In aminiotic fluid and in human milk, EGF, IGF-1, FGF, HGF, and TGF-alpha have a strong trophic effect on immature intestinal cells and may be involved in perinatal gastrointestinal adaptation.

we report the first case of neonatal intrahepatic cholestasis caused by citrin deficiency with severe hepatic dysfunction requiring a living-related liver transplantation. Patients with this disorder should be followed up carefully, even during infancy.

A longitudinal study of cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was carried out in 23 patients with mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS); 1 each of types IH, VI, and VII; 2 of type IS; 10 of type II; and 4 each of types IIIB and IVA. Six types of distinct abnormalities were 1) cribriform changes or spotty changes in the corpus callosum, basal ganglia, and white matter; 2) high-intensity signal in the white matter on T2-weighted image; 3) ventriculomegaly; 4) diffuse cerebral cortical atrophy; 5) spinal cord compression; and 6) megacisterna magna. The cribriform changes that corresponded to dilated perivascular spaces were found in the patients with MPS IS, II, and VI. The patchy and diffuse intensity changes were found in the patient with MPS II and IIIB, respectively. MPS IH and the severe type of MPS II showed marked ventriculomegaly. Marked cerebral atrophy was observed in all MPS IIIB patients and in the severe type of MPS II patients. Spinal cord compression was a feature usually observed in MPS IH, IVA, VI, and VII. Megacisterna magna was frequent in the patients with MPS II (6/10). In two of five patients, the therapeutic effect of bone marrow transplantation (BMT) was remarkable. Both the cribriform changes and the intensity change of the white matter in a MPS VI patient disappeared eight years after the BMT. Slight improvement of cribriform change was noted in one patient with MPS II three years after the BMT. MRS was not sufficient to estimate the accumulation of glycosaminoglycans but was useful for evaluating neuronal damages.

X-linked lissencephaly with abnormal genitalia (XLAG) is a rare disorder caused by mutations in the aristaless-related homeobox (ARX) gene, located on Xp22.13. Arx-null mice show loss of tangential migration of GABAergic interneurons, presumably being related to caudal ganglionic eminence tangential migration. In the present study, we investigated a subpopulation of GABAergic interneurons in the brain of an infant with XLAG, who had a novel nonsense mutation of the ARX gene, compared with those of age-matched normal controls and Miller-Dieker syndrome. We performed immunocytochemistry for interneuron and migration markers. We found that glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD)- and calretinin (CR)-containing cells were significantly reduced in the neocortex and located in the white matter and neocortical subventricular zone, while neuropeptide Y- or cholecystokinin-containing cells were normally distributed. Moreover, in the neocortical subventricular region, the GAD- and CR-containing cells expressed the radial migration marker Mash-1 as well as nestin. Our findings suggest that ARX protein controls not only the tangential migration of GABAergic interneurons from the ganglionic eminence, but also may serve to induce radial migration from the neocortical subventricular zone.

The voltage-gated H ؉ channel is a powerful H ؉ extruding mechanism of osteoclasts, but its functional roles and regulatory mechanisms remain unclear. Electrophysiological recordings revealed that the H ؉ channel operated on activation of protein kinase C together with cell acidosis. Introduction: Hϩ is a key signaling ion in bone resorption. In addition to H ϩ pumps and exchangers, osteoclasts are equipped with H ϩ conductive pathways to compensate rapidly for pH imbalance. The H ϩ channel is distinct in its strong H ϩ extrusion ability and voltage-dependent gatings. Methods: To investigate how and when the H ϩ channel is available in functional osteoclasts, the effects of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), an activator for protein kinase C, on the H ϩ channel were examined in murine osteoclasts generated in the presence of soluble RANKL (sRANKL) and macrophage-colony stimulating factor (M-CSF). Results and Conclusions:Whole cell recordings clearly showed that the H ϩ current was enhanced by increasing the pH gradient across the plasma membrane (⌬pH), indicating that the H ϩ channel changed its activity by sensing ⌬pH. The reversal potential (V rev ) was a valuable tool for the real-time monitoring of ⌬pH in clamped cells. In the permeabilized patch, PMA (10 nM-1.6 M) increased the current density and the activation rate, slowed decay of tail currents, and shifted the threshold toward more negative voltages. In addition, PMA caused a negative shift of V rev , suggesting that intracellular acidification occurred. The PMA-induced cell acidosis was confirmed using a fluorescent pH indicator (BCECF), which recovered quickly in a K