Purpose To describe the surgical technique, and its usefulness, of temporary amniotic membrane patching (AMP) in the acute phase of ocular chemical injury. Methods Temporary AMP with modification in suture placement was performed on five eyes of five consecutive patients inflicted with acute chemical injury having a greater than grade II injury by the Roper-Hall classification.Results All patients reported herein presented with a large epithelial defect on the cornea and conjunctiva. Case 3 was classified as grade III while the other four cases were classified as grade II. The causative chemical agents were anhydrous acetic acid in Case 1, calcium oxide in Case 2, sodium hydroxide in Case 3, sodium silicate in Case 4, and sulphuric acid in Case 5. All cases experienced rapid relief of pain after AMP. Epithelialization of the cornea with improvement of visual acuity was observed in all cases when the amniotic membrane was removed within 2 weeks after surgery. During the mean follow-up of 19.6 months, the ocular surface remained stable and no cicatricial complications were noted. Conclusions These results suggest that immediate AMP is quite useful for managing moderately severe acute ocular chemical injury by facilitating rapid epithelialization and pain relief, and securing ocular surface integrity.

The CYP19 gene encoding aromatase P450 (estrogen synthetase) is expressed in several extragonadal sites and regulated in a tissue-specific fashion, which is achieved by alternative use of the seven different promoters (and corresponding exons 1) of the CYP19 gene. Previously, we demonstrated that aromatase P450 is overexpressed in leiomyoma tissue and that in situ estrogen synthesized in leiomyoma tissues possibly plays a role in leiomyoma growth. To elucidate the mechanism of overexpression of aromatase P450, we determined the promoter use of aromatase P450 in leiomyomas. 5'-Rapid amplification of cDNA ends analysis revealed that of six leiomyoma nodules tested, four nodules contained I.4-specific transcript of aromatase P450 alone, one nodule contained PII-specific transcript alone, and the remaining nodule contained both I.4- and PII-specific transcripts simultaneously. The levels of aromatase transcripts were then quantified by competitive RT-PCR assay. Among 21 leiomyomas, I.4-specific transcript and PII-specific transcript were predominant in 18 and 2 leiomyomas, respectively, whereas the remaining leiomyoma was negative for aromatase P450 expression. We next compared the aromatase activity of leiomyoma cells stimulated by promoter-specific regulatory factors. A combination of IL-1beta and dexamethasone, known as a potent inducer of promoter I.4-driven transcription, effectively increased aromatase activity. A combination of (Bt)(2)cAMP, 3-isobutyl-1-myethylxanthine, and PGE(2), known as inducers of promoter II-driven transcription, also increased aromatase activity, but the increases found were smaller than that induced by dexamethasone and IL-1beta. The transcriptional ability of the promoter I.4 sequence was confirmed by transient transfection assay using primary cells released from leiomyomas and established cells from normal myometrium (KW cells). Luciferase vectors containing promoter I.4 sequence (-340/+14 or longer) showed a significant increase in luciferase activity in response to dexamethasone. Deletion or mutation of a putative glucocorticoid-responsive element in the promoter I.4 sequence eliminated promoter activity. These results indicate that promoter I.4 is the major promoter responsible for overexpression of aromatase P450 in leiomyomas and that a glucocorticoid-responsive element within it plays a substantial role in the expression of aromatase P450.

Abstract. The fine-grained rolling steels NFG600 and the conventional usual rolling steels SM490 were processed by sand paper polishing and mechanical grinding to compare the residual stress generated after processing. The average grain size of NFG600 and SM490 is 3 µm and 15µm respectively. Therefore improvement of mechanical properties for such fine-grained steels is expected, it is important to understand the residual stress state of new fine-grained materials with processing. In this study, multi axial stresses of two kinds of specimens after polishing and grinding were measured by three kinds of analysis methods including cos-ψ method. As a result, as for σ 33 , the stress of NFG was compression, though that of SM490 was tension.

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