We synthesized cyclic chiral compounds [()/()-D2s] by linking a photoresponsive bisbenzothienylethene (BTE) moiety with an axially chiral binaphthyl moiety. Chiral nematic liquid crystals (N*-LCs) were prepared by adding chiral compounds as dopants to host N-LCs. These N*-LCs exhibited reversible chirality inversion upon photoisomerization between the open and closed forms of the BTE moiety.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA 71-year-old man presented to our hospital with abdominal pain. He was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. Peritoneal washing cytology(CY)was positive, and laparotomy findings revealed severe inflammatory changes of pancreatitis, suggesting a high likelihood of the need for combined resection of other organs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cold agglutinin disease can cause the agglutination of red blood cells and hemolytic anemia due to cold temperature. Herein, we report a case of progressive hemolytic anemia due to cold agglutinin disease during fluid resuscitation and in the absence of exposure to cold.
Case Presentation: A 71-year-old Japanese man was admitted to the emergency department with signs of hypotension and disturbed consciousness.
Dialysis patients are at increased risk of ischemic colitis and are likely to develop irreversible ischemic colitis. We report a rare case of ischemic colitis after the closure of a temporary ileostomy for low anterior resection(LAR)of rectal cancer in a dialysis patient. A 77-year-old man undergoing maintenance dialysis was diagnosed as having colorectal cancer with a type 2 tumor at the anastomosis site of high anterior resection performed for sigmoid colon cancer 14 years ago.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFour disease-specific induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines were respectively derived from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of two affected individuals in a family affected by familial neurohypophyseal diabetes insipidus carrying the c.314G>C mutation. The expression of pluripotency markers (NANOG, OCT4, and SOX2), maintenance of a normal karyotype, absence of episomal vectors used for iPSC generation, and presence of the original pathogenic mutation were confirmed for each iPSC line.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency (OTCD) is the most common urea cycle disorder. Late-onset OTCD manifests after the neonatal period; therefore, if pre-symptomatic diagnosis and treatment are performed, it can improve the prognosis by preventing hyperammonemia. However, pre-symptomatic diagnosis is unreliable as the specific screening marker of OTCD has not been established yet.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe generated three disease-specific iPSC lines from a Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) patient and three control iPSC lines from an unaffected blood relative of the patient using unutilized lymphoblastoid B cell lines (LCLs) as a cell resource. The expression of pluripotency markers, retaining of normal karyotype of chromosome, absence of episomal vectors used for generating the iPSCs and EBV used for generating LCLs, and the potential to differentiate into three germ layers, were confirmed for each iPSC line. These iPSC lines can be useful for construction of the disease models in vitro, and elucidation of the disease mechanisms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDefinitive treatment of stroke constitutes an important thesis of regenerative medicine in the cerebrovascular field. However, to date, no cell therapy products for stroke are yet on the market. In this study, we examined the clinical research trends related to cell therapy products in the stroke field based on data obtained from the ClinicalTrials.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCollecting sufficient quantities of primary neural crest cells (NCCs) for experiments is difficult, as NCCs are embryonic transient tissue that basically does not proliferate. We successfully induced NCCs from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in accordance with a previously described method with some modifications. The protocol used in this study efficiently produced large amounts of iPSC-derived NCCs (iPSC-NCCs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn 18-month-old boy was diagnosed with late-onset ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency. Genetic analysis revealed a mosaic frameshift mutation (p.Q279fs) in the gene.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this study, we demonstrated an improvement in the detection sensitivity of dual-comb spectroscopy using the repetition rate multiplication of optical frequency combs. We compared the dual-comb signals in three dual-comb setups consisting of combinations of two combs with and without mode-filtering, and investigated how the repetition rate influences the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of dual-comb measurements. The dual-comb setups using high-repetition-rate combs enabled the absorption lines of HCN gas to be measured with a high SNR in a short averaging time, and real-time spectral data acquisition was realized using a low-sensitivity and low-resolution RF spectrum analyzer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDry eye disease (DED) is a common disorder causing discomfort and ocular fatigue. Corneal nerves are compromised in DED, which may further cause loss of corneal sensation and decreased tear secretion. Semaphorin 3A (Sema3A) is expressed by the corneal epithelium under stress, and is known as an inhibitor of axonal regeneration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: No optimal methods for short-term hepatocyte preservation have been established. We have recently developed a prominent oxygen-permeable bag (Tohoku Device [TD]) for pancreatic islet culture and transplantation. In this study, we investigated whether TD is also effective for hepatocyte preservation and tried to optimize other conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF: Congenital dysfibrinogenemia refers to the presence of a dysfunctional fibrinogen molecule, typically because of mutations in the fibrinogen gene. About 20% of fibrinogen gene mutations are responsible for thrombosis. Here, we described the case of a 17-year-old Japanese boy, who had a sudden stroke because of superior sagittal sinus thrombosis associated with dysfibrinogenemia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper describes a new fabrication method for obtaining anisotropic spherical hydrogel microparticles with different types of extracellular matrix (ECM) hemispheres for use in 3D cell culture. To fabricate the microparticles, a mixture of an ECM precursor solution and sodium alginate is ejected into a calcium chloride solution under large centrifugal acceleration by a centrifuge-based microfluidic device; the calcium alginate hydrogel plays a significant role as a "sacrificial gelation template" to maintain the ECM molecules in each hemisphere. This fabrication method enables gaining control of the hemispherical volume, density, and type of ECM.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNon-carious cervical lesions (NCCLs) were examined in 6541 extracted human teeth and classified based on the morphology of the lesions. As a result, NCCLs were found on 38.7% of teeth (41.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCultures of epithelial cells are limited by the proliferative capacity of primary cells and cell senescence. Herein we show that primary human epithelial cell sheets cultured without dermal equivalents maintained homeostasis in vitro for at least 1 year. Transparency of these sheets enabled live observation of pigmented melanocytes and Fluorescent Ubiquitination-based Cell Cycle Indicator (FUCCI) labeled epithelial cells during wound healing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCorneal blindness is the fourth leading cause of blindness in the world. Current treatment is allogenic corneal transplantation, which is limited by shortage of donors and immunological rejection. Skin-derived precursors (SKPs) are postnatal stem cells, which are self-renewing, multipotent precursors that can be isolated and expanded from the dermis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWorkplace air concentrations of formaldehyde (FA) in medical facilities where FA and FA-treated organs were stored and handled were measured before and during working hours and assessed by the official method specified by Work Environment Measurement Law. Sixty-percent of the total facilities examined were judged as inappropriately controlled work environment. The concentrations of FA before working hours by spot sampling were found to exceed 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBronchiolitis obliterans is a small-airway obstructive lung disease for which immunologically mediated pathogenesis is supposed. Frequent association of bronchiolitis obliterans with paraneoplastic pemphigus is well known, but its association with other autoimmune bullous diseases has not been reported except for a case of anti-laminin-332-type mucous membrane pemphigoid in a patient with chronic graft-versus-host disease. We report a case of non-paraneoplastic autoimmune subepidermal bullous disease associated with fatal bronchiolitis obliterans in a patient without transplantation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe present a Doppler-free high-resolution dual-comb spectroscopy technique in which a dual-comb system is employed to perform optical-optical double-resonance (OODR) spectroscopy. In our experimental study, Doppler-free high-resolution and high-frequency-accuracy broadband measurements were realized using the proposed OODR dual-comb spectroscopic technique, which does not require high-power-per-mode frequency combs. We observed fully resolved hyperfine spectra of 5P - 4D, 4D transitions of Rb at 1530 nm and precisely determined the absolute frequencies of the transitions, with an uncertainty of less than 1 MHz.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe demonstrate rapid characterization of complex optical properties of solids via dual-comb spectroscopy (DCS) in the near-infrared region. The fine spectral structures in the complex refractive index of an Er:YAG are successfully deduced using the developed system and Fourier analysis. Moreover, simultaneous determination of the refractive index and the thickness is demonstrated for a silicon semiconductor wafer through the use of multireflected echo signals.
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