produced by HDM-stimulated PBMCs in infants with AD. However, the amount of IFN-gamma produced by EW-stimulated PBMCs was distinctly lower than that produced by HDM-stimulated PBMCs in infants with AD. Although there was no correlation between the amount of IL-4 production by HDM-stimulated PBMCs and the level of HDM-IgE-RAST in infants with AD, the amount of IL-4 production by EW-stimulated PBMCs was closely correlated with the level of EW-IgE-RAST. These results suggest that it is not the lack of IL-4 but rather a relative increase in IFN-gamma production by HDM-specific helper T lymphocytes that causes the deficiency of HDM-specific IgE-antibody synthesis in infants with AD.

Because house dust mite (HDM)-specific IgE antibody (IgE-RAST) is usually not detectable in infants with atopic dermatitis (AD), HDM has not been regarded as the cause of infantile AD. The level of HDM-specific lymphocyte proliferation (expressed as stimulation index measured by flow cytometry [SIF]), however, was found to be markedly elevated in AD infants. This suggests that the sensitization of T cells to HDM extract occurs even in infancy. Moreover, the level of HDM-SIF is correlated closely with the severity of infantile AD, suggesting that HDM is a major cause of this disease not only in adults and children but also in infants. Although the level of HDM-SIF did not correlate with the level of HDM-specific IgE-RAST in infants with AD, it did intimately correlate with the absolute number of peripheral blood eosinophils. Because T lymphocytes are known to secrete some cytokines, such as IL-5, that enhance the proliferation of eosinophils, we measured the IL-5 production by peripheral blood mononuclear cells in infants with AD on stimulation with HDM extract. The amount of IL-5 production is significantly higher in infants with AD, as well as in children with AD, than that found in nonatopic control subjects. Moreover, the level of IL-5 production is correlated closely with the level of HDM-SIF in infants with AD. Taken together, these results suggest that HDMs play an important role in the development of infantile AD by inducing IL-5 production from HDM-specific T lymphocytes.

Many cases of anaphylactic reaction to measlesmumps-rubella (MMR) vaccines have been reported, t Such reactions have been suggested to be caused by allergy to the egg proteins in these vaccines] but the reactions after receiving M M R vaccines have also been described in children who can tolerate eggs? Recently, Kelso et al. 3 found that a patient who had anaphylaxis in response to M M R vaccine had IgE antibody to gelatin, detected by an immunoblot t ing method. In a previous study, we found that 10 of 11 children who showed systemic immediate-type reactions, including anaphylactic reactions to vaccines, had anti-gelatin IgE. 4 Furthermore, some of children who had anaphylactic reactions also had systemic allergic reactions when they ate gelatin-containing foods. 3-s To clarify the development of IgE antibody to gelatin, we examined the time courses of serum antibody levels in three children who had systemic immediate-type reactions to vaccines.

Aspergillus infection is the most frequent fungal infection associated with chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), and often results in a life-threatening situation. This report describes the use of high-dose fluconazole, a new antifungal agent, for invasive Aspergillus infection in a patient with CGD. A 27-month-old boy was sent to our hospital because of unknown fever in October, 1988. He was then admitted for pneumonia and pleural effusion of the right lung in February, 1989. Treatment with antibiotics was ineffective, and cultures of throat and pleural fluid were negative. In May, 1989, Aspergillus fumigatus was cultured from a subcutaneous abscess at the point of pleural puncture. Therefore we speculated that Aspergillus might have been the cause of pneumonia. The patient was diagnosed as having CGD by NBT test. Treatment with miconazole, flucitocin and amphotericin-B syrup was ineffective. From July, 1989, he was given 100 mg/day fluconazole d.i.v., but the drug did not reach an effective serum concentration to combat Aspergillus. However, an effective concentration of fluconazole was reached at a dose of 250 mg/day, and the chest X-ray findings subsequently improved, despite occasional high fever and continued high CRP. In July, 1990, the route of fluconazole administration was changed from d.i.v. to p.o. at the same dose, resulting in a serum concentration of fluconazole higher than that achieved with d.i.v. treatment. Both the clinical and laboratory findings showed improvement thereafter. Therapy for Aspergillus infection associated with CGD was found to necessitate high doses of anti-fungal drugs over a long period, although treatment with previously employed anti-fungal drugs could not be continued due to their adverse side effects.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Defective chemotaxis and phagocytosis of Staphylococcus aureus was identified in a female infant with marked hepatosplenomegaly and recurrent infections. Neutrophil mobilization from the marrow and marginal pool; random mobility; phagocytosis of yeast particles, latex beads and carbon particles; phagocytosis and intracellular killing capacity of Streptococcus pyogenes and E. coli; and NBT dye reduction were normal. Infiltration of neutrophils was depressed in the skin window test. The complement system and cellular immunity were intact. The patient also had a persistent EB virus infection. Defective phagocytosis limited to Staphylococcus aureus seems to be caused by an intrinsic cellular defect, such as congenital defect in neutrophil receptors for Staphylococcus aureus.

The beneficial effect of immunoglobulin in preventing coronary artery aneurysms in patients with Kawasaki disease is recognized, but immunoglobulin should be selectively given to patients at high risk for coronary lesions. The present study was designed to present a scoring method to evaluate the severity of Kawasaki disease in terms of coronary artery disease based on clinical and early laboratory findings. Seventy-eight patients who were admitted at 4 to 7 days of illness and who had received aspirin alone during the acute febrile period were separated into 2 groups according to significant coronary artery involvement, and possible related factors to the discrimination of the 2 groups were studied using multivariate analysis. Age at onset, C-reactive protein and platelet count contributed significantly to the discrimination, and from these 3 items a simple scoring system was devised to predict patients at high risk for coronary lesions. Retrospective study using this scoring method indicated that significant coronary artery disease was more often seen in patients predicted to be at high risk treated with aspirin, while no patients who received immunoglobulin had coronary lesions of moderate or severe degree. Thus, the present scoring method provides simple but clinically useful criteria for predicting patients at high risk of coronary artery disease, and immunoglobulin therapy for selected patients may reduce the significant coronary artery complications of Kawasaki disease.

An 8-year-old boy with IgA nephropathy, who is hypersensitive since infancy to many foods including hen's eggs, cow's milk and soy beans, has been studied. Specific IgE antibodies to these foods were detected in his serum. The patient has taken small amounts of milk and eggs, and hematuria was noticed when he was 7 years old. After admission to our study, he was given a diet completely free of egg and milk proteins, and the amount of protein and red blood cells in the urine decreased gradually without drug therapy. After oral provocation tests with hen egg white or cow's milk, an increase in the protein/creatine ratio of morning urine was noticed. However, specific IgA antibodies to either egg white or cow's milk proteins could not be detected in his serum by the immunablotting technique. In this case, ingestion of egg or milk was suspected to have increased the urinary protein/creatinine ratio by a mechanism other than that mediated by specific IgA antibodies to these food antigens.

Effects of Con A-induced human mononuclear cells on the proliferative response of peripheral T cells were examined by using TNP-modified autologous lymphocytes as stimulator cells. Cells induced by incubation with Con A contained both suppressor cells and amplifier cells. The former were induced from nylon woolnonadherent T cells and these precursor cells were sensitive to mitomycin treatment. On the other hand, amplifier precursor cells were nylon wool-nonadherent T cells and were resistant to mitomycin treatment. Cell proliferation was required for the induction of suppressor cells but not for the induction of amplifier cells. Con A-induced suppressor effector cells were both nylon wool-adherent and nonadherent cells, on the contrary, Con A-induced amplifier effector cells were nonadherent cells. A small number of macrophages enhanced the suppressive activity of nonadherent T cells when added at the induction phase of suppressor T cells.

A child of squid allergy is reported. We detected specific IgE antibodies to squid in his serum with a microliter solid-phase radioimmunoassay using extract of squid (including 50% glycerin, Torii & Co. Ltd, Tokyo) as an antigen, which have been used for scrach or prick testing in Japan.Furthermore, we demonstrated cross-allergenicity between squid and octopus with inhibition technique.