Publications by authors named "Eiichi Hirano"

Background: The placenta extract is used as a dietary supplement. We aimed to investigate the effects of placenta extract on periodontal disease.

Case Presentation: In this study, placenta extract supplements were found to improve the oral environment of young and middle-aged Japanese women undergoing maintenance; after three months of taking placenta extract, bleeding upon probing was reduced.

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Background: Canine corneal disease is a common condition encountered in daily practice. If the depth of corneal damage is limited to the epithelial layer, healing is often straightforward; however, if it extends into the epithelial basement membrane or corneal parenchyma, surgical treatment is the treatment of choice. Moreover, in cases where there is an underlying disease or where the owner refuses surgical treatment, treatment options are often limited to eye drop treatment, which may be inadequate.

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Background: The changes in body image caused by breast deformities and postoperative pain have a detrimental influence on the physical and mental health of patients with breast cancer. The postoperative quality of life (QOL) of these patients reduces significantly owing to the changes in the breast, an organ unique to women, that occur following breast cancer surgery.

Case Presentation: This case report presents the case of a Asian woman in her early 40 s with postoperative hypertrophic scarring and contraction of the scar following mastectomy; the patient presented with decreased range of motion of the upper arm, hyperpigmentation from radiation burns, changes in breast shape, and chronic pain.

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Background: Placental extract has been mostly used in skin care for cosmetic purposes. However, the use of various placental extracts has been limited due to the lack of established and effective application methods.

Objective: In this study, we investigated the antiwrinkle effect of a cream formulation-LNC wrinkle eye cream (LNC-EC)-containing horse placental extract as the main ingredient.

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Background: We report on the clinical management and outcome of an 11-year-old dog diagnosed with suspected refractory immune-mediated anemia (IMHA) and treated with equine placental extract supplementation.

Case Description: The patient had received standard treatment with subcutaneous infusion of prednisone (2 mg/kg) and oral administration (1.3 mg/kg [sid]), with limited success as hematocrit (HCT) values continued to fall rapidly, and the patient continued to have severe symptoms of fatigue.

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Background: Protein-losing enteropathy (PLE) is characterized by leakage of serum proteins into the intestinal lumen, indicating hypoproteinemia. Immunosuppressive agents are the mainstay of treatment, but in many cases, patients are forced to taper off early owing to the induction of liver damage.

Case Description: An 8-year-old, non-spayed female Chihuahua presented with diarrhea and ascites effusion lasting 2 weeks.

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With the aging of pet dogs, there has been an increasing trend in senility-related diseases; additionally, cognitive disorders accompanied by abnormal behaviours are a major burden for owners. Recently, there have been a series of consultations regarding the fact that night barking, which is an abnormal behaviour, remarkably interferes with the owner's sleep and adversely affects the owner's quality of life. However, there has been no effective solution to this problem.

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Background: Human hepcidin, produced by hepatocytes, regulates intestinal iron absorption, iron recycling by macrophages, and iron release from hepatic storage. Recent studies indicate that hepcidin deficiency is the underlying cause of the most known form of hereditary hemochromatosis.

Case Presentation: A 44-year-old Asian man who developed type 2 diabetes mellitus had elevated serum ferritin levels (10,191 ng/mL).

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Objective: Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is involved in the development of proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) and subsequent fibrosis. Previously, we demonstrated that placental extract ameliorates fibrosis in a mouse model of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. In this study, we evaluated whether placental extract influences EMT and fibrosis through cytokine-induced EMT in the retinal pigment epithelial cells, in vitro.

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Human placental extract and animal-derived placental extracts from pigs and horses host a wide range of biological activities. Several placental products are used as medicines, cosmetics, and healthcare substances worldwide. However, the use of placental extracts for neuronal functioning is currently not established because the number of relevant studies is limited.

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We investigated the effects of a heptapeptide, GPPGPAG, on memory improvement and neuritic regeneration in Alzheimer's disease models to evaluate its potency as a new anti-Alzheimer's disease (AD) therapy. The anti-AD effects of GPPGPAG were evaluated in Aβ-treated cortical neurons and 5XFAD, a mouse model of AD. Exposure of cortical neurons to Aβ25-35 for 3 days resulted in atrophy of axons and dendrites.

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Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a severe form of fatty liver disease that is defined by the presence of inflammation and fibrosis, which ultimately leads to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. We previously showed that human placental extract (hPE) was intramuscularly injected to ameliorates liver injury in a methionine- and choline-deficient (MCD) diet-induced NASH model. In the present study, we investigated the effects of hPE using dB/dB mice which exhibit obesity and insulin resistance and are thought to reproduce the pathological background of NASH.

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Cachexia is an intractable metabolic disorder that causes extreme weight loss. It is a symptom of many chronic diseases, including cancer, liver failure, congestive heart failure and chronic kidney disease, and there is as yet no effective treatment. While the mechanisms underlying cachexia are complex, it is often accompanied by elevated angiotensin II (Ang II).

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Aging induces a decline in both memory and learning ability without predisposing an individual to diseases of the central nervous system, such as dementia. This decline can have a variety of adverse effects on daily life, and it can also gradually affect the individual and the people they are surrounded by. Since recent evidence indicated that placental extract has effects on brain function such as memory, we hypothesized that placental extract could ameliorate the age-associated reduction in cognitive function in aging.

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Hepatic iron deposition is seen in cases of chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis, and is a hallmark of a poorer prognosis. Iron deposition is also found in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) patients. We have now developed a mouse model of NASH with hepatic iron deposition by combining a methione- and choline-deficient (MCD) diet with an iron-overload diet.

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Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a severe form of fatty liver disease that is defined by the presence of inflammation and fibrosis, ultimately leading to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Treatment with human placental extract (HPE) reportedly ameliorates the hepatic injury. We evaluated the effect of HPE treatment in a mouse model of NASH.

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Placental extract contains several biologically active compounds, and pharmacological induction of placental extract has therapeutic effects, such as improving liver function in patients with hepatitis or cirrhosis. Here, we searched for novel molecules with an anti-tumor activity in placental extracts. Active molecules were separated by chromatographic analysis, and their antiproliferative activities were determined by a colorimetric assay.

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We purified pyroglutamic acid from human placental extract and identified it as a potent stimulator of rat primary hepatocyte DNA synthesis. Pyroglutamic acid dose-dependently stimulated DNA synthesis, and this effect was inhibited by PD98059, a dual specificity mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 1 (MAP2K1) inhibitor. Therefore, pyroglutamic acid stimulated DNA synthesis in rat primary hepatocytes via MAPK signaling.

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Background: Three-dimensional (3D) in vitro cultures can recapitulate the physiological in vivo microenvironment. 3D Modeling techniques have been investigated and applied in anticancer drug screening.

Materials And Methods: A silicate fiber scaffold was used for 3D cell cultures, and used to model the efficacy of anticancer drugs, such as mytomicin C and doxorubicin.

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Elastin is the extracellular matrix protein in vertebrates that provides elastic recoil to blood vessels, the lung, and skin. Because the elastin gene has undergone significant changes in the primate lineage, modeling elastin diseases in non-human animals can be problematic. To investigate the pathophysiology underlying a class of elastin gene mutations leading to autosomal dominant cutis laxa, we engineered a cutis laxa mutation (single base deletion) into the human elastin gene contained in a bacterial artificial chromosome.

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Diseases linked to the elastin gene arise from loss-of-function mutations leading to protein insufficiency (supravalvular aortic stenosis) or from missense mutations that alter the properties of the elastin protein (dominant cutis laxa). Modeling these diseases in mice is problematic because of structural differences between the human and mouse genes. To address this problem, we developed a humanized elastin mouse with elastin production being controlled by the human elastin gene in a bacterial artificial chromosome.

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Objectives: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is linked to greater insulin resistance. Although HCV itself is a candidate for the development of insulin resistance, the effects of antiviral treatment on impaired glucose metabolism remain unclear. The aim of this study is to examine the effects of clearance of HCV on insulin resistance, beta-cell function, and hepatic expression of insulin receptor substrate (IRS)1/2, central molecules for insulin signaling.

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Cigarette smoking is the strongest risk factor for emphysema. However, sensitivity to cigarette smoke-induced emphysema is highly variable, and numerous genetic and environmental factors are thought to mitigate lung response to injury. We report that the quantity of functional elastin in the lung is an important modifier of both lung development and response to injury.

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Elastofibroma is an uncommon fibroelastic tumor or tumorlike process that usually occurs between the scapula and the chest wall of elderly patients. This condition is rarely reported in the dermatologic literature, because it infrequently arises in the skin or within the subcutaneous tissue. We present a 78-year-old man with 15 separate subcutaneous nodules on the buttocks and upper extremities together with bilateral subscapular nodules.

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Microfibril-associated glycoprotein-36 (MAGP-36) is a recently isolated elastin-binding protein and considered to be a member of microfibril-associated glycoproteins (MAGPs). We studied the expression of MAGP-36 in cultured normal human keratinocytes and its localization in the skin. MAGP-36 was found to be expressed in cultured human keratinocytes by Western blot and RT-PCR assays.

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