A left persistent primitive sciatic artery was observed in a Japanese male cadaver. The sciatic artery arose from the internal iliac artery and perforated the ventral division of the sacral plexus. The sciatic artery did not anastomose with the perforating arteries nor the popliteal artery. The left femoral artery was incompletely developed, attenuating and terminating as the saphenous artery. Instead of the femoral artery, direct continuation of the profunda femoris artery, which probably corresponded to the fourth perforating artery, became the popliteal artery. Other vessel anomalies were observed in various regions. They included: (1) the retroesophageal right subclavian artery; (2) the left vertebral artery entering the transverse foramen of the 4th cervical vertebra; (3) bilateral occurrence of the superficial brachial artery; (4) the left gastric artery independently arising from the abdominal aorta; (5) a hepatolienomesenteric trunk; (6) three accessory renal arteries; (7) double testicular arteries; (8) the arteria intermesenterica; (9) a venous ring termed the ‘renal collar’, and (10) paired thoracic ducts. The present cadaver was considered to be a very rare case in which many primitive vascular systems had extensively persisted in various parts of the body.
The effect of young and mature persimmon fruits on lipid metabolism was investigated in a diet-induced murine obesity model. A commercially purchased high fat diet (Quick Fat, CLEA Japan) was used as the basal diet. Dried and powdered young and mature fruits of two breeds of persimmon, Fuyu-kaki and Hachiya-kaki, were added to the basal diet at a concentration of 10%, respectively. Male C57BL/6 mice (n=4) were divided into five groups and fed the basal diet or one of the persimmon-supplemented basal diets ad libitum for 14 weeks. Diets supplemented with both types of young fruit significantly reduced the rise in plasma lipids, including total cholesterol (p<0.005), triglyceride (p<0.05), and LDL cholesterol (p<0.05), and the effect was almost equal between the two breeds. Real-time RT-PCR revealed that both of these young fruit-supplemented diets equally up-regulated expression of the cholesterol 7 alpha-hydroxylase (CYP7A1) gene in the liver by about three-fold (p<0.05). CYP7A1 plays an important role in maintaining cholesterol homeostasis by regulating bile acid synthesis, suggesting that increased conversion of cholesterol to bile acids may have caused the cholesterol-lowering effect of the young fruits. The results indicate that young persimmon fruits are beneficial in the development of preventive and therapeutic agents against dyslipidemia.
An easy and rapid ELISA system, Filtration ELISA, to detect antibodies against bacterial cell surface antigens was developed using a 96-well filtration plate fitted with a 0.22microm membrane (MultiScreen-GV, Millipore). Bacterial whole cells were used as antigens without fixing the cells with formalin etc. The whole cell antigens were washed by vacuum filtration through a filter and resuspended in washing buffer. Assay reactions could be done in the wells without losing the solution. The technique was established using antisera of mice immunized with Escherichia coli, and then evaluated by assaying antibodies to Shiga-toxin producing E. coli O157:H7 (STEC), Staphylococcus aureus and Lactobacillus acidophilus in fecal extracts of 157 children who had eaten school lunches contaminated with STEC in comparison with 25 age-matched control children. The lunch group showed significantly higher IgA antibody titers against STEC than the control group (p<0.0005), but not against L. acidphilus. The results indicate that Filtration ELISA is a quantitative and specific technique for measuring antibodies against antigens on the surface of bacteria without extracting antigens from the bacteria. This technique is widely applicable to the assay of antibodies in various samples including serum and fecal extract against various kinds of bacteria.
