The prognosis for patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is poor, although clinical features are variable. Prediction of outcome has been difficult in individual patients based on laboratory data. In some patients with DCM, myocardial damage secondary to viral or immune-mediated myocardial inflammation may persist. To objectively assess inflammation, we measured plasma concentrations of C-reactive protein (CRP) in 188 patients with idiopathic DCM over 5–8 years. All had dyspnea and fatigue at rest; all patients had a left ventricular ejection fraction less than 40% by echocardiography or by contrast or radionuclide ventriculography. We divided these patients into two groups: patients dying within 5 years following admission (n = 49) and the remainder surviving for at least 5 years (n = 139). CRP concentrations in the patients dying early were significantly higher than in the long-term survivors (1.05 ± 1.37 vs. 0.49 ± 1.04 mg/dl, p < 0.05). Sixty-two percent of the patients with CRP>1.0 died within 5 years. In addition to other laboratory tests including electrocardiography and echocardiography, routine CRP measurements proved to be valuable for identifying high-risk patients who require special treatment strategies.
1. To evaluate the role of saliva in the maintenance of taste sensitivity, the activities in the rat chorda tympani innervating taste buds in the anterior part of the tongue were analysed. The outer surface of the taste receptor cells is usually covered with saliva, suggesting effects of salivary secretion on taste sensitivity. Matsuo and co-workers have employed acute and chronic experiments in rats (Matsuo & Yamamoto, 1990, 1992Matsuo, Yamamoto, Ikehara & Nakamura, 1994) and showed: (a) taste receptor cells on the anterior part of the tongue innervated by the chorda tympani nerve were covered with saliva mainly secreted from the submandibular gland; (b) the sweet-taste response in the rat chorda tympani nerve was about twofold larger, while the NaCl, HCl, and quinine hydrochloride responses were slightly smaller, when the tongue was adapted to saliva than when it was adapted to distilled water; and (c) this difference was due mainly to the inorganic components of saliva (the principal ionic constituents of rat saliva are Na, K+, Cl-, and HCO3). These findings imply that taste sensitivity could be changed by manipulation of flow rate and change in the composition of saliva. In addition to this relatively short-term effect of saliva, a long-term effect, or maintenance role in taste sensitivity, has been proposed. Behavioural
Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is a pleiotropic cytokine that belongs to the interleukin-6 family and is expressed by multiple tissue types. This study analyzed the effect of LIF on osteoblast differentiation using primary murine bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs). Colony-forming unit-osteoblast formation by BMSCs was significantly suppressed by LIF treatment. To clarify the mechanism underlying the LIF suppressive effect on osteoblast differentiation, we analyzed the downstream signaling pathway of LIF. LIF/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling induces the expression of suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3). SOCS3 knockdown experiments have previously demonstrated that short-hairpin SOCS3-BMSCs reversed the LIF suppressive effect. Our results demonstrated that LIF suppresses osteoblast differentiation through the LIF/STAT3/SOCS3 signaling pathway.
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