Indirect CRISPR screening with photoconversion revealed key factors of drug resistance with cell-cell interactions.

Comprehensive screenings to clarify indirect cell-cell interactions, such as those in the tumor microenvironment, especially comprehensive assessments of supporting cells' effects, are challenging. Therefore, in this study, indirect CRISPR screening for drug resistance with cell-cell interactions was invented. The photoconvertible fluorescent protein Dendra2 was inducted to supporting cells and explored the drug resistance responsible factors of supporting cells with CRISPR screenings.

Quantitative analysis of organophosphate pesticides and dialkylphosphates in duplicate diet samples to identify potential sources of measured urinary dialkylphosphates in Japanese women.

Increased levels of dialkylphosphates (DAP) in maternal urine are associated with a variety of adverse developmental outcomes in children. Although urinary DAP levels are usually considered to be a marker of exposure to organophosphate (OP) pesticides, excretion of DAP may also increase by ingesting preformed DAP. To date, no study has quantitatively assessed the possible contribution of the dietary intake of preformed DAP and OP pesticides to urinary levels of DAP.

Development and Validation of a Deep Neural Network for Accurate Evaluation of Endoscopic Images From Patients With Ulcerative Colitis.

Background & Aims: There are intra- and interobserver variations in endoscopic assessment of ulcerative colitis (UC) and biopsies are often collected for histologic evaluation. We sought to develop a deep neural network system for consistent, objective, and real-time analysis of endoscopic images from patients with UC.

Methods: We constructed the deep neural network for evaluation of UC (DNUC) algorithm using 40,758 images of colonoscopies and 6885 biopsy results from 2012 patients with UC who underwent colonoscopy from January 2014 through March 2018 at a single center in Japan (the training set).

iPSC-derived functional human neuromuscular junctions model the pathophysiology of neuromuscular diseases.

The control of voluntary skeletal muscle contraction relies on action potentials, which send signals from the motor neuron through the neuromuscular junction (NMJ). Although dysfunction of the NMJ causes various neuromuscular diseases, a reliable in vitro system for disease modeling is currently unavailable. Here, we present a potentially novel 2-step, self-organizing approach for generating in vitro human NMJs from human induced pluripotent stem cells.

Development of red blood cell-photon simulator for optical propagation analysis in blood using Monte Carlo method.

We have developed a "red blood cell (RBC)-photon simulator" to reveal optical propagation in prethrombus blood for various levels of RBC density and aggregation. The simulator investigates optical propagation in the prethrombus blood and will be applied to detect it noninvasively for thrombosis prevention in an earlier stage. In our simulator, Lambert-Beer's law is employed to simulate the absorption of RBCs with hemoglobin, while the Monte Carlo method is applied to simulate scattering through iterative calculations.

Development of optical sensing system for noninvasive and dynamic monitoring of thrombogenic process.

We developed a compact optical sensing system to monitor thrombogenic process noninvasively and dynamically by attaching a sensor on a blood circulating tubing. The system monitors the process for normal, erythrocyte aggregation, emboli, and thrombus formation stages with a continuously measured backscattered light. The system consists of an optical sensing unit, which has an 810-nm-wavelength chip light-emitting diode (LED) and a photodiode, and real-time monitoring software.

Optical measurement of blood hematocrit on medical tubing with dual wavelength and detector model.

Blood hematocrit (Hct) is a clinically important index to detect death-dealing symptoms such as anemia and thrombosis, especially for patients with artificial heart, in dialysis and during open-heart surgery. Optical technology has been applied to monitor hematocrit noninvasively, continuously and conveniently, however, it was not well established for actual use. The purpose of this study is to develop an accurate and stable optical hematocrit measurement without any calibrations for device-mounting errors.

Evaluation of optical propagation in blood for noninvasive detection of prethrombus blood condition.

This article evaluates the optical propagation to detect a "prethrombus" blood noninvasively. Thrombosis is still an inevitable issue in use of blood pumps, and it is required to predict thrombus formation as early as possible. We focused on the red blood cell (RBC) aggregation that is one of the features of thrombogenic process.

Improvement of the accuracy in the optical hematocrit measurement by optimizing mean optical path length.

Optical techniques have been developed to acquire blood information (e.g., hematocrit [Hct], saturation of oxygen, thrombus) noninvasively and continuously in an artificial heart.

Simulator with photon and arbitrarily arranged RBC for hematocrit estimation.

This paper introduces a simulator to estimate density of red blood cells (RBCs) from optical intensity based on blood properties of optical absorption and scattering model. The simulator will be directly used to estimate density of RBC, which is an important index for preventing thrombosis. In this simulator, Lambert-beer's law is used to acquire transmittance of RBCs with hemoglobin absorptance, while Monte Carlo method is used to obtain scattering property through iterative calculations.