Publications by authors named "M Takikawa"

All-trans retinoic acid (atRA), a metabolite of vitamin A, reduces hepatic lipid accumulation in liver steatosis model animals. Lipophagy, a new lipolysis pathway, degrades a lipid droplet (LD) via autophagy in adipose tissue and the liver. We recently found that atRA induces lipophagy in adipocytes.

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Austocystin D is a natural compound that induces cytochrome P450 (CYP) monooxygenase-dependent DNA damage and growth inhibition in certain cancer cell lines. Cancer cells exhibiting higher sensitivity to austocystin D often display elevated CYP2J2 expression. However, the essentiality and the role of CYP2J2 for the cytotoxicity of this compound remain unclear.

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Article Synopsis
  • Zinc is essential for various biological processes, but chronic kidney disease (CKD) often leads to decreased zinc levels (hypozincemia), which can worsen CKD progression.
  • In a rat model of CKD, researchers found that while zinc absorption was impaired, a protein involved in zinc transport (ZIP4) was actually upregulated, suggesting other factors were at play.
  • They identified elevated phosphate levels as a key inhibitor of zinc absorption, and managing phosphate levels could help improve zinc status in CKD patients.
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The guanine-rich stretch of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) forms a G-quadruplex (G4) in a fraction of genic and intergenic chromosomal regions. The probability of G4 formation increases during events causing ssDNA generation, such as transcription and replication. In turn, G4 abrogates these events, leading to DNA damage.

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Nanotherapeutics has emerged as the most sought after approach to tackle the menace of drug-resistant pathogenic bacteria. Among others, biogenic silver nanoparticles (bAgNPs) synthesized using medicinal plant extracts demonstrate promising antibacterial propensity with excellent biocompatibility. Herein, bAgNPs were synthesized through the green chemistry approach using leaf extract as a reducing agent at different pH values (i.

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