title: [Recent advance in neuroimmunology].
abstract: Many important reports have been published during these several years in Japan in the field of neuroimmunology. Serum vascular endothelial factor (VEGF) levels in Crow-Fukase (POEMS) syndrome were about 15 to 30 times than those in the control subjects and other neurological disorders. The overproduction of VEGF may be relevant to the pathogenesis of most of the manifestations including neuropathy. We speculate that VEGF may affect the blood nerve barrier by increasing microvascular hyperpermeability and thereby increasing endoneural pressure subsequent to edema. In Isaacs' syndrome, voltage-gated potassium channel (VGKC) were suppressed by anti-VGKC antibodies. The patch clamp study indicate that the pathophysiology of the suppression of VGKC seems to be due to the increased degradation of VGKC. By the recent nationwide survey, the total number of HTLV-I-associated myelopathy (HAM) patients in Japan is now estimated as 1,432. A most likely pathological mechanism of HAM is that cytotoxic T lymphocytes attack the HTLV-I infected lymphocytes infiltrating the central nervous system, resulting a surrounding nervous tissue damage by bystander mechanism.
authors.affiliation: 3rd Department of Interna Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kagoshima University.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Arimura
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Osame
mesh_terms: D001323:Autoantibodies; D002199:Capillary Permeability; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000166:cytology / Q000821:virology; D016228:Endothelial Growth Factors; D005207:Fasciculation / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D051656:KCNQ Potassium Channels; D051657:KCNQ1 Potassium Channel; D008222:Lymphokines; D015213:Neuroimmunomodulation; D016878:POEMS Syndrome / Q000209:etiology; D015493:Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic / Q000276:immunology; D015221:Potassium Channels / Q000276:immunology; D024642:Potassium Channels, Voltage-Gated; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A; D042442:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D016228:Endothelial Growth Factors; D051656:KCNQ Potassium Channels; D051657:KCNQ1 Potassium Channel; C496909:KCNQ1 protein, human; D008222:Lymphokines; D015221:Potassium Channels; D024642:Potassium Channels, Voltage-Gated; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A; D042442:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors