Development of intestinal organoids and microphysiological systems and their application to drug discovery.

The intestines are an important organ with a variety of functions. For drug discovery research, experimental animals and Caco-2 cells derived from a human colon carcinoma may be used to evaluate the absorption and safety of orally administered drugs. These systems have issues, such as species differences with humans in experimental animals, variations in gene expression patterns, very low drug-metabolizing activities in Caco-2 cells, and the recent trend toward reduced animal testing.

Air-liquid interface culture combined with differentiation factors reproducing intestinal cell structure formation in vitro.

Reproducing intestinal cells in vitro is important in pharmaceutical research and drug development. Caco-2 cells and human iPS cell-derived intestinal epithelial cells are widely used, but few evaluation systems can mimic the complex crypt-villus-like structure. We attempted to generate intestinal cells mimicking the three-dimensional structure from human iPS cells.

Cathode Design Based on Nitrogen Redox and Linear Coordination of Cu Center for All-Solid-State Fluoride-Ion Batteries.

All-solid-state fluoride-ion batteries (FIBs) have attracted extensive attention as candidates for next-generation energy storage devices; however, promising cathodes with high energy density are still lacking. In this study, CuN is investigated as a cathode material for all-solid-state fluoride-ion batteries, which offers enough anionic vacancies around the 2-fold coordinated Cu center for F intercalation, thereby enabling a multielectron-transferred fluorination process. The contribution of both cationic and anionic redox to charge compensation, in particular, the generation of molecular nitrogen species in highly charged states, has been proved by several synchrotron-radiation-based spectroscopic technologies.

Autologous Rib Grafts for Sternal Reconstruction After Excision of a Chondrosarcoma.

Sternal chondrosarcoma is a rare malignant condition. Although surgical resection is crucial, the reconstruction of sternal defects is challenging. A 64-year-old male patient with a history of 2 separate sternal tumor resections received a diagnosis of sternal chondrosarcoma recurrence.

Robotic Portal Segmentectomy in the Right Middle Lobe After Right Upper Lobectomy.

Although segmentectomy is the standard surgical procedure for small-sized peripheral non-small cell lung cancer, reports on segmentectomy for right middle robe are rare because of the anatomical feature. We report a case of an 81-year-old woman with a history of left S4 segmentectomy, left basal segmentectomy, and right upper lobectomy for multiple primary lung cancer with a part solid nodule in S4a. Owing to the increased volume of the right middle lobe following a right upper lobectomy, a right S4 segmentectomy was performed.