Publications by authors named "Kunihiko Souma"

Introduction: Patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) are known to develop an acute exacerbation (AE) after surgery. Previous studies have evaluated the predictors of postoperative AE. However, it remains unclear whether the results of those studies can be generalised to patients with different types of ILD and/or extrapolated to those who undergo non-pulmonary surgery.

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Naftopidil, an α-1 adrenoceptor antagonist with few adverse effects, is prescribed for prostate hyperplasia. Naftopidil inhibits prostate fibroblast proliferation; however, its effects on lung fibroblasts and fibrosis remain largely unknown. Two normal and one idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis human lung fibroblast lines were cultured with various naftopidil concentrations with or without phenoxybenzamine, an irreversible α-1 adrenoceptor inhibitor.

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Lung fibroblasts play a pivotal role in pulmonary fibrosis, a devastating lung disease, by producing extracellular matrix. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) suppress numerous genes post-transcriptionally; however, the roles of miRNAs in activated fibroblasts in fibrotic lungs remain poorly understood. To elucidate these roles, we performed global miRNA-expression profiling of fibroblasts from bleomycin- and silica-induced fibrotic lungs and investigated the functions of miRNAs in activated lung fibroblasts.

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