Publications by authors named "Fujita Haruka"

Activation of thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor (TSHR) fundamentally leads to hyperthyroidism. To elucidate TSHR signaling, we conducted transcriptome analyses for hyperthyroid mice that we generated by overexpressing TSH. TSH overexpression drastically changed their thyroid transcriptome.

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Article Synopsis
  • Cushing disease is caused by pituitary tumors that secrete ACTH, and current treatment options for inoperative cases are limited.
  • A high-throughput screening (HTS) was conducted using a mouse pituitary tumor cell line (AtT-20), leading to the identification of several compounds that significantly inhibited ACTH secretion.
  • Among the identified compounds, thiostrepton showed promising antitumor effects by causing cell cycle arrest and enhancing therapeutic efficacy when combined with other treatments, indicating its potential as a treatment for Cushing disease.
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C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) plays a crucial role in enhancing endochondral bone growth and holds promise as a therapeutic agent for impaired skeletal growth. To overcome CNP's short half-life, we explored the potential of dampening its clearance system. Neprilysin (NEP) is an endopeptidase responsible for catalyzing the degradation of CNP.

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Unreasonable medical fees can cause problems such as increased medical costs, greater medical disparities, decreased medical standards, and physician shortages. To prevent such problems, it is important to set appropriate medical fees, ensure their proper use, and improve the efficiency of medical care. The treatment of patients with maxillofacial defects is generally more expensive compared with general prosthodontic treatment because it involves more materials and requires more frequently follow-ups for longer period.

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Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are used for various malignancies, although they frequently cause immune-related adverse events involving the thyroid gland (thyroid irAEs). We conducted a retrospective cohort study to elucidate thyroid function outcomes. Fifty of 639 patients who received PD-1 blockade therapy met criteria and were divided into the following groups: thyrotoxicosis with subsequent hypothyroidism (Toxic-Hypo, n = 21); thyrotoxicosis without subsequent hypothyroidism (Toxic, n = 9); and hypothyroidism without prior thyrotoxicosis (Hypo, n = 20).

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As society ages, it is important to understand the prevalence of dementia and the difficulties of inserting prostheses in patients with maxillofacial defects in order to clarify issues in supportive care. We screened 183 patients for dementia using the revised Hasegawa's dementia scale (HDS-R) at the Clinic for Maxillofacial prosthetics, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, and investigated age and sex differences in HDS-R score. We asked 47 of the 183 participants about the difficulty of inserting a maxillofacial obturator prosthesis and collected subjective comments, information about the prosthesis, and data from five assessments.

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The effects of smoking on fetal development and stem cell differentiation are not fully understood. Although nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are expressed in many organs of the human body, their significance in human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) remains unclear. After expression levels of nAChR subunits in hiPSCs were determined, the effects of the nAChR agonist, nicotine, on undifferentiated hiPSCs were evaluated using a Clariom S Array.

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Purpose: To identify secular trends in the use of radiotherapy prostheses in the Clinic for Maxillofacial Prosthetics at Tokyo Medical and Dental University Hospital and to ascertain patient characteristics and future needs.

Methods: The study included all patients who visited the clinic between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2019. Data on numbers of cases, gender and age, numbers and types of radiotherapy prostheses, primary cancer site, and time required for prosthesis fabrication during the study period were collected from medical records and retrospectively analyzed.

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Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) frequently cause immune-related adverse events (irAEs) that often involve endocrine organs. Pembrolizumab and atezolizumab are currently administered in combination with chemotherapy for several malignancies. Although transient thyrotoxicosis within 6 weeks after the first ICI dose is the typical course of thyroid irAEs with ICI monotherapy, we encountered a unique course of a thyroid irAE in a patient who received combination therapy consisting of pembrolizumab plus pemetrexed and carboplatin.

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Brachytherapy is a type of radiotherapy used to eradicate malignancies in the head-and-neck region. Early-stage mucosal carcinomas, such as carcinomas of the hard palate and gingival mucosa, can be treated with low-dose-rate brachytherapy by using a radiotherapy prosthesis called a mold. Prosthodontists play a significant role in the design and fabrication of these molds, which deliver therapeutic doses to the primary lesion and protect adjacent tissues from radiation exposure.

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Article Synopsis
  • Zellweger spectrum disorder (ZSD) is a congenital metabolic disease caused by mutations in PEX genes, leading to disrupted peroxisome assembly and affecting multiple organs.
  • The study discovered "peroxisomal mosaicism" in patients with mild ZSD, characterized by varying peroxisome distribution across cell populations, which was reproduced in HEK293 cells using PEX3 gene mutation.
  • Findings suggest that despite oscillations in peroxisome biogenesis over time, some cells retain metabolic function and may offer insights for developing new treatments for ZSD patients with this mosaicism.
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Regulatory mechanisms of iodothyronine deiodinases (DIOs) require further elucidation, and conventional methods for evaluating DIOs are unsuitable for high-throughput screening (HTS). Here we explored factors of transcriptional regulation of 3 types of DIOs (DIO1, DIO2, and DIO3) from a chemical library using our designed HTS. We constructed HTS based on a promoter assay and performed a screen of 2480 bioactive compounds.

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In peripheral tissues, triiodothyronine (T3) production and consequent thyroid hormone actions are mainly regulated by iodothyronine deiodinases (DIOs) classified into 3 types: D1, D2, and D3. We aimed to investigate the effects of peripheral DIOs on thyroid hormone economy independent of the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid axis. We cloned coding sequences of human DIOs with FLAG-tag and HiBiT-tag sequences into a pcDNA3.

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Human language is a multi-componential function comprising several sub-functions each of which may have evolved in other species independently of language. Among them, two sub-functions, or modules, have been claimed to be truly unique to the humans, namely hierarchical syntax (known as "Merge" in linguistics) and the "lexicon." This kind of species-specificity stands as a hindrance to our natural understanding of human language evolution.

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Objective: Programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) blockade therapy, an immune checkpoint treatment, can induce hypophysitis or hypopituitarism as an immune-related adverse event (pituitary irAE). We aimed to clarify the clinical features of pituitary irAEs during PD-1 blockade therapy.

Design, Patients And Measurements: This retrospective study investigated consecutive patients treated with nivolumab, an anti-PD-1 antibody, at Kyoto University Hospital between 1 September 2014 and 31 August 2019.

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Genetic rearrangements of anaplastic lymphoma kinase contribute to the pathogenesis of non-small-cell lung cancer; the anaplastic lymphoma kinase inhibitor, ceritinib, is widely used, as it is effective even in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer resistant to other anaplastic lymphoma kinase inhibitors. Although a case of possible ceritinib-induced hyperglycemia was reported, the association of ceritinib with hyperglycemia remains to be investigated. Disproportionality analysis was carried out using the Japanese Adverse Drug Event Report database, which contains all pharmacovigilance data based on spontaneous reports of adverse events between April 2004 and November 2018 to the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency.

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This case history report describes the long-term prosthodontic treatment of a patient with gnathodiaphyseal dysplasia (GDD). The patient was initially diagnosed with osteomyelitis in the maxilla in 1986, followed by osteonecrosis spread throughout the mandible. GDD was genetically diagnosed in 2006.

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After the accident of the Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant in March 2011, radioactive cesium was released and paddy fields in a wide area including Fukushima Prefecture were contaminated. To estimate the levels of radioactive Cs accumulation in rice produced in Fukushima, it is crucial to obtain the actual data of Cs accumulation levels in rice plants grown in the actual paddy field in Fukushima City. We herein conducted a two-year survey in 2011 and 2012 of radioactive and non-radioactive Cs accumulation in rice using a number of rice cultivars grown in the paddy field in Fukushima City.

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N-Acylhomoserine lactones (AHLs) function as quorum-sensing signaling molecules in many Gram-negative bacteria. We isolated a total of 672 bacterial strains from activated sludge obtained from seven sewage treatment plants in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, and screened for AHL-producing and degrading strains. Isolates (n = 107) stimulated AHL-mediated purple pigment production in AHL reporter strains Chromobacterium violaceum CV026 and VIR07.

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The MED1 subunit of the Mediator transcriptional coregulator complex coactivates GATA1 and induces erythropoiesis. Here, we show the dual mechanism of GATA1- and MED1-mediated transcription. MED1 expression levels in K562 erythroleukemia cells paralleled the levels of GATA1-targeted gene transcription and erythroid differentiation.

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The reduced capacity of flavin-containing monooxygenase 3 (FMO3) to N-oxidize trimethylamine (TMA) is believed to cause a metabolic disorder. The aim of this study was to investigate the inter-individual variations of FMO3. Genomic DNA of case subjects that showed only 10-20% of FMO3 metabolic capacity among self-reported trimethylaminuria Japanese volunteers was sequenced.

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We sequenced all exons and exon-intron junctions of the flavin-containing monooxygenase 3 (FMO3) gene from 2 Japanese individuals and their family members, who were case subjects that showed low FMO3 metabolic capacity among a population of self-reported trimethylaminuria Japanese volunteers. We found two novel single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (21,254 C>A and 24,006 A>G) causing amino acid substitutions, Thr(201)Lys in exon 5 and Met(260)Val in exon 6, respectively. The Thr(201)Lys and Met(260)Val also presented together with known SNPs (Glu(158)Lys-Glu(308)Gly and Val(257)Met, respectively) in the same alleles of the FMO3 gene to form novel haplotypes.

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We have previously examined the impact of perinatal exposure to ethinylestradiol (EE), methoxychlor (MXC), diisononyl phthalate (DINP), and genistein (GEN) in maternal diet on rat offspring, and found developmental and/or reproductive toxicity with 0.5 ppm EE, 1200 ppm MXC, and 20,000 ppm DINP. Although the toxicological profile with MXC was similar to the EE case, the population changes in pituitary hormone-producing cells totally differed between the two cases, changes being evident from 240 ppm with MXC.

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We have previously shown methacarn to be a versatile fixative for analysis of proteins, DNA, and RNA in paraffin-embedded tissues (PETs). In this study we analyzed its suitability for quantitative mRNA expression analysis of microdissected PET specimens using a real-time RT-PCR technique. Fidelity of expression in the methacarn-fixed PET sections, with reference to dose-dependent induction of cytochrome P450 2B1 in the phenobarbital-treated rat liver, was high in comparison with the unfixed frozen tissue case, even after hematoxylin staining.

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