Publications by authors named "Ayako Ito"

Article Synopsis
  • Macroautophagy involves creating structures called autophagosomes for cellular cleanup, and disrupting their closure has unknown effects.
  • Researchers created mice with a specific mutation that impairs autophagosome closure, resulting in various issues like protein buildup and growth problems, though some survive into adulthood.
  • The study found that this mutation causes the buildup of a protein (TBK1) on forming autophagosomes, leading to increased phosphorylation and aggregation of other proteins, suggesting a new role for these structures in managing cellular waste.
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Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) and bone morphogenic proteins (BMPs) play various important roles in the development of the central nervous system. However, the roles of FGF and BMP signaling in the development of the olfactory bulb (OB) are largely unknown. In this study, we first showed the expression of FGF receptors (FGFRs) and BMP receptors (BMPRs) in OB RGCs, radial glial cells (RGCs) in the developing OB, which generate the OB projection neurons, mitral and tufted cells.

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The patient was a 27-year-old man. He was referred to our hospital because he was aware of a mass in his abdomen. An abdominal ultrasound showed a 70-mm mass lesion.

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Slowly digestible carbohydrates are needed for nutritional support in diabetic patients with malnutrition. They are a good source of energy and have the advantage that their consumption produces a low postprandial peak in blood glucose levels because they are slowly and completely digested in the small intestine. A high-amount isomaltomegalosaccharide containing carbohydrate (H-IMS), made from starch by dextrin dextranase, is a mixture of glucose polymers which has a continuous linear structure of α-1,6-glucosidic bonds and a small number of α-1,4-glucosidic bonds at the reducing ends.

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Chronic olfactory inflammation (COI) in conditions such as chronic rhinosinusitis significantly impairs the functional and anatomical components of the olfactory system. COI induced by intranasal administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) results in atrophy, gliosis, and pro-inflammatory cytokine production in the olfactory bulb (OB). Although chronic rhinosinusitis patients have smaller OBs, the consequences of olfactory inflammation on OB neurons are largely unknown.

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The fate of neurons in the developing brain is largely determined by the combination of transcription factors they express. In particular, stem cells must follow different transcriptional cascades during differentiation in order to generate neurons with different neurotransmitter properties, such as glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons. In the mouse cerebral cortex, it has been shown that large Maf family proteins, MafA, MafB and c-Maf, regulate the development of specific types of GABAergic interneurons but are not expressed in glutamatergic neurons.

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Purpose: To investigate the association between urine culture before transperineal prostate biopsy and post-biopsy febrile urinary tract infection (fUTI).

Patients And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 307 patients who underwent urine culture before transperineal prostate biopsy between April 2017 and September 2020. Patients with indwelling urinary catheters (n=7) were excluded.

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Introduction: We examined the prevalence, pathological findings, and oncological outcomes of incidental bladder cancer found on cystoscopy among patients eligible for prostate biopsy (PB).

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 803 patients who underwent cystoscopy prior to PB between January 2010 and September 2020. In cases of bladder tumor-like findings on cystoscopy, biopsy or transurethral resection of the bladder tumor was performed.

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Article Synopsis
  • Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, prompting a study on whether evaluating insulin and glucagon functions can identify women likely to experience glucose intolerance after GDM.
  • In the research, 56 women with GDM underwent a glucose tolerance test shortly after delivery, followed by classification into normal glucose tolerance (NGT) or impaired glucose tolerance/diabetes (IGT/DM) one year later.
  • Key findings showed that those with IGT/DM had lower insulin responses and less glucagon suppression, indicating that specific hormonal imbalances can predict glucose intolerance and assist in managing postpartum care for women with GDM.
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Article Synopsis
  • Mitochondrial diabetes mellitus (MDM) is a type of diabetes inherited from the mother, leading to insulin secretion issues, hearing loss, and microvascular complications due to impaired ATP production in pancreatic cells.
  • The study aims to evaluate the effects of 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) combined with sodium ferrous citrate on glucose tolerance in 5 patients with MDM, hoping to improve insulin secretion and overall glycemic control.
  • If successful, this research could pave the way for new treatment options for MDM, potentially enhancing patient outcomes and management of the disease.
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The proportion of Gleason pattern (GP) 4 prostate cancers at prostate biopsy has a clinically significant impact on risk stratification for patients with prostate cancer. In pathological diagnosis including GP 4, a biopsy Gleason score (GS) of 3+4 has a more favorable prognosis than a GS of 4+3 and 4+4. However, the discrepancy between biopsy and prostatectomy specimens is well known.

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  • This study investigates the role of glucagon response after meals in affecting postprandial glucose levels in type 1 diabetes patients, an area not well understood compared to type 2 diabetes.
  • A total of 34 type 1 diabetes and 23 type 2 diabetes patients participated in a mixed meal tolerance test, where glucagon, glucose, and C-peptide levels were measured.
  • Results showed that glucagon levels increased similarly in type 1 and type 2 diabetes patients after eating, and higher glucagon levels were linked to increased blood glucose levels in type 1 diabetes, suggesting that glucagon dysregulation contributes to post-meal hyperglycemia regardless of remaining beta-cell function.
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Generation of neuronal diversity is a biological strategy widely used in the brain to process complex information. The olfactory bulb is the first relay station of olfactory information in the vertebrate central nervous system. In the olfactory bulb, axons of the olfactory sensory neurons form synapses with dendrites of projection neurons that transmit the olfactory information to the olfactory cortex.

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A contribution of epigenetic modifications to B cell tolerance has been proposed but not directly tested. Here we report that deficiency of ten-eleven translocation (Tet) DNA demethylase family members Tet2 and Tet3 in B cells led to hyperactivation of B and T cells, autoantibody production and lupus-like disease in mice. Mechanistically, in the absence of Tet2 and Tet3, downregulation of CD86, which normally occurs following chronic exposure of self-reactive B cells to self-antigen, did not take place.

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The pathogenesis of seborrhoeic dermatitis is controversial and remains unclear. Malassezia is considered to be a commensal fungi and is found not only in the stratum corneum but also in hair follicles. It is an important pathogenic factor in seborrhoeic dermatitis.

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Background: Older patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have an increased risk of bone fracture independent of their bone mineral density (BMD), which is explained mainly by the deteriorated bone quality in T2DM compared to that in non-diabetic adults. Sodium-glucose co-transporter (SGLT) 2 inhibitors have been studied in several trials in T2DM, and the Canagliflozin Cardiovascular Assessment Study showed an increased fracture risk related to treatment with the SGLT2 inhibitor canagliflozin, although no evidence of increased fracture risk with treatment with other SGLT2 inhibitors has been reported. The mechanism of the difference in the fracture risk between the SGLT2 inhibitors is unknown, but the differences among the SGLT2 inhibitors in the selectivity of SGLT2 against SGLT1 may affect bone metabolism, since among the SGLT2 inhibitors the selectivity of canagliflozin is lowest.

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Patients with Graves disease (GD) tend to gain weight after treatment, but it remains unknown if weight gain is associated with an increase in the visceral and/or subcutaneous fat areas (VFA, SFA). We enrolled 25 newly diagnosed GD patients (22 females, median age 33.0 years) and studied their clinical parameters, and VFA and SFA measured by a dual bioelectric impedance analysis.

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Objective: Exenatide once weekly (ExeOW) is one of the long-acting glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists. Embedding exenatide in poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) microspheres enables the once-weekly subcutaneous injection of exenatide as a treatment for diabetes. We report a case of a patient with type 2 diabetes and hypothyroidism who developed long-standing subcutaneous nodules after treatment by ExeOW injection.

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Hypothyroidism is not commonly considered a cause of hyperkalemia. We previously reported that hyperkalemia was observed mainly in elderly patients treated with renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAS) inhibitors when levothyroxine treatment was withdrawn for the thyroidectomized patients with thyroid carcinoma to undergo radioactive iodine treatment. Here, we investigated whether acute hypothyroidism causes hyperkalemia in patients who were not treated with RAS inhibitors.

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Synopsis of recent research by authors named "Ayako Ito"

  • - Ayako Ito's research primarily focuses on the interplay of signaling pathways in the development and pathology of the olfactory bulb, particularly the roles of fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) and bone morphogenic proteins (BMPs) in neuronal development.
  • - Recent studies demonstrated that suppression of BMP signaling can mitigate the developmental impairments caused by FGF signaling deficits, highlighting critical developmental factors in the central nervous system.
  • - Additionally, Ito's work explores the pathological effects of chronic olfactory inflammation on neuron morphology, showing the consequences of chronic rhinosinusitis on the olfactory system's structure and function.