Levodopa (L-DOPA) treatment is a clinically effective strategy for improving motor function in patients with ischemic stroke. However, the mechanisms by which modulating the dopamine system relieves the pathology of the ischemic brain remain unclear. Emerging evidence from an experimental mouse model of ischemic stroke, established by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO), suggested that L-DOPA has the potential to modulate the inflammatory and immune response that occurs during a stroke.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling elicits multiple downstream pathways, most notably the Ras/MAPK cascade facilitated by the adaptor protein Grb2. However, the mechanism by which Grb2 is recruited to the FGF signaling complex remains unresolved. Here we showed that genetic ablation of FGF signaling prevented lens induction by disrupting transcriptional regulation and actin cytoskeletal arrangements, which could be reproduced by deleting the juxtamembrane region of the FGF receptor and rescued by Kras activation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAccounting for exposure measurement errors has been recognized as a crucial problem in environmental epidemiology for over two decades. Bayesian hierarchical models offer a coherent probabilistic framework for evaluating associations between environmental exposures and health effects, which take into account exposure measurement errors introduced by uncertainty in the estimated exposure as well as spatial misalignment between the exposure and health outcome data. While two-stage Bayesian analyses are often regarded as a good alternative to fully Bayesian analyses when joint estimation is not feasible, there has been minimal research on how to properly propagate uncertainty from the first-stage exposure model to the second-stage health model, especially in the case of a large number of participant locations along with spatially correlated exposures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAzo compounds such as diethyl azodicarboxylate have been used in oxidative coupling reactions to generate iminium ions from tertiary amines. However, the requirement of stoichiometric amounts of azo compounds limits their large-scale applications. Herein, we present an aerobic oxidative α-cyanation of tertiary amines using catalytic amounts of an azo compound or hydrazine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPaulownin, a natural compound derived from wood, exhibits various physiological functions, including anti-bacterial and anti-fungal effects. However, the impact of paulownin on natural killer (NK) cell immune activity remains largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the effect of paulownin on NK cell activity both and , and explored its potential mechanisms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Despite advancements in reconstructive procedures, ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury remains a significant challenge in reconstructive surgery, with mitochondrial dysfunction playing a pivotal role. Mitochondrial transplantation has emerged as a promising therapeutic strategy to address this issue. This study aims to evaluate the impact of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell-derived mitochondrial transplantation on skin flap I/R models in rats.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBrain arteriovenous malformations (bAVMs) substantially increase the risk for intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), which is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. However, the treatment options for bAVMs are severely limited, primarily relying on invasive methods that carry their own risks for intraoperative hemorrhage or even death. Currently, there are no pharmaceutical agents shown to treat this condition, primarily due to a poor understanding of bAVM pathophysiology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe liquid metal dealloying (LMD) process enables the fabrication of porous metals with various chemical compositions. Despite its advantages, LMD still faces key challenges such as maintaining the high-temperature molten metal bath for a prolonged time, avoiding the use of toxic etchants, and so on. To overcome these challenges, the study develops a water-leachable and oxidation-resistant alloy melt (AM) in Ca-Mg binary system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although the all-inside arthroscopic modified Broström operation (AMBO) and open modified Broström operation (OMBO) for chronic lateral ankle instability (CLAI) showed favorable outcomes up to 1-year short-term follow-up, concerns about the long-term stability of AMBO are still present. Therefore, we aimed to compare midterm outcomes between the 2 methods by extending the observation period.
Methods: Fifty-four patients undergoing ankle surgery between August 2013 and July 2017 were included in the AMBO (n = 37) and OMBO (n = 17) groups.
: No studies have identified combined biomarkers that may be more reasonable for the assessment of current chemo-immunotherapy in patients with extensive stage small-cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC). : This study was conducted to investigate a combined biomarker with prognostic or predictive value in ES-SCLC. We determined the best independent prognostic biomarker among the four complete blood-count-derived inflammatory biomarkers (CBC-IBs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Botulinum toxin is a crucial therapeutic tool with broad indications in both cosmetic and medical fields. However, the expanding cosmetic use and increased dosages of botulinum toxin have raised concerns about resistance, making it essential to study the awareness and management practices among healthcare professionals.
Methods: A survey was conducted among clinical physicians using botulinum toxin.
Recent studies reported the long-term cardiovascular risk of preeclampsia. However, only a few studies have investigated the association between preeclampsia and long-term cardiovascular disease in Asian populations, although there could be racial/ethnic differences in the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the long-term effects of preeclampsia on cardiovascular disease in an Asian population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe antihistamine astemizole has shown disease-modifying effects in several preclinical disease models of Parkinson's disease (PD). Astemizole also interacts with an anomalous aggregation of Alzheimer's disease-related amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide and has inhibitory activity on the human prion protein PrP. We hypothesized that the proposed preclinical benefits of astemizole on PD can be associated with the attenuation of pathological α-synuclein (α-syn) aggregation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Photothermolysis effect, resulting from laser procedures, can cause redness/erythema, skin irritation and burning sensation, these symptoms may persist more than several days after the procedure and leading to discomfort for patients. Proper management is necessary for the better outcome, especially in early period after the laser procedure. Laminin-5 fragment contained soothing cream (CEBELIA Extreme Care®), is believed to have the calming/soothing effect on overheated/irritated skin after undergoing the laser treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAccumulating evidence hints heterochromatin anchoring to the inner nuclear membrane as an upstream regulatory process of gene expression. Given that the formation of neural progenitor cell lineages and the subsequent maintenance of postmitotic neuronal cell identity critically rely on transcriptional regulation, it seems possible that the development of neuronal cells is influenced by cell type-specific and/or context-dependent programmed regulation of heterochromatin anchoring. Here, we explored this possibility by genetically disrupting the evolutionarily conserved barrier-to-autointegration factor (Baf) in the Drosophila nervous system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdipose tissue invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells are a crucial cell type for adipose tissue homeostasis in obese animals. However, heterogeneity of adipose iNKT cells and their function in adipocyte turnover are not thoroughly understood. Here, we investigate transcriptional heterogeneity in adipose iNKT cells and their hierarchy using single-cell RNA sequencing in lean and obese mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The gut-brain axis (GBA) in Parkinson's disease (PD) has only been investigated in limited mice models despite dysbiosis of the gut microbiota being considered one of the major treatment targets for neurodegenerative disease. Therefore, this study examined the compositional changes of fecal microbiota in novel transgenic (Tg) mice overexpressing human α-synuclein (hαSyn) proteins under the neuron-specific enolase (NSE) to analyze the potential as GBA model.
Results: The expression level of the αSyn proteins was significantly higher in the substantia nigra and striatum of NSE-hαSyn Tg mice than the Non-Tg mice, while those of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) were decreased in the same group.