Preventive Roles of Rice- Extracts and Ergothioneine on Anxiety- and Pain-like Responses under Psychophysical Stress Conditions in Male Mice.

This study determined the effect of daily administration of Rice- on anxiety and nociception in mice subjected to repeated forced swim stress (FST). In a parallel experiment, it was determined whether ergothioneine (EGT) contained in Rice- displayed similar effects. Anxiety and nociception were assessed behaviorally using multiple procedures.

Intake of Improves Defecation Frequency in Healthy Adults.

Reportedly, the intake of , a beverage made from steamed rice fermented by , improves defecation frequency. However, its functional ingredients and mechanism of action remain unclear. To compare the effects of and a placebo beverage on defecation frequency and to identify the functional ingredients and mechanism of action, a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind parallel-group comparative trial was performed on two groups.

Ingredients, Functionality, and Safety of the Japanese Traditional Sweet Drink .

The sweet drink is a fermented food made from and related molds in Japan. There are two types of drinks called , one made from () and the other made from lees, a by-product of (). The sweetness of is from glucose, derived from starch broken down by .

Effect of temperature on saccharification and oligosaccharide production efficiency in koji amazake.

Koji amazake, prepared from rice koji, is a traditional Japanese sweet beverage. The main source of sweetness is glucose derived from rice starch following digestion by enzymes of Aspergillus oryzae during saccharification. The temperature of this process was empirically determined as 45°C-60°C, but no studies have systematically investigated the effect of temperature on saccharification efficiency.

Metabolite profile of koji amazake and its lactic acid fermentation product by Lactobacillus sakei UONUMA.

The koji amazake is a traditional sweet Japanese beverage. It has been consumed for over a thousand years in Japan; nonetheless, little is yet known of the ingredients in koji amazake. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the metabolites of koji amazake using a metabolomics approach.

A novel sphingomyelin/cholesterol domain-specific probe reveals the dynamics of the membrane domains during virus release and in Niemann-Pick type C.

We identified a novel, nontoxic mushroom protein that specifically binds to a complex of sphingomyelin (SM), a major sphingolipid in mammalian cells, and cholesterol (Chol). The purified protein, termed nakanori, labeled cell surface domains in an SM- and Chol-dependent manner and decorated specific lipid domains that colocalized with inner leaflet small GTPase H-Ras, but not K-Ras. The use of nakanori as a lipid-domain-specific probe revealed altered distribution and dynamics of SM/Chol on the cell surface of Niemann-Pick type C fibroblasts, possibly explaining some of the disease phenotype.

Evaluation of aegerolysins as novel tools to detect and visualize ceramide phosphoethanolamine, a major sphingolipid in invertebrates.

Ceramide phosphoethanolamine (CPE), a sphingomyelin analog, is a major sphingolipid in invertebrates and parasites, whereas only trace amounts are present in mammalian cells. In this study, mushroom-derived proteins of the aegerolysin family—pleurotolysin A2 (PlyA2; K(D) = 12 nM), ostreolysin (Oly; K(D) = 1.3 nM), and erylysin A (EryA; K(D) = 1.

Binding of a pleurotolysin ortholog from Pleurotus eryngii to sphingomyelin and cholesterol-rich membrane domains.

A mixture of sphingomyelin (SM) and cholesterol (Chol) exhibits a characteristic lipid raft domain of the cell membranes that provides a platform to which various signal molecules as well as virus and bacterial proteins are recruited. Several proteins capable of specifically binding either SM or Chol have been reported. However, proteins that selectively bind to SM/Chol mixtures are less well characterized.