The objective of this study was to determine the role of serum KL-6 levels as a marker for the activity of interstitial pneumonia in patients with connective tissue diseases. The serum concentrations of KL-6, a glycoprotein produced mainly by pulmonary type II epithelial cells, were measured in 21 patients with connective tissue disease. The activity of interstitial pneumonia was compared with the associated serum KL-6 concentrations. Serum KL-6 concentrations in patients with interstitial pneumonia were significantly higher than those in the controls. Among patients with active interstitial pneumonia, serum KL-6 concentrations following the treatment (after improvement) were significantly lower than the pretreatment values. The extent of the pulmonary fibrosis correlated positively with the serum KL-6 concentrations during the inactive phase of the interstitial pneumonia. These results suggest that sequential measurement of serum KL-6 levels is a new and useful means for the evaluation of interstitial pneumonia in patients with connective tissue diseases.

The novel 11b-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11b -HSD1) inhibitors known as sterenin A, B, C and D were found in a solid-state culture of the producing basidiomycetes identified as Stereum sp. SANK 21205. Purification of the 50% aq Me 2 CO extract of the culture was performed by EtOAc extraction, reversed phase opencolumn chromatography and successive ODS HPLC preparation. These compounds, whose structures were determined by several spectroscopic methods, were found to be novel isoindolinone alkaloids which exhibited potent selective inhibitory activities against 11b-HSD1.

Hyphodiscus hyaloscyphoides sp. nov. and its Catenulifera anamorph are described and illustrated. The teleomorph is morphologically most similar to H. hymeniophila but distinguished by dull white-colored apothecia. The anamorph is characterized by its minute conidiogenous structure with small subglobose conidia. The monophyly of Hyphodiscus was strongly supported in our molecular phylogenetic analyses using the D1-D2 region of large subunit of nuclear rDNA, but the phylogenetic relationships with other members of Hyaloscyphaceae were not strongly supported. In addition, Hyphodiscus hymeniophilus, one of the close relatives of H. hyaloscyphoides, turned out to be a heterogeneous assemblage based on the ITS region, which requires further research for taxonomic revision.

In the course of a screening for inositol phosphorylceramide (IPC) synthase inhibitors, the novel inhibitors pleofungins A, B, C, and D were found in a mycelial extract of a fungus, Phoma sp. SANK13899. Purification was performed by 50% methanol and ethyl acetate extraction, reversed phase open-column chromatography, and HPLC separations. Pleofungin A inhibited the IPC synthase of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Aspergillus fumigatus at IC 50 values of 16 and 1.0 ng/ml, respectively. The inhibitor also suppressed the growth of Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans, and A. fumigatus at MIC values of 2.0, 0.3, and 0.5 mg/ml, respectively. These biological properties indicate that pleofungins belong to a novel class of IPC synthase inhibitors efficacious against A. fumigatus.

Peptides U 0400 Pleofungins, Novel Inositol Phosphorylceramide Synthase Inhibitors, from Phoma sp. SANK 13899. Part 1. Taxonomy, Fermentation, Isolation, and Biological Activities. -(YANO*, T.; AOYAGI, A.; KOZUMA, S.; KAWAMURA, Y.; TANAKA, I.; SUZUKI, Y.; TAKAMATSU, Y.; TAKATSU, T.; INUKAI, M.; J. Antibiot. 60 (2007) 2, 136-142; Lead Discovery Res. Lab.,