Characterization of Salivary Microbiota in Japanese Patients with Oral Cancer.

This study aimed to characterize salivary microbiota in patients with oral cancer using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. DNA was extracted from saliva samples of 23 patients with oral cancer and 95 age-matched controls. A metagenomic analysis was performed using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing.

Lethal male combats in Schizotetranychus brevisetosus (Acari: Tetranychidae) on blue Japanese oak (Quercus glauca).

Male spider mites (Acari: Tetranychidae) guard preimaginal quiescent females to reserve paternity. In a few species of Stigmaeopsis that make densely woven silky nests on the surface of host plants, mature males attack and even kill rivals to gain their rights to inseminate young females in the nest. Here we report that the adult males of Schizotetranychus brevisetosus (Acari: Tetranychidae), whose web nest construction behavior evolved independently from Stigmaeopsis spp.

Evaluation of streptococcal toxic shock-like syndrome caused by group B streptococcus in adults in Japan between 2009 and 2013.

Infection with Streptococcus agalactiae has long been recognized in infants. In recent years, S. agalactiae is an important cause of morbidity and mortality among adults and among those with underlying medical condition.

Experimental transplantation of corneal epithelium-like cells induced by Pax6 gene transfection of mouse embryonic stem cells.

Purpose: Corneal epithelial stem cells are deficient in cases of limbal disorders, leading to conjunctival epithelial ingrowth, vascularization, and eventually visual disturbance. We introduced the eye development-associated transcription factor pax6 to embryonic stem (ES) cells and tested whether pax6-transfected cells resembling purified corneal epithelial cells were applicable as a cell source for corneal transplantation.

Methods: pax6 cDNA with green fluorescence protein was electrotransfected to ES cells and the cells were cultured with G418 for 14 days.

Transplantation of myocyte precursors derived from embryonic stem cells transfected with IGFII gene in a mouse model of muscle injury.

Background: Reconstruction of skeletal muscle tissue is hampered by the lack of availability of functional substitution of the tissue.

Methods: Embryonic stem (ES) cells were transfected with the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) II gene and were selected with G418. The resultant cell clones were analyzed regarding their myogenic differentiation in vitro and in vivo.

Induction of epithelial progenitors in vitro from mouse embryonic stem cells and application for reconstruction of damaged cornea in mice.

Purpose: Severe ocular surface diseases and injuries cause loss of the corneal limbal epithelium, leading to re-epithelialization by bulbar conjunctival cells, resulting in vascularization of the cornea, conjunctival scarring, and loss of visual acuity. In this study, the optimal culture condition for induction of differentiation of epithelial progenitor cells from embryonic stem (ES) cells was determined for use in transplantation to damaged cornea in mice.

Methods: Mouse ES cells were cultured on Petri dishes coated with several extracellular matrix proteins, and the markers for epithelial cells were analyzed with RT-PCR and Western blot analysis.