Exploring feasibility of fNIRS to assess delayed inhibition effect of prefrontal cortex for acute stress by acupuncture on GV20: a pilot study.

Introduction: Acupuncture on the acupuncture point GV20 has been considered effective for managing psychoneurological disorders since ancient times, and GV20 is now regularly used to treat stress-related diseases (SRDs), including psychoneurological disorders. Although reports indicating that acupuncture stimulation of GV20 alone regulates cerebral blood flow (CBF) in brain regions associated with SRDs have been scattered, from the perspective of the need for earlier action, the effects on subjective stress as self-reported in the stress state of healthy individuals and CBF changes in related prefrontal cortex (PFC) subregions, which is based as underlying mechanism, remain unclear. Therefore, there is a need to explore effective methods for analyzing such effects.

Muscle Quality as a Potential Diagnostic Marker of Advanced Liver Fibrosis in Patients with Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

Background: Muscle-liver crosstalk plays an important role in the development and progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The measurement of muscle echo-intensity during ultrasonography is a real-time, non-invasive method of assessing muscle quality. In this retrospective study, we investigated the significance of poor muscle quality (namely, a greater mass of non-contractile tissue, including intramuscular fat) as a risk factor for advanced liver fibrosis and considered whether it may represent a useful tool for the diagnosis of advanced liver fibrosis.

Macrophage specific restoration of the Nrf2 gene in whole-body knockout mice ameliorates steatohepatitis induced by lipopolysaccharide from Porphyromonas gingivalis through enhanced hepatic clearance.

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) derived from Porphyromonas gingivalis (P.g.), which causes periodontal disease, contributes to the development of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

Improvement of low-intensity long-time running performance in rats by intake of glucosyl hesperidin.

Recently, the use of ergogenic aids in sports by both athletes and fans has increased. Moreover, the overall demand for new ergogenic aids has increased. Hesperidin is a polyphenol that is useful for improving exercise performance by activating energy generation through β-oxidation and oxidative phosphorylation in skeletal muscles.

A Cross-Sectional Pilot Study on Food Intake Patterns Identified from Very Short FFQ and Metabolic Factors Including Liver Function in Healthy Japanese Adults.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a growing health problem, and rapid diet assessment is required for personal nutrition education. This pilot study aimed to clarify associations between current food intake patterns identified from the short food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and metabolic parameters, including liver function. We conducted a cross-sectional study on Japanese non-alcoholic residents of Tokyo and surrounding districts, 20 to 49 years of age.

Risk factors for residual pain after ligament reconstruction and tendon interposition on osteoarthritis of the first carpometacarpal joint.

Background: Ligament reconstruction and tendon interposition (LRTI) is currently the most performed procedure for osteoarthritis (OA) of the thumb carpometacarpal (CMC) joint. In general, satisfactory outcomes are expected, although some patients complain of residual pain after LRTI. The objective of this study is to determine the factors associated with residual pain.

Taurine supplementation enhances endurance capacity by delaying blood glucose decline during prolonged exercise in rats.

Taurine enhances physical performance; however, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. This study examined the effect of taurine on the overtime dynamics of blood glucose concentration (BGC) during endurance exercise in rats. Male F344 rats were subjected to transient treadmill exercise until exhaustion following 3 weeks of taurine supplementation or non-supplementation (TAU and CON groups).

-acetyltaurine and Acetylcarnitine Production for the Mitochondrial Acetyl-CoA Regulation in Skeletal Muscles during Endurance Exercises.

During endurance exercises, a large amount of mitochondrial acetyl-CoA is produced in skeletal muscles from lipids, and the excess acetyl-CoA suppresses the metabolic flux from glycolysis to the TCA cycle. This study evaluated the hypothesis that taurine and carnitine act as a buffer of the acetyl moiety of mitochondrial acetyl-CoA derived from the short- and long-chain fatty acids of skeletal muscles during endurance exercises. In human subjects, the serum concentrations of acetylated forms of taurine (NAT) and carnitine (ACT), which are the metabolites of acetyl-CoA buffering, significantly increased after a full marathon.

Prevention of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis by long-term exercise via the induction of phenotypic changes in Kupffer cells of hyperphagic obese mice.

Exercise ameliorates nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) by inducing phenotypic changes in Kupffer cells (KCs). p62/Sqstm1-knockout (p62-KO) mice develop NAFLD alongside hyperphagia-induced obesity. We evaluated (1) the effects of long-term exercise on the foreign-body phagocytic capacity of KCs, their surface marker expression, and the production of steroid hormones in p62-KO mice; and (2) whether long-term exercise prevented the development of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in p62-KO mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD).

An Antioxidant Nanoparticle Enhances Exercise Performance in Rat High-intensity Running Models.

Although the adverse effects of excessively generated reactive oxygen species (ROS) on the body during aerobic exercise have been debated, there are few reports on the remarkable effects of the application of conventional antioxidants on exercise performance. The conventional antioxidants could not enhance exercise performance due to their rapid excretion from the body and serious adverse effects on the cellular respiratory system. In this study, impact of the original antioxidant self-assembling nanoparticle, redox-active nanoparticle (RNP), is investigated on the exercise performance of rats during running experiments.

The Production of a Rat Model That Inhibits Phosphoenolpyruvate Carboxykinase (PEPCK), a Rate-Limiting Enzyme of Hepatic Gluconeogenesis.

We previously showed that taurine administration contributed to the extension of time to exhaustion through exercise-induced hypoglycemia restraint, and we suggested that the activation of hepatic gluconeogenesis was initiated before the exercise with the taurine administration. We hypothesize that the extension effect of exercise duration with the taurine administration is restrained in the rats which inhibited hepatic gluconeogenesis. In this study, we aimed to produce a rat model that inhibited hepatic gluconeogenesis as a first step in testing our hypothesis.

Self-assembly processes of octahedron-shaped PdL cages.

Self-assembly processes of three octahedron-shaped [Pd6L12]12+ cages were investigated by an NMR-based quantitative approach. As to the on-pathway of the Pd6L12 cage assembly, the final intramolecular ligand exchange in an incomplete cage, [Pd6L12Py*]12+ (Py*: 3-chloropyridine, which was used as a leaving ligand), is the rate-determining step in the self-assembly of all the three [Pd6L12]12+ cages. Contrary to the previous finding that the self-assembly of [PdmL2m]2m+ structures (m = 2, 3) and [Pd6L8]12+ capsules from rigid multitopic ligands efficiently takes place without the formation of kinetically trapped species under mild conditions, in the self-assembly of the [Pd6L12]12+ cages, even relatively rigid ditopic ligands co-produced 100 nm-sized kinetic traps through off-pathways, which would be because the energy landscape becomes more complicated by increasing the number of components in the final assembly.

Self-Assembly Processes of Octahedron-Shaped PdL Cages.

The self-assembly processes of two kinds of octahedron-shaped ML cages consisting of cis-protected Pd(II) complexes and organic tritopic ligands were investigated. Whether kinetically trapped species larger than the cages are produced or the ML cage is assembled without the formation of such kinetic traps is determined by a balance between the rates of oligomerization and intramolecular cyclization, which is affected by slight changes in the chemical structure of the tritopic ligand. A numerical analysis of the experimental data based on a reaction network model where 249 reactions between the possible 56 species were considered revealed the self-assembly pathways of one of the two ML cages.

Three-dimensional model of intracellular and intercellular Ca waves propagation in endothelial cells.

Intracellular and intercellular Ca waves play key roles in cellular functions, and focal stimulation triggers Ca wave propagation from stimulation points to neighboring cells, involving localized metabolism reactions and specific diffusion processes. Among these, inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP) is produced at membranes and diffuses into the cytoplasm to release Ca from endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In this study, we developed a three-dimensional (3D) simulation model for intercellular and intracellular Ca waves in endothelial cells (ECs).

Optimization of memory use of fragment extension-based protein-ligand docking with an original fast minimum cost flow algorithm.

The need to accelerate large-scale protein-ligand docking in virtual screening against a huge compound database led researchers to propose a strategy that entails memorizing the evaluation result of the partial structure of a compound and reusing it to evaluate other compounds. However, the previous method required frequent disk accesses, resulting in insufficient acceleration. Thus, more efficient memory usage can be expected to lead to further acceleration, and optimal memory usage could be achieved by solving the minimum cost flow problem.

Nuclear factor (erythroid derived 2)-like 2 activation increases exercise endurance capacity via redox modulation in skeletal muscles.

Sulforaphane (SFN) plays an important role in preventing oxidative stress by activating the nuclear factor (erythroid derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) signalling pathway. SFN may improve exercise endurance capacity by counteracting oxidative stress-induced damage during exercise. We assessed running ability based on an exhaustive treadmill test (progressive-continuous all-out) and examined the expression of markers for oxidative stress and muscle damage.

Effect of BCAA supplement timing on exercise-induced muscle soreness and damage: a pilot placebo-controlled double-blind study.

Background: The aim of the present study was to compare the effects of branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) supplementation taken before or after exercise on delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD).

Methods: Fifteen young men (aged 21.5±0.

Exercise training enhances in vivo clearance of endotoxin and attenuates inflammatory responses by potentiating Kupffer cell phagocytosis.

The failure of Kupffer cells (KCs) to remove endotoxin is an important factor in the pathogenesis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). In this study, the effects of exercise training on KC function were studied in terms of in vivo endotoxin clearance and inflammatory responses. Mice were allocated into rest and exercise groups.

Comparative genomics of the tardigrades Hypsibius dujardini and Ramazzottius varieornatus.

Tardigrada, a phylum of meiofaunal organisms, have been at the center of discussions of the evolution of Metazoa, the biology of survival in extreme environments, and the role of horizontal gene transfer in animal evolution. Tardigrada are placed as sisters to Arthropoda and Onychophora (velvet worms) in the superphylum Panarthropoda by morphological analyses, but many molecular phylogenies fail to recover this relationship. This tension between molecular and morphological understanding may be very revealing of the mode and patterns of evolution of major groups.

Spresso: an ultrafast compound pre-screening method based on compound decomposition.

Motivation: Recently, the number of available protein tertiary structures and compounds has increased. However, structure-based virtual screening is computationally expensive owing to docking simulations. Thus, methods that filter out obviously unnecessary compounds prior to computationally expensive docking simulations have been proposed.

Cytoprotective Role of Nrf2 in Electrical Pulse Stimulated C2C12 Myotube.

Regular physical exercise is central to a healthy lifestyle. However, exercise-related muscle contraction can induce reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) production in skeletal muscle. The nuclear factor-E2-related factor-2 (Nrf2) transcription factor is a cellular sensor for oxidative stress.

Non-inferiority of silodosin 4 mg once daily to twice daily for storage symptoms score evaluated by the International Prostate Symptom Score in Japanese patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia: a multicenter, randomized, parallel-group study.

Objectives: To compare the effect of treatment with silodosin 4 mg once daily versus that of silodosin 4 mg twice daily on storage symptoms in Japanese patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Methods: A prospective, multicenter, 12-week, open-labeled study randomized a total of 268 men aged 50 years or older with benign prostatic hyperplasia and overactive bladder to silodosin 4 mg/day or 8 mg/day. Changes in the end-points of the average value of International Prostate Symptom Score, quality of life index in the International Prostate Symptom Score, Overactive Bladder Symptom Score and urodynamic parameters were evaluated.

Combined effect of branched-chain amino acids and taurine supplementation on delayed onset muscle soreness and muscle damage in high-intensity eccentric exercise.

Background: Previous studies have evaluated the effectiveness of branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) supplementation for preventing delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and muscle damage induced by eccentric exercise, their findings have been inconclusive. Since taurine has anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects, the present study investigated the combined effect of BCAA and taurine on DOMS and muscle damage.

Methods: Thirty-six untrained male subjects (22.