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Kyoto University (kyoto + university)

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Medical Sciences75%

Terms modified by Kyoto University

  • kyoto university hospital
    		•

    Selected Abstracts

    Yersinia pseudotuberculosis infection in breeding monkeys: detection and analysis of strain diversity by PCR

    JOURNAL OF MEDICAL PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 3 2002
    T. Kageyama
    In the last three decades, several monkeys reared in outdoor/indoor,outdoor breeding colonies and cages of the Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, died of yersiniosis caused by Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, necessitating introduction of a method to detect the bacteria rapidly and thus allow preventive measures to be undertaken. A rapid nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method for identification of Y. pseudotuberculosis in fecal samples and a random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)-PCR approach for distinguishing between bacterial strains were therefore developed. Yersinia pseudotuberculosis isolates from monkey specimens were found to be classifiable into several types. To determine the source of infection, hundreds of fecal samples of wild rats, pigeons, and sparrows were collected from around the breeding colonies and cages, and subjected to PCR analyses. Yersinia pseudotuberculosis was detected in 1.7% of the fecal samples of wild rats. The DNA fingerprints of the bacteria revealed by RAPD-PCR were the same as that of one strain isolated from macaques, suggesting the wild rat to be a possible source of infection. [source]

    Current role of liver transplantation for the treatment of urea cycle disorders: A review of the worldwide English literature and 13 cases at Kyoto University

    LIVER TRANSPLANTATION, Issue 11 2005
    Daisuke Morioka
    To address the current role of liver transplantation (LT) for urea cycle disorders (UCDs), we reviewed the worldwide English literature on the outcomes of LT for UCD as well as 13 of our own cases of living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) for UCD. The total number of cases was 51, including our 13 cases. The overall cumulative patient survival rate is presumed to be more than 90% at 5 years. Most of the surviving patients under consideration are currently doing well with satisfactory quality of life. One advantage of LDLT over deceased donor liver transplantation (DDLT) is the opportunity to schedule surgery, which beneficially affects neurological consequences. Auxiliary partial orthotopic liver transplantation (APOLT) is no longer considered significant for the establishment of gene therapies or hepatocyte transplantation but plays a significant role in improving living liver donor safety; this is achieved by reducing the extent of the hepatectomy, which avoids right liver donation. Employing heterozygous carriers of the UCDs as donors in LDLT was generally acceptable. However, male hemizygotes with ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency (OTCD) must be excluded from donor candidacy because of the potential risk of sudden-onset fatal hyperammonemia. Given this possibility as well as the necessity of identifying heterozygotes for other disorders, enzymatic and/or genetic assays of the liver tissues in cases of UCDs are essential to elucidate the impact of using heterozygous carrier donors on the risk or safety of LDLT donor-recipient pairs. In conclusion, LT should be considered to be the definitive treatment for UCDs at this stage, although some issues remain unresolved. (Liver Transpl 2005;11:1332,1342.) [source]

    Age-specific functions of Stone Handling, a solitary-object play behavior, in Japanese Macaques (Macaca fuscata)

    AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 3 2007
    Charmalie A.D. Nahallage
    Abstract Stone handling (SH) in Japanese macaques, a form of solitary-object play, is newly acquired only by young individuals, and is the first example of a directly nonadaptive behavior that is maintained as a behavioral tradition within free-ranging provisioned social troops. We report here the first systematic investigation of this behavior in a stable captive social troop, the Takahama troop, which is housed in an outdoor enclosure of the Primate Research Institute (PRI), Kyoto University, Japan. This study was conducted to evaluate relevant competing hypotheses regarding the function of object play (e.g., misdirected foraging behavior and motor training) to explain the proximal causes and ultimate function(s) of SH. The "misdirected foraging behavior" hypothesis can be ruled out because of the lack of a clear temporal relationship between feeding and the occurrence of SH in any age class. Age-related differences in SH performance and behavioral patterns were observed, suggesting possible differences in the immediate cause and ultimate function between young and adults. Young individuals engaged in frequent bouts of short duration, involving locomotion and vigorous body actions throughout the day, which is typical for play by young in general. This pattern of behavior is consistent with the motor training hypothesis, which states that play occurs during the development of motor and perceptual skills and is thus potentially critical for neural and cognitive development. This practice is continued by those who acquire it at an early age, with adults engaging in significantly fewer but longer bouts that involve more stationary, complex manipulative patterns, almost exclusively in the late afternoon. We propose that for adults, at the proximate level SH is psychologically relaxing, but ultimately functions to maintain and regenerate neural pathways, and potentially helps to slow down the deterioration of cognitive function associated with advanced age in long-lived provisioned and captive macaques. Am. J. Primatol. 69:1,15, 2007.© 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

    Numerical Study of a Bio-Centrifugal Blood Pump With Straight Impeller Blade Profiles

    ARTIFICIAL ORGANS, Issue 2 2010
    Guoliang Song
    Abstract Computational fluid dynamic simulations of the flow in the Kyoto-NTN (Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan) magnetically suspended centrifugal blood pump with a 16-straight-bladed impeller were performed in the present study. The flow in the pump was assumed as unsteady and turbulent, and blood was treated as a Newtonian fluid. At the impeller rotating speed of 2000 rpm and flow rate of 5 L/min, the pump produces a pressure head of 113.5 mm Hg according to the simulation. It was found that the double volute of the pump has caused symmetrical pressure distribution in the volute passages and subsequently caused symmetrical flow patterns in the blade channels. Due to the tangentially increasing pressure in the volute passages, the flow through the blade channels initially increases at the low-pressure region and then decreases due to the increased pressure. The reverse flow and vortices have been identified in the impeller blade channels. The high shear stress of the flow in the pump mainly occurred at the inlet and outlet of the blade channels, the beginning of the volute passages and the regions around the tips of the cutwater and splitter plate. Higher shear stress is obtained when the tips of the cutwater and splitter plate are located at the impeller blade trailing edges than when they are located at the middle of the impeller blade channel. It was found that the blood damage index assessed based on the blood corpuscle path tracing of the present pump was about 0.94%, which has the same order of magnitude as those of the clinical centrifugal pumps reported in the literature. [source]