Increased effects of ginsenosides on the expression of cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase but not the bile salt export pump are involved in cholesterol metabolism.

An extract from red ginseng [steamed and dried roots of Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer (RGE)] has been shown to have various actions on physiological functions.

The causative factors or characteristics of the Asian double eyelid: an anatomic study.

Purpose: To clarify the causative factor of Asian double eyelid.

Design: Experimental anatomic study.

Participants: Twenty-six upper eyelids (13 right and 13 left) from 17 Japanese cadavers (9 males and 8 females, mean age at death: 73.

Gold-titanium(IV) oxide plasmonic photocatalysts prepared by a colloid-photodeposition method: correlation between physical properties and photocatalytic activities.

Colloidal gold (Au) nanoparticles were prepared and successfully loaded on titanium(IV) oxide (TiO(2)) without change in the original particle size using a method of colloid photodeposition operated in the presence of a hole scavenger (CPH). The prepared Au nanoparticles supported on TiO(2) showed strong photoabsorption at around 550 nm due to surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of Au and exhibited a photocatalytic activity in mineralization of formic acid in aqueous suspensions under irradiation of visible light (>ca. 520 nm).

Alteration in plasma protein binding properties of propranolol and flurbiprofen during development of adjuvant-induced arthritis in rats.

Adjuvant-induced arthritis (AA) in the rat is used as a model for rheumatoid arthritis. In AA rats, the pharmacokinetics of various drugs is affected due to the alterations of plasma protein binding of drugs. We choose propranolol (PL) and flurbiprofen (FP) as model basic and acidic drugs, respectively, and investigated the effect of AA induction on their plasma protein binding at each developing stage of inflammation.

Preaponeurotic fat advancement for prevention of unexpected higher eyelid crease in upper eyelid-lengthening surgery.

Purpose: To present a modified technique based on preaponeurotic fat advancement for preventing higher eyelid crease in upper eyelid-lengthening surgery.

Methods: Outcomes of Japanese patients with Graves' orbitopathy-related upper eyelid retraction who underwent transcutaneous upper eyelid-lengthening surgery were reviewed. The minimum follow-up period was 6 months.

Switching of myosin-V motion between the lever-arm swing and brownian search-and-catch.

Motor proteins are force-generating nanomachines that are highly adaptable to their ever-changing biological environments and have a high energy conversion efficiency. Here we constructed an imaging system that uses optical tweezers and a DNA handle to visualize elementary mechanical processes of a nanomachine under load. We apply our system to myosin-V, a well-known motor protein that takes 72 nm 'hand-over-hand' steps composed of a 'lever-arm swing' and a 'brownian search-and-catch'.

No histological evidence of orbicularis oculi muscle hypertrophy in congenital epiblepharon.

Background: To analyse the microscopic anatomy of the orbicularis oculi muscle in patients with congenital epiblepharon and to determine whether hypertrophy of the orbicularis oculi muscle, which is considered as a possible cause of this eyelid malposition, exists.

Methods: Sixty-seven eyelids with congenital epiblepharon of 41 Japanese patients, as well as 30 control eyelids of 24 Japanese patients with other eyelid pathologies (upper eyelid: fourteen blepharoptosis, one trichiasis and two retractions; lower eyelid: five involutional entropions, one trichiasis and seven retractions) were analysed. These controls contained no orbicularis pathology such as cicatrization or orbitopathy.

Upper eyelid retraction disclosed after edrophonium chloride administration in a patient with Graves' orbitopathy and myasthenia gravis.

Patients with Graves' orbitopathy have a higher probability of myasthenia gravis than does the normal population. Overlapping clinical features cause diagnostic confusion in such a situation. We herein report a patient with Graves' orbitopathy and myasthenia gravis (GO-MG) with normal left eyelid height, but in whom upper eyelid retraction was shown after edrophonium chloride administration.

Levator aponeurosis sandwich flap for reconstruction of upper eyelid defect.

A 72-year-old woman suffered from a sebaceous gland carcinoma on her left upper eyelid. The tumour was 13 × 5 mm without metastasis. The tumour was excised with a 5-mm safety margin, resulting in a large, full-thickness defect in which almost all of the tarsal plate, approximately half of the orbicularis oculi muscle, and part of the levator aponeurosis were lost.

Lacrimal sac septum.

A right orbit was exenterated from a male cadaver that was 85 years of age at death. It was microscopically shown for the first time that the lacrimal sac septum divided the lumen into two spaces. It consisted of fibrous tissue with a cavernous structure and was lined with stratified columnar epithelium similar to the lacrimal sac wall.

Corynebacterium ulcerans 0102 carries the gene encoding diphtheria toxin on a prophage different from the C. diphtheriae NCTC 13129 prophage.

Background: Corynebacterium ulcerans can cause a diphtheria-like illness, especially when the bacterium is lysogenized with a tox gene-carrying bacteriophage that produces diphtheria toxin. Acquisition of toxigenicity upon phage lysogenization is a common feature of C. ulcerans and C.

Horner's muscle contribution to lacrimal sac drainage.

Purpose: This study was designed to examine the anatomical relationship between Horner's muscle and the lacrimal sac at 3 representative levels of the lacrimal sac and to verify the contribution of Horner's muscle to lacrimal sac drainage.

Methods: Seven ocular specimens from 7 elderly Japanese cadavers, fixed in 10% buffered formalin, were analyzed. Axial sections were made parallel to the eyelid margin at 1 mm above the upper eyelid margin, 1 mm below the lower eyelid margin, and 3 mm below the lower eyelid margin.

Inferior oblique muscle origin: horizontal location in relation to ala nasi and its gender difference.

We studied the horizontal location of the inferior oblique muscle (IOM) origin in relation to the ipsilateral ala nasi and compared the results between genders in 76 orbits of 38 Japanese cadavers. Consequently, the IOM origin was located 1.2 mm laterally to the vertical line through the lateral margin of the ipsilateral ala nasi.

Anatomical relationship of Horner's muscle origin and posterior lacrimal crest.

Purpose: This study was designed to examine the distance from the posterior lacrimal crest to the posterior margin of the Horner's muscle origin (the PLC-HMO distance), considering their complex anatomical relationship.

Methods: Eight macroscopic specimens from 8 Japanese cadavers and 7 microscopic specimens from 7 Japanese cadavers, fixed in 10% buffered formalin, were analyzed. Macroscopically, the PLC-HMO distance was measured at 2 mm superior to the most posterior point of the muscle origin (Group A), directly at the most posterior point (Group B) and 2 mm inferior to the most posterior point (Group C).

Anatomy of Tenons capsule.

Background:   The microscopic and macroscopic anatomy of the anterior and posterior Tenons capsule is described.

Methods:   An observational anatomic study of twelve orbits of 6 cadavers (mean age 79.5 years) were examined microscopically and 8 orbits of 4 cadavers (mean age 76.

Congenital dacryocystocele: comparative findings of dacryoendoscopy and histopathology in a patient.

A full-term baby girl showed a bluish mass at birth in the right medial canthal area. She later demonstrated dacryocystitis and cellulitis. Although probing was performed, it was unsuccessful, and the dacryocystitis and cellulitis worsened.

[Antimicrobial activity and frequency of spontaneous gentamicin-resistant mutants in bacteria related skin infections].

Gentamicin is used in an ointment form for the treatment of skin infections. To investigate the effect of gentamicin used as an ointment, the antimicrobial susceptibilities against Staphylococcus aureus, coagulase-negative staphylococci, Streptococcus pyogenes, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from community and medical settings were studied and compared with other antibacterial agents such as fradiomycin, chloramphenicol, and bacitracin used as active ingredient for each ointment. Gentamicin showed antibacterial activities for all standard bacteria tested, but fradiomycin and chloramphenicol showed no such activities for St.

Long-term remission of ocular and extraocular manifestations in Behçet's disease using infliximab.

Objectives: To investigate the long-term effect of infliximab on ocular and extraocular manifestations in patients with Behçet's disease.

Methods: Seven patients with active Behçet's disease and treated with infliximab at Aichi Medical University Hospital for more than 18 months were included in the study. We evaluated visual acuity, the average number of uveitis attacks involving the posterior segment, and general disease activity every 2 months.

Choroidal and optic disc metastases from breast cancer and their response to combination pharmacotherapy with tamoxifen, cyclophosphamide hydrate, letrozole, and bevacizumab.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to report a patient with choroidal and optic disc metastases from breast cancer and the response to combination pharmacotherapy with tamoxifen, cyclophosphamide hydrate, letrozole, and bevacizumab.

Methods: We report a case of a 51-year-old woman with a medical history of breast cancer treated with mastectomy at 16 years earlier followed by 5'-deoxy-5-fluorouridine and tamoxifen for 12 years, who has been followed by annual check-up, with no additional findings. Two weeks prior to her first visit to our hospital, she noted blurred and abnormal color vision and field loss in her right eye.

Collaborative study for the calibration of a replacement International Standard for Tetanus Toxoid Adsorbed.

We present the results of a collaborative study for the establishment of a replacement International Standard (IS) for Tetanus Toxoid Adsorbed. Two candidate preparations were included in the study, one of which was established as the 4th IS for Tetanus Toxoid Adsorbed at the WHO Expert Committee on Biological Standardization meeting in October 2010. This preparation was found to have a unitage of 490 IU/ampoule, based on calibration in guinea pig challenge assays.

Punctal and canalicular anatomy: implications for canalicular occlusion in severe dry eye.

Purpose: To characterize the microscopic anatomy of the lacrimal punctum and canaliculi in relation to the tarsal plate, muscle of Riolan, and Horner muscle; and to report a novel technique to excise the horizontal canaliculus in severe dry eye patients.

Design: Observational anatomic study and a retrospective case series.

Methods: The microscopic anatomy was studied in 86 eyelids of 25 cadavers (age range: 45-96 years, mean: 79.

Prevalence of Corynebacterium ulcerans in dogs in Osaka, Japan.

Diphtheria-like human illness caused by Corynebacterium ulcerans is an emerging threat in developed countries, with incidence sometimes higher than that of diphtheria caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae. Companion animals are considered a potential source of human infections. In order to determine the prevalence of C.

In vitro and in vivo small intestinal metabolism of CYP3A and UGT substrates in preclinical animals species and humans: species differences.

Intestinal first-pass metabolism has a great impact on the bioavailability of cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A) and/or uridine 5'-diphosphate (UDP)-glucoronosyltranferase (UGT) substrates in humans. In vitro and in vivo intestinal metabolism studies are essential for clarifying pharmacokinetics in animal species and for predicting the effects of human intestinal metabolism. We review species differences in intestinal metabolism both in vitro and in vivo.