Publications by authors named "M Otsu"
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates the effects of a specific oncogenic variant of the KRAS gene (G13C) on human hematopoietic stem or progenitor cells (HPCs) to understand potential pre-malignant characteristics in patients with RAS-associated diseases.
- Researchers used induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from patients to create two groups of HPCs—one with the wild-type KRAS and the other with the KRAS (G13C) mutation—to comparably analyze their behavior in lab tests.
- Results showed that the KRAS (G13C)-mutant HPCs exhibited altered differentiation, abnormal responses to cytokine stimulation, and increased expression of certain proteins, leading to potential therapeutic targets
This study aimed to expand our understanding of myelin basic protein (MBP), a key component of central nervous system myelin, by developing a protocol to track and quantifying individual MBP particles during oligodendrocyte (OL) differentiation. MBP particle directionality, confinement, and diffusion were tracked by rapid TIRF and HILO imaging of Dendra2 tagged MBP in three stages of mouse oligodendroglia: OL precursors, early myelinating OLs, and mature myelinating OLs. The directionality and confinement of MBP particles increased at each stage consistent with progressive transport toward, and recruitment into, emerging myelin structures.
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- Researchers aimed to create a machine learning tool to automatically assess frailty in elderly heart failure patients, addressing the inconsistency of subjective frailty scales.
- The study involved 417 patients aged 75 and older, using smartphone technology to analyze body motion and determine frailty scores based on key physical features.
- Results showed that the machine learning model demonstrated strong agreement with actual frailty assessments and that higher frailty scores predicted an increased risk of death over a follow-up period.
Purpose: Restricted kinematic alignment (rKA) is a modified technique of kinematically aligned total knee arthroplasty (TKA) within a safe alignment range for long-term implant survivorship. The purpose of this study was to clarify (1) the distribution of functional knee phenotypes in patients who underwent TKA in Japan and (2) whether the application of this classification results in anatomically neutral alignment after rKA TKA.
Methods: Overall, 114 TKA surgeries (mechanical alignment [MA]: 49; rKA: 65) were performed.
Interest in small molecules that target RNA is flourishing, and the expectation set on them to treat diseases with unmet medical needs is high. However, several challenges remain, including difficulties in selecting suitable tools and establishing workflows for their discovery. In this context, we optimized experimental and computational approaches that were previously employed for the protein targets.
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