Takafumi Higuchi

Analysis of tumor necrosis factor-α production and polymorphisms of the tumor necrosis factor-α gene in individuals with a history of Kawasaki disease

Abstract Background: Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)‐α plays a central role in the pathogenesis of vasculitis in Kawasaki disease (KD). To address the genetic background of KD, we investigated the level of TNF‐α production and genetic polymorphisms in the 5′ flanking region of the TNF‐α gene in healthy children with a history of KD.

Detection of MAGE-4 protein in sera of lung cancer patients

We investigated the level of MAGE‐4 protein in sera of patients with primary lung cancer to understand better the biological roles of the MAGE proteins. MAGE‐4 protein was detected as a non‐degraded form in botb the supernatant of a MAGE‐4+ tumor cell line and in a patients serum. Serum level of the MAGE‐4 protein in lung cancer patients (n= 100, mean = 1.17 ng/ml) was significantly higher than that in either patients with benign pulmonary diseases (n= 80, 0.33 ng/ml) or healthy donors (n=68, 0.32 ng/ml). It was higher than the cutoff level (1.15 ng/ml) in 34 of 100 cancer patients, but not in anyone in the other groups.