Noboru Fujitani

Cardiac muscle lesions associated with chronic administration of methamphetamine in rats.

Cardiovascular complications associated with methamphetamine abuse have increasingly been reported. However, chronic cardiotoxicity of methamphetamine is not experimentally well documented. In this study, methamphetamine (1 mg/kg/day) was subcutaneously injected into 5-week-old male Wistar Kyoto rats (n = 30). Age- and sex-matched Wistar Kyoto rats served as controls (n = 30). After 14 and 56 days, hearts were examined by light and electron microscopy. Foci of myocytic degeneration and necrosis appeared in the sub-endocardial areas on day 14 of methamphetamine exposure. Myocytic degeneration and necrosis became more extensive on day 56. At this stage, myocytolysis, contraction bands, atrophied myocytes, and spotty fibrosis were patchily distributed throughout the myocardium in most of rats treated with methamphetamine. The accompanying ultrastructural features included marked degeneration of cardiac mitochondria with fractured and disrupted cristae, hypercontraction of myofibrils, and loss of myofilament. In contrast, cardiac myocyte lesions were not observed in control rats. These myocardial lesions in rats treated with methamphetamine for 56 days resemble the cardiomyopathy associated with methamphetamine abuse in humans.

Immunohistochemical indicators of early brain injury: an experimental study using the fluid-percussion model in cats.

To detect early changes in neurons and astrocytes by immunohistochemical methods using antibodies against the neuron-specific enolase (NSE), neurofilament, glial fibrillary acid protein (GFAP), and S-100 protein, a fluid-percussion injury model in cats was chosen, in which a severe grade of injury (3.5-5.5 atm) was produced. Neuropathologic changes were produced through brain deformation by pressure gradients at the time of injury. The neuronal NSE immunoreactivity in the parietal cortex and the brain stem began to decrease at 1 to 2 hours after injury and were reduced markedly or even lost 4 hours after injury. Axons in the cerebral white matter and corpus callosum and in the hemorrhage regions at the brain stem were waved and enlarged <4 hours after injury. From 4 hours after injury, retraction balls were found after staining by antibody for the neurofilament. The GFAP-positive astrocytes appeared in the impact site in the parietal cortex and in the brain stem from 4 hours after injury, whereas S-100-positive astrocytes were not markedly changed, indicating that early after the injury, astrocytes manifested reactive hypertrophy without proliferation. These results suggest that immunochemical studies on NSE, neurofilament, GFAP, and S-100 are useful in pathologic and forensic practice in a patient who survives for a short time after a fatal head injury but without obvious focal damage.

Distribution of H Type 1–4 Chains of the ABO(H) System in Different Cell Types of Human Respiratory Epithelium

We used three anti-H monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) specific for H Type 1, H Type 2, and H Type 3/4 antigens to investigate the distribution of H Type 1–H Type 4 chains of the ABO(H) histo-blood group in the human respiratory system. Strong staining of H Type 1 chain and weak staining of H Type 2 chain were observed in mucous cells of submucosal glands of bronchial epithelium, which were dependent on the secretor status. No H Type 3/4 chains were detected in mucous cells. Serous cells of submucosal glands of respiratory system showed no staining by three anti-H antibodies. H Type 1 and H Type 3/4 antigens were detected heterogeneously in apical surfaces of bronchial epithelium from secretors but not from nonsecretors. In contrast, basal cells of bronchial epithelium expressed H Type 2 irrespective of the secretor status, probably regulated by the H gene. Some alveolar Type II cells contained only H Types 3/4, which were dependent on the secretor status, whereas alveolar Type I cells had no H antigens. Our results indicated that different cell types in respiratory epithelium expressed different types of carbohydrate chains of histo-blood group antigens under the control of the H or the Se gene.