The mechanism underlying the increased pharmacological effects of phenobarbital in rats with glycerolinduced acute renal failure (ARF) was examined. In the experiments, a surgical cannula was inserted in the lateral ventricle of the rats for phenobarbital infusion, and the ARF induction was performed by intramuscular administration of 50% glycerol. The onset time of anesthesia by phenobarbital was determined with the tail flick method. In addition, cerebral microsomes were prepared from excised cerebral cortices of sham and ARF rats, and the cerebral expression of the γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) A receptor and two cation-chloride transporters, KCC2 and NKCC1, was evaluated by Western blotting, as their functions are involved in the anesthetic effects of phenobarbital. When phenobarbital was infused in the ventricle, anesthesia was induced 2.2-times faster in ARF rats than in sham rats, and there was no detectable increase in the cerebral expression of the GABA A receptor in ARF rats. It was additionally noted that the cerebral expression of KCC2 decreased, whereas that of NKCC1 was unaltered in ARF rats. These findings indicated that the anesthetic effects of phenobarbital are potentiated in ARF rats, probably due to imbalanced cerebral expression of KCC2 and NKCC1, suggesting that altered cation-chloride handling in nerve cells is associated.

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Similarities among non-prescription pharmaceutical vitamin products generally available in community pharmacies were examined based on their vitamin components, and a chart was constructed to diŠerentiate products to assist in appropriate product choice. In the analysis of the similarities, two hundred and seventy-six data entries on vitamin products were extracted from the database on the package inserts of the pharmaceutical products provided by the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, and they were reviewed for the amounts of vitamins they contained, in which the B vitamins, or vitamin B 1 , B 2 , B 6 , B 12 , and niacin, were considered as well as vitamins C and E. Pantothenic acid and L-Cysteine that are frequently used in combination with those vitamins are also taken into consideration. The data entries were then processed by classical multi-dimensional scaling to evaluate the inter-product similarities. As a result, it was shown that the products categorized as pharmaceutical nutrients and tonics containing vitamins (NTcV) are similar to one another, re‰ecting the fact that they are less characteristic regarding their vitamin components. As for the products in other categories, they were generally found to be featured for their unique content of vitamin components, and thereby, each category includes products with a wide range of variation. It was also indicated that some products categorized as vitamin B 1 , B 2 , and C products are less distinguishable from those categorized as NTcV. Theseˆndings will assist pharmacists to decide on an appropriate product for a customer following consultation.