No abstract

To determine the frequency of fetal nucleated cells in maternal peripheral blood during different stages of pregnancy, 50 primigravidas were investigated by determining the frequency of cells with the Y chromosome using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) of Y-specific repetitive sequences of the DYZ1 family. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplifying the same part of the DYZ1 used as the probe in FISH and a single-copy Y-specific fragment was also carried out for genomic DNA from the same samples. Cells with the hybridization signal were detected by FISH at and after 15 weeks of pregnancy in all pregnant women who gave birth to boys. The ratio of cells with the signal to those without the signal ranged from 1 in 144,000 to 1 in 4,000 with a tendency to increase as the pregnancy advanced. The frequency of fetal cells estimated by the PCR experiments was significantly and positively correlated with that found by FISH. The present study suggests that fetal nucleated cells increase in maternal peripheral blood with advancing gestation, from less than 1 in 100,000 nucleated cells in the first trimester to around 1 in 10,000 at term. These frequencies were much lower than those reported by cytological methods.

A thoracoscopic esophagectomy in the prone position is technically safe and feasible and provides better surgeon ergonomics and better operative exposure around the left recurrent laryngeal nerve during an aggressive esophagectomy.

The distribution and occurrence of polyisoprenoids (dolichols and polyprenols) in the leaves and roots of nine true Okinawan mangroves and the leaves of one associate mangrove were analyzed using two-dimensional thin layer chromatography. In the leaves, the distribution of three types (I, II, and III) of polyprenols and dolichols were detected. (I) The predominance of dolichols over polyprenols (more than 90%) was observed in Avicennia marina, Bruguiera gymnorrhiza, B. gymnorrhiza (yellow leaves), and Rhizophora stylosa. (II) The occurrence of both polyprenols and dolichols is observed in Excoecaria agallocha, Kandelia obovata, K. obovata (yellow leaves), Lumnitzera racemosa, Pemphis acidula, and Sonneratia alba. (III) The predominance of polyprenols over dolichols (more than 90%) is observed in Heritiera littoralis and Hibiscus tiliaceus. However, in the roots, a type-I distribution was observed in A. marina, B. gymnorrhiza, E. agallocha, H. littoralis and S. alba. A type-II distribution was observed in K. obovata, L. racemosa, P. acidula, and R. stylosa with no type-III distribution. The chain-length distribution of dolichols in the leaves and roots was C 50-C 140 and C 60-C 120 , respectively. A similar chain-length distribution of polyprenols of C 45-C 140 and C 65-C 85 was detected in the leaves and roots respectively. Taken together, sixteen out of twenty-one tissues indicated that dolichols are more abundant than polyprenols in both leaves and roots. The present study is the first to clarify the diversity of polyisoprenoids in both the leaves and roots of mangrove, suggesting the chemotaxonomic significance of polyisoprenoids in the mangrove tree species.

This paper describes the antitumoral activity of branched-chain fatty acid (BCFA) in human breast cancer cells with an emphasis on its effect on fatty acid biosynthe sis. First, the relationship between chain-length and antitumoral activity was studied. The highest activity was observed with iso-16:0, and the activity decreased with increase or decrease of the chain-lengths from C 16:0. Anteiso-BCFA, as well as iso-series, was cytotoxic to the breast cancer cells. Cytotoxicity of BCFA was comparable to that of conjugated linoleic acid known as antitumoral fatty acid. Incubation of breast cancer cells with BCFA (13-methyltetradecanoic acid) significantly reduced the [14C] acetate incorporation into free fatty acid and fatty acid esters, showing the inhibition of fatty acid biosynthesis by BCFA. Examination of substrate level effect found that BCFA slightly inhibited fatty acid synthetase and acetyl-CoA carboxylase, and significantly the glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase which was the main NADPH generating system in breast cancer cells. The present study thus suggests that BCFA synthetically lowers the fatty acid biosynthesis by reducing the pre cursors, in addition to its direct inhibitory effect on fatty acid synthetase.