The First Department of Pathlogy, 8lOol of dledioine, the Univerady of T o h h i m a , TohhimaThe cardiac conduction systems including sinoatrial (SA) node, atrioventricular (AV) node, atrioventricular(His) bundle, and peripheral conduction system (lea and right bundle branch, and Purkinje fiber) of 23 patients with Duchenne progressive musculr dystrophy(DMD) were studied with liwt microscope. Infiltration of fat tissue and mild fibrosis were occasional Andings in SA and AV nodes. Degeneration of the conduction muscle fiber was hardly noted in SA node, AV node, and His bundle. Only the peripheral conduction system ( P u r h j e fiber) showed significant degenerations such as eoslnophilic, necrotic and vacuolar changes with fibrosis. These necrobiotic changes resembled hyaline and vacuolar skeletal and cardiac muscular degenerations in DMD and were assumed to have occurred on the basis of the structural and constitutional characteristics of the peripheral conduction fiber as a striated muscle fiber. The vascular changes and amyloid deposit suggesting precocious aging in the conduction systems were not observed. ACTA PATHOL.

-(1→3)-D-glucans with -(1→6)-glycosidic linked branches are known to be immune activation agents and are incorporated in anti-cancer drugs and health-promoting supplements. -Glucan concentration was 9.2 g/L in a 200-L pilot scale fermentor using mutant strain Aureobasidium pullulans M-2, which was from an imperfect fungal strain belonging to A. pullulans M-1. The culture broth of A. pullulans M-2 had a faint yellow color, whereas that of the wild-type had an intense dark green color caused by the accumulation of melanin-like pigments. -Glucan produced by A. pullulans M-2 was identified as a polysaccharide of D-glucose monomers linked by -(1→3, 1→6)-glycosidic bonds through GC/MS and NMR analysis. When a conventional medium was used in the culture of A. pullulans M-2 in a 3-L jar fermentor, -glucan concentration was 1.4-fold that produced by the wild-type. However, when medium optimized by statistical experimental design was used with dissolved oxygen at 10%, the -glucan concentration was 9.9 g/L with yield of 0.52 (g -glucan/g consumed sucrose), which was 2.9-fold that of the wild-type. This level of productivity was reproduced when the fermentation was scaled up 200-L. The industrial production of high -glucan without melanin-like pigments is highly expected as a health-promoting supplement or functional food.

In a search for new antitumor substances as a rec-active antibiotic using a modified rec assay,1>2^we found that Streptomyces halstedi KB012 isolated from a sea sand sample collected from Yasuura seashore (Hiroshima) produced a rec-active antibiotic that exhibited more growth inhibition on a recombination-deficient (rec~) strain than a proficient (rec") strain of Bacillus subtilis. TLCof the crude-solvent extract from the culture broth revealed that the active entity consisted of at least six yellow spots. However, four of these components were quite labile, so that our efforts to isolate each pure component were unsuccessful.

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Congenital central alveolar hypoventilation (C-CAH), so called Ondine's curse, is known to be quite a rare neuropathology that has been reported in only 23 cases to date. C-CAH was diagnosed in a 2-year-5-month-old infant. In the treatment of C-CAH, we implanted a right unilateral diaphragm pacemaker in the infant and his respiratory status was remarkably improved after diaphragm pacing. Twenty-three reported cases of this disorder are reviewed in the literature.