Changes in neutrophil functions during a 10‐month soccer season and their effects on the physical condition of professional Japanese soccer players

We examined changes in neutrophil function of soccer players over a 10‐month period and determined its effectiveness as an index for athlete physical condition. Subjects included 21 male professional Japanese soccer players. Data on body composition, myogenic enzymes and neutrophil function were obtained before and after 2 h of training at 3 investigation points: one week before opening season, at season mid‐point, and one week before the last game of the season. As a result, change ratios of myogenic enzyme levels before and after the 2‐hr training session at the third investigation point were significantly higher compared to the two other points. Reactive oxygen species production and phagocytic activity significantly increased after 2‐hr training session at point 1, although the extent of the increase became smaller over time and ROS production capability decreased significantly by point 3 assessment. Fatigue, especially muscle fatigue, chronically accumulated along with a gradual decrease in neutrophil immune function over the 10‐month season. Therefore, determination of neutrophil function can be used as a useful index to assess and understand an athlete's physical condition. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Onset and development of cannibalistic behaviour in early life stages of yellowtail

The onset and development of cannibalistic behaviour were observed in early life stages of yellowtail Seriola quinqueradiata . Cannibalistic behaviour was divided into four actions, i.e aim, chase, nip and ingestion. The frequency of chase was used as an index of cannibalistic behaviour because it always appeared in every sequence of cannibalism, although a sequence of cannibalistic behaviour sometimes stopped before nip or ingestion. No cannibalistic behaviour was observed during the larval phase until day 22 after hatching (when fish were 9.6mm T.L.) either in a rearing pond or in experimental tanks. The onset of cannibalistic behaviour was observed on day 23, coinciding with metamorphosis from the larval to juvenile phase, and it developed until day 39, with a tentative decrease between day 33 and day 36. This inverted peak corresponded roughly to the development of schooling behaviour after day 33, which was determined by distance to the nearest neighbour. In the rearing pond, suffocation of a cannibal by its prey, appeared from day 23. Field observation of juvenile yellowtails aggregating around floating seaweeds showed that cannibalism occurred in three out of 10 schools, in which six cannibals were found among 194 fish. Cannibalistic behaviour in early life stages of yellowtail may occur as a final phase of inter-individual interference and may have a role for size selection of a School member.     

Primary malignant lymphoma of the uterine corpus and cervix. Report of a case with immunocytochemical analysis

In a 69-year-old woman, a gynecologic smear was the first indication of the presence of a nonepithelial malignant tumor. While first thought to represent an adenocarcinoma, malignant lymphoma was later cytologically suspected because of the presence of isolated large malignant cells with macronucleoli. The initial clinical and histologic studies failed to indicate a malignancy. The malignant cells in postoperative tissue samples showed a positive immunohistochemical reaction for leukocyte-common antigen (LCA) and a negative reaction for epithelial membrane antigen, confirming the cytologic suggestion of a uterine lymphoma. Immunocytochemical staining subsequently performed on the destained cytologic specimen gave a positive immunoreactivity to LCA in the cytoplasm of the malignant cells.     

Establishment of hybridomas secreting human monoclonal antibodies against tetanus toxin and hepatitis B virus surface antigen

Mouse-human heterohybrids (M X H) were constructed and compared with other cell lines (human or mouse) as parental cells to obtain hybrids secreting human monoclonal antibody (MoAb). One of the M X H lines, HM-5, was far superior to the others and useful for establishing hybrids secreting human MoAb. Using HM-5 as a parental cell line, we have obtained 2 hybrids secreting human anti-tetanus toxoid MoAb with neutralizing activity and a hybrid secreting human anti-hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) MoAb which recognizes the a-determinant of HBsAg.     

A preliminary study of the movements of yellow and silver eels, Anguilla japonica, in the estuary of the Fukui River, Japan, as revealed by acoustic tracking

The behavior and movements of yellow and silver phase Japanese eels were observed using acoustic telemetry in the Fukui River estuary and the adjacent waters of Tachibana Bay, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. The eels were tagged with ultrasonic transmitters and released in the bay, about 300 m from the river mouth in August and November, 1999. All four yellow eels released at the river mouth in August returned to the river. All eels swam further upstream and each stopped at similar locations as the others, which were possibly used as refuges. Each refuge appeared to be a relatively small area (less than 10 m) adjacent to a series of concrete blocks along the shore (100–300 m). These areas were repeatedly utilized by all the yellow eels tracked during the study. The yellow eels spent most of their time in these refuges during daytime and moved predominantly at night. In contrast, a silver eel released in November demonstrated rapid movement towards the sea without stopping after release.