AH66F or Yoshida sarcoma (YS) cells were transplanted intraperitoneally into male Donryu rats. Cancer cells obtained from ascites were suspended in saline solution (10' cells ml) after washing. Then, 0.1 ml of each suspension obtained from both strains was injected into the tail vein of 5 rats, respectively. Each metastatic nodule, 1 mm or less in a diameter, thus obtained was then injected into the peritoneal cavity in which these metastatic cells come to free. After 10 days, cancer cells obtained from each ascites were suspended in phosphate buffered saline (Ca2+ and Mg2+ free, pH 7.2) after washing. Each suspension (10' cells/ml) was violently vibrated with a definite amount of 5-doxyl stearic acid and spin labeling of cancer cell membrane was done. Furthermore, each specimen thus obtained was subjected to the electron spin resonance (ESR) measurement and the order parameter was determined from the spectra. In both YS and AH66F strains, the cell membrane fluidity of the metastatic cancer cell was increased at each temperature measured from 5°C through 35°C. The results obtained here suggest that the change of the cell membrane fluidity of cancer cell is closely related with the cancer metastases.cancer ; cell membrane fluidity ; metastases ; ESR ; phospholipid Metastasis to other organ is one of the characteristics of cancer which makes it difficult to cure cancer patients. Therefore, it is desirable to clarify the mechanism of cancer metastasis in order to cure cancer patients. Fidler (1973a) reported that only 1% of B16 melanoma cells injected intravenously had survived to form actual pulmonary metastasis. Fidler (1973b) also succeeded in obtaining the highly metastatic strains of B16 melanoma by means of intravenous injection and tissue culture of the metastatic lesions. Bosmann et al. (1973) noticed the biochemical features of the most highly metastatic strain (F10), that is, the change in the electrophoretic mobility, surface glycoprotein, proteases and increasing degradative enzyme as compared with those of low metastatic B16 melanoma strain (F 1). Miller et al. (1985) suggested that metastasis of human colonic cancer

Objective-Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) apheresis is a potential therapy for conventional therapy-resistant peripheral artery disease. In the present study, we examined the chronic effects of LDL apheresis on clinical parameters in vivo and endothelial cell functions in vitro in hemodialysis patients who had the complication of peripheral artery disease. Methods and Results-Twenty-five patients were enrolled, and the responses of 19 patients to LDL apheresis were analyzed. Patients were classified into 2 groups according to change in ankle-brachial pressure index (ABI) after treatment: patients with improved ABI (responders, nϭ10) and patients with worsened ABI (nonresponders, nϭ9). In the responders, apheresis resulted in a long-term reduction of circulating levels of oxidized LDL, C-reactive protein, and fibrinogen. In human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), the serum from the responders increased expression of activated endothelial nitric oxide synthase protein and proliferative activity. Key Words: atherosclerosis Ⅲ endothelium Ⅲ nitric oxide synthase Ⅲ oxidized lipids Ⅲ peripheral arterial disease Ⅲ lipoproteins Ⅲ oxidative stress C ardiovascular disease is the primary cause of death in patients with end-stage renal disease. Patients on dialysis are reported to have a 10 -20-fold greater risk of cardiovascular disease-associated mortality than the general population after stratification for age, gender, race, and the presence or absence of diabetes. Patients undergoing dialysis have many of the risk factors for atherosclerosis, such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, and disturbed calcium-phosphate metabolism, and, indeed, they commonly experience severe atherosclerosis, including peripheral artery disease (PAD). Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) apheresis is a potentially useful treatment for conventional therapy-resistant hypercholesterolemic patients with coronary artery disease and PAD. 1,2 Previously, it was shown that a single LDL apheresis session enhanced the peripheral microcirculation, probably by increasing the production of nitric oxide (NO) and bradykinin, 3 reducing blood viscosity and adhesion molecules, 4 and inducing endothelium-dependent vasodilatation. 5 However, the precise molecular mechanism of the long-term effects of LDL apheresis on the improvement of the peripheral circulation remains unclear and warrants further investigation.We undertook the present study to investigate the shortand long-term effects of LDL apheresis on clinical and laboratory parameters in vivo and vascular endothelial cell function in vitro, in hemodialysis patients with PAD, and to identify factors related to the improvement of the peripheral circulation by LDL apheresis. Methods Patients and Study DesignThe study protocol was approved by the Human Ethics Committee of Yokohama City University Hospital. A total of 25 consecutive hemodialysis patients with leg impairments and ankle-

Abstract

A 47-year-old Japanese womanwith a continuing high fever was promptly diagnosed as having infected atrial myxomaone day after admission based on transthoracic echocardiographic findings and positivity for bacteria in blood culture. The mass was removed by an urgent open heart surgery. Histopathological examination confirmed that this mass was a myxoma with gram-positive bacterial colonies. Generally, antemortem diagnosis is difficult and there is a high mortality of patients with infected myxoma; however, this patient completely recovered from the illness because of the prompt diagnosis. This is the 37th case of definite infected myxomareported in the literature. The cause of infection of this patient might have been the acupuncture therapy she underwent for weight reduction. (Internal Medicine 41: 957-960, 2002)

Recent evidence suggests that an insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism of the gene encoding angiotensinconverting enzyme (ACE) is associated with myocardial infarction and related cardiovascular diseases. We investigated a possible association of the ACE polymorphism with essential hypertension in a total of 263 cases/controls from among the elderly (age, over 70 years) and middle-aged (age between 30 and 60 years) Japanese population. The frequency of the I/I homozygote was significantly higher in hypertensive subjects than in controls in the elderly age group (33/57 vs 16/46; P ϭ 0.02), but no association was observed in the middle-aged group (25/75 vs 26/85; P ϭ 0.71). Similarly, having at least one insertion allele was associated with essential hypertension in the elderly age group (83/114 vs 46/92 in controls; P ϭ 0.001), but not in the middle-aged group (78/150 vs 94/170; P ϭ 0.524). These data suggest that genetic variation at the ACE locus may be associated with some determinants for blood pressure in elderly persons, and imply the involvement of the ACE insertion/deletion polymorphism in the etiology of agerelated essential hypertension in the Japanese population.