Conditioned serum-free culture medium accomplishes adhesion and proliferation of bovine myogenic cells on uncoated dishes.

To establish a sustainable cultured meat technology, a low-cost culture medium must be developed without expensive biological materials such as serum and coating substances. However, even adhering bovine myogenic cells to uncoated culture dishes in the serum-free medium is challenging. We found that serum-free culture medium conditioned by HepG2 and NIH/3T3 cells not only accomplished the cell adhesion on uncoated culture dishes (the serum-containing medium : the serum-free medium : the conditioned medium = 6722 ± 1500 : 2210 ± 319 : 5985 ± 1558 cells/cm), but also induced proliferation comparable to that observed in a serum-containing medium (the serum-containing medium : the serum-free medium : the conditioned medium = 10,050 ± 2814 : 2200 ± 707 : 8998 ± 3890 cells/cm).

Catalytic mechanism underlying the regiospecificity of coumarin-substrate transmembrane prenyltransferases in Apiaceae.

Plant membrane-bound prenyltransferases (PTs) catalyse the transfer of prenyl groups to acceptor substrates, phenols, using prenyl diphosphates as the donor substrate. The presence of prenyl residues in the reaction products, prenylated phenols, is key to the expression of a variety of physiological activities. Plant PTs generally exhibit high specificities for both substrate recognition and prenylation sites, while the molecular mechanism involved in these enzymatic properties is largely unknown.

Development of a Water Soluble Self-assembling Analogue of Vizantin.

Vizantin, 6,6'-bis-O-(3-nonyldodecanoyl)-α,α'-trehalose, has been developed as a safe immunostimulator on the basis of a structure-activity relationship study with trehalose 6,6'-dicorynomycolate. Our recent study indicated that vizantin acts as an effective Toll-like receptor-4 (TLR4) partial agonist to reduce the lethality of an immune shock caused by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). However, because vizantin has low solubility in water, the aqueous solution used in in vivo assay systems settles out in tens of minutes.

Substrate-Dependent Alteration in the C- and O-Prenylation Specificities of Cannabis Prenyltransferase.

CsPT4 is an aromatic prenyltransferase that synthesizes cannabigerolic acid (CBGA), the key intermediate of cannabinoid biosynthesis in Cannabis sativa, from olivetolic acid (OA) and geranyl diphosphate (GPP). CsPT4 has a catalytic potential to produce a variety of CBGA analogs via regioselective C-prenylation of aromatic substrates having resorcylic acid skeletons including bibenzyl 2,4-dihydroxy-6-phenylethylbenzoic acid (DPA). In this study, we further investigated the substrate specificity of CsPT4 using phlorocaprophenone (PCP) and 2',4',6'-trihydroxydihydrochalcone (THDC), the isomers of OA and DPA, respectively, and demonstrated that CsPT4 catalyzed both C-prenylation and O-prenylation reactions on PCP and THDC that share acylphloroglucinol substructures.

Insulin Requirements During Severe COVID-19 Were Relatively Low in Japanese Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: Two Case Reports.

The global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused myriad adverse effects on the pathology of other diseases. Numerous studies on COVID-19 have reported that, in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) who have contracted severe COVID-19, glucose metabolism is exacerbated by multiple factors, such as severe inflammation, beta-cell dysfunction caused by the SARS-CoV-2 infection itself, corticosteroid therapy, vasopressor administration, and enteral or parenteral nutrition. Very high doses of insulin are often required in the acute phase of such patients; however, the factors that affect insulin requirements and to what extent remain unclear.

Catalytic Potential of Prenyltransferase to Expand Cannabinoid Scaffold Diversity.

Biologically active cannabinoids are derived from cannabigerolic acid (CBGA), which is biosynthesized by aromatic prenyltransferase CsPT4. We exploit the catalytic versatility of CsPT4 to synthesize various CBGA analogues, including a geranylated bibenzyl acid, the precursor to bibenzyl cannabinoids of liverwort origin. The synthesized natural and new-to-nature cannabinoids exhibit potent cytotoxicity in human pancreatic cancer cells.

Anti-GAD antibody-positive fulminant type 1 diabetes developed following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination.

Vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have been used worldwide since the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. However, several negative side-effects of these vaccines have been reported. Herein, we present a case of a patient with fulminant type 1 diabetes that developed shortly after administration of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.

Nutrient Rescue of Early Maturing and Deteriorating Satellite Cell-Derived Engineered Muscle Tissue.

Engineered human muscle tissue is a promising tool for tissue models to better understand muscle physiology and diseases, since they can replicate many biomimetic structures and functions of skeletal muscle . We have developed a method to produce contractile muscle sheet tissues from human myoblasts, based on our cell sheet fabrication technique. This study reports that our tissue engineering technique allowed us to discover unique characteristics of human muscle satellite cells as a cell source for our muscle sheet tissue.

Development of serum-free and grain-derived-nutrient-free medium using microalga-derived nutrients and mammalian cell-secreted growth factors for sustainable cultured meat production.

Considering the amount of global resources and energy consumed, and animal welfare issues associated with traditional meat production, cultured meat production has been proposed as a solution to these problems and is attracting worldwide attention. Cultured meat is produced by culturing/proliferating animal muscle cells in vitro. This process requires significant amounts of culture medium, which accounts to a major portion of the production cost.

Sociality of Cats toward Humans Can Be Influenced by Hormonal and Socio-Environmental Factors: Pilot Study.

Individual differences in the sociality of cats are influenced by inherited and environmental factors. We recently revealed that hormones can make a difference in intraspecies social behavior. It remains unclear whether cat behavior toward humans is modulated by hormones.

Engineered Human Muscle Tissue from Multilayered Aligned Myofiber Sheets for Studies of Muscle Physiology and Predicting Drug Response.

In preclinical drug testing, human muscle tissue models are critical to understanding the complex physiology, including drug effects in the human body. This study reports that a multilayering approach to cell sheet-based engineering produces an engineered human muscle tissue with sufficient contractile force suitable for measurement. A thermoresponsive micropatterned substrate regulates the biomimetic alignment of myofiber structures enabling the harvest of the aligned myofibers as a single cell sheet.

Production of scaffold-free cell-based meat using cell sheet technology.

In the production of cell-based meat, it is desirable to reduce animal-derived materials as much as possible to meet the challenges of sustainability. Here, we demonstrate the "cell sheet-based meat": scaffold-free cell-based meat using cell sheet technology and characterize its texture and nutrients. Bovine myoblast cell sheets were prepared using temperature-responsive culture dishes (TRCDs) and 10 stacked cell sheets to fabricate three-dimensional tissue of 1.

Correlations between behavior and hormone concentrations or gut microbiome imply that domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) living in a group are not like 'groupmates'.

Domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) can live in high densities, although most feline species are solitary and exclusively territorial animals; it is possible that certain behavioral strategies enable this phenomenon. These behaviors are regulated by hormones and the gut microbiome, which, in turn, is influenced by domestication. Therefore, we investigated the relationships between the sociality, hormone concentrations, and gut microbiome of domestic cats by conducting three sets of experiments for each group of five cats and analyzing their behavior, hormone concentrations (cortisol, oxytocin, and testosterone), and their gut microbiomes.

Harvest of quality-controlled bovine myogenic cells and biomimetic bovine muscle tissue engineering for sustainable meat production.

Alternative technology for meat production holds the potential to alleviate ethical, environmental, and public health concerns associated with conventional meat production. Cultured meat produced using cell culture technology promises to become a viable alternative to animal-raised meat for the future of the food industry. In this study, biomimetic bovine muscle tissue was artificially fabricated from myogenic cells extracted from bovine meat.

In Vitro Tissue Reconstruction Using Decellularized Pericardium Cultured with Cells for Ligament Regeneration.

Recent applications of decellularized tissues have included the ectopic use of their sheets and powders for three-dimensional (3D) tissue reconstruction. Decellularized tissues are fabricated with the desired functions to employ them to a target tissue. The aim of this study was to develop a 3D reconstruction method using a recellularized pericardium to overcome the difficulties in cell infiltration into tight and dense tissues, such as ligament and tendon tissues.

Proliferation and differentiation of primary bovine myoblasts using Chlorella vulgaris extract for sustainable production of cultured meat.

Recently, cultured meat obtained from livestock-derived cells is being considered as a sustainable food source that reduces the use of natural resources. This study aimed to show that nutrients extracted from Chlorella vulgaris were beneficial in the culture of primary bovine myoblasts (PBMs), a major cell source for cultured meat production. Nutrients (glucose, amino acids, and vitamins) present in the animal-cell culture media were effectively recovered from C.

Contraction Control of Aligned Myofiber Sheet Tissue by Parallel Oriented Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Neurons.

Fabrication and application of engineered complex tissues composed of different types of cells is a crucial milestone in the next phase of tissue engineering. The delicate organization structure of each tissue component and its physiological connections enable all the functions in the human body. In this study, cell sheet-based engineering allowed us to fabricate a complex myofiber sheet tissue using motor neurons derived from human-induced pluripotent stem cells.

Programmed Scale Detachment in the Wing of the Pellucid Hawk Moth, : Novel Scale Morphology, Scale Detachment Mechanism, and Wing Transparency.

No scales of most lepidopterans (butterflies and moths) detach from the wings through fluttering. However, in the pellucid hawk moth, , numerous scales detach from a large region of the wing at initial take-off after eclosion; consequently, a large transparent region without scales appears in the wing. Even after this programmed detachment of scales (d-scales), small regions along the wing margin and vein still have scales attached (a-scales).

Simulated microgravity accelerates aging of human skeletal muscle myoblasts at the single cell level.

Earth's gravity is essential for maintaining skeletal muscle mass and function in the body. The role of gravity in the myogenic mechanism has been studied with animal experiments in the International Space Station. Recently, gravity-control devices allow to study the effects of gravity on cultured cells on the ground.

Terminal cationization of poly(-isopropylacrylamide) brush surfaces facilitates efficient thermoresponsive control of cell adhesion and detachment.

A variety of poly(-isopropylacrylamide) (PIPAAm)-grafted surfaces have been reported for temperature-controlled cell adhesion/detachment. However, the surfaces reported to date need further improvement to achieve good outcomes for both cell adhesion and detachment, which are inherently contradictory behaviors. This study investigated the effects of terminal cationization and length of grafted PIPAAm chains on temperature-dependent cell behavior.

Identification and classification of innexin gene transcripts in the central nervous system of the terrestrial slug Limax valentianus.

Intercellular gap junction channels and single-membrane channels have been reported to regulate electrical synapse and the brain function. Innexin is known as a gap junction-related protein in invertebrates and is involved in the formation of intercellular gap junction channels and single-cell membrane channels. Multiple isoforms of innexin protein in each species enable the precise regulation of channel function.

Enhanced mechanical properties and cell separation with thermal control of PIPAAm-brushed polymer-blend microfibers.

We have developed thermoresponsive microfibers with improved mechanical properties and enhanced temperature modulated-cell separation. Microfiber substrates were electrospun using poly(4-vinylbenzyl chloride) (PVBC)-poly(n-butyl methacrylate) (PBMA) blend materials in different ratios. Although their diameters were similar to those of the PVBC homofibers, polymer-blend microfibers exhibited excellent mechanical properties including non-brittle softness, owing to PBMA with a low T.

Thermally-triggered fabrication of cell sheets for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Cell transplantation is a promising approach for promoting tissue regeneration in the treatment of damaged tissues or organs. Although cells have conventionally been delivered by direct injection to damaged tissues, cell injection has limited efficiency to deliver therapeutic cells to the target sites. Progress in tissue engineering has moved scaffold-based cell/tissue delivery into the mainstream of tissue regeneration.

Uncertainty analysis on free-field reciprocity calibration of measurement microphones for airborne ultrasound.

Airborne ultrasound has been used for various purposes, including object detection and pest repellent systems. Recently, it has been used in haptic technology for virtual reality. The safety of exposure to airborne ultrasound has been studied as its use has increased.

Engineered Human Contractile Myofiber Sheets as a Platform for Studies of Skeletal Muscle Physiology.

Skeletal muscle physiology and the mechanisms of muscle diseases can be effectively studied by an in-vitro tissue model produced by muscle tissue engineering. Engineered human cell-based tissues are required more than ever because of the advantages they bring as tissue models in research studies. This study reports on a production method of a human skeletal myofiber sheet that demonstrates biomimetic properties including the aligned structure of myofibers, basement membrane-like structure of the extracellular matrix, and unidirectional contractile ability.