Cigarette smoke extract and heated tobacco products promote ferritin cleavage and iron accumulation in human corneal epithelial cells.

The cornea is directly exposed to cigarette smoke, and smoking is a risk factor for several corneal diseases including dry eye syndrome. Currently, heated tobacco products (HTPs) are widely used as substitutes for cigarette smoking around the world. In the present study, we investigated the molecular mechanism(s) leading to cellular injury induced by cigarette smoke extract (CSE) or HTPs.

SMN Protein Contributes to Skeletal Muscle Cell Maturation Caspase-3 and Akt Activation.

Background/aim: In spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), systemic deficiency of survival motor neurons (SMN) caused by loss or mutation of SMN1 leads to SMA symptoms. SMA was, for a long time, considered as a selective motor-neuron disease. However, accumulated evidence suggests that skeletal muscle cells are affected by low levels of SMN protein.

Effects of anti-osteoporosis drugs against dexamethasone-induced osteoporosis-like phenotype using a zebrafish scale-regeneration model.

There are several animal models of glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (GIOP), but each requires a long time to evaluate drug effects. Zebrafish scales are classified as dermal bone and potentially represent a convenient animal model of GIOP because they rapidly regenerate following their removal. We clarified that dexamethasone-treated regenerating scales showed malformations, decreased size and circularity.