Okayama University Medical School Acta Medica Okayama 0386-300X 50 6 1996 Increased endothelial and epidermal thrombomodulin expression and plasma thrombomodulin level in progressive systemic sclerosis. 293 297 EN Hitoshi Mizutani Tatsuya Hayashi Nobuhiro Nouchi Shin Inachi Koji Suzuki Masayuki Shimizu Article 10.18926/AMO/30479 <p>To clarify the relation between systemic and cutaneous vascular endothelial injury in progressive systemic sclerosis (PSS), we examined thrombomodulin (TM) expression in PSS skin lesions immuno-histopathologically and compared it with plasma soluble TM levels measured by specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The plasma soluble TM level in PSS patients was significantly higher than that of normal controls and was as high as the levels of SLE patients. In relation to disease activities, the plasma TM levels of sclerotic phase PSS patients were significantly higher than that of atrophic phase PSS patients. The plasma samples with anti-Scl-70 antibody showed a high TM level than samples with anti-centromere antibody or anti-RNP antibody. Barnett's types or systemic corticosteroid treatment did not affect the TM level. Histopathologically, the dermal endothelial TM expression significantly increased in the sclerotic skin and moderately increased in the non-sclerotic skin of PSS compared with that of normal control skin. In addition, immunoreactive TM expression in the epidermis also increased in PSS. Disease activity-dependent elevation of plasma TM levels and immuno-histopathological expression of TM suggested generalized endothelial and epidermal cell involvement in PSS, and compensation in part by overproduction of TM by endothelial cells.</p> No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

Acta Medica Okayama 2008 Responses of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and pain threshold changes in the orofacial region upon cold pressor stimulation in normal volunteers. EN Koji Suzuki No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.