Publications by authors named "I Matsui"
Red yeast rice, traditionally used in Asian cuisine and increasingly marketed as a dietary supplement for cholesterol management, has recently been linked to kidney dysfunction in Japan. In late 2023 to early 2024, multiple cases involving specific Beni-koji (red yeast rice) tablets from three different Beni-koji preparations, prompted a safety reevaluation. Although citrinin, a known nephrotoxin of red yeast rice, was not produced by the implicated strains, new safety concerns emerged.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWith the aging of society, the incidence of chronic kidney disease (CKD), a common cause of death, has been increasing. Transcription factor EB (TFEB), the master transcriptional regulator of the autophagy-lysosomal pathway, is regarded as a promising candidate for preventing various age-related diseases. However, whether TFEB in the proximal tubules plays a significant role in elderly CKD patients remains unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeasonal variations in the association between proteinuria, CKD, and kidney failure.
Nephrol Dial Transplant
November 2024
Article Synopsis
- Proteinuria levels show seasonal changes, being lower in summer and higher in winter, but it's unclear how this affects kidney failure risks.
- A study with over 15,000 patients used statistical models to analyze the relationship between urinary protein levels in different seasons and the incidence of kidney failure.
- Findings indicated winter protein levels are significantly linked to a higher risk of kidney failure compared to summer, emphasizing the importance of considering seasonal variations in managing chronic kidney disease (CKD).
Article Synopsis
- Recent research shows that SLC5A2/SGLT2 inhibitors, like empagliflozin, offer kidney protection in non-diabetic chronic kidney disease (CKD) without clear signs of albuminuria, yet the mechanism of this effect remains unclear.
- The study used various mouse models, including those with obesity and kidney injury, and found that empagliflozin reduced harmful effects like lipotoxicity, inflammation, and fibrosis in kidney tubules by lowering intraglomerular pressure.
- Empagliflozin also decreased albumin reabsorption, improved autophagic processes, and lessened the risk of kidney injury, suggesting that enhancing autophagy is key to the protective effects
Article Synopsis
- Deep learning shows promise in analyzing kidney pathology, but its success relies on having large, well-labeled datasets, which are often hard to create.
- The study utilized a self-supervised learning technique (DINO) on over 10,000 kidney images to extract features, and then tested disease classification using different methods, getting performance metrics like ROC-AUC.
- Results showed that the DINO model excelled in classifying kidney diseases, achieving a ROC-AUC of 0.93 compared to 0.89 for a conventional model, especially maintaining performance even with limited labeled data.