Publications by authors named "Taga M"

Regional neuron loss following stroke can result in remote brain changes due to diaschisis and secondary brain atrophy. Whole brain changes post-stroke can be captured by the predicted brain age difference (brain-PAD), a neuroimaging-derived biomarker of global brain health previously associated with poorer chronic stroke outcomes. We hypothesized that greater lesion damage would be longitudinally associated with worsening brain-PAD during subacute stroke, and conversely, that poorer baseline brain-PAD would be associated with enlarged lesion damage.

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Mechanistic understanding of the formation of clusters plays a role in designing the structure-dependent properties. Based on the fact that anions act as templates to form spherical polyoxovanadates, various structures were reported by changing anions in the synthetic solution. In this work, another factor in the formation of spherical polyoxometalates was demonstrated.

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Background: This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of androgen receptor signaling inhibitors (ARSIs) combined with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for treating castration-sensitive metastatic prostate cancer in Japanese patients, focusing on the effects on time to the development of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) and overall survival (OS).

Methods: This retrospective muti-institutional analysis included 332 patients diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer in Japan between 2018 and 2023. The patients were categorized into two groups: patients receiving ADT combined with ARSI (ARSI group) and those receiving ADT alone or with bicalutamide (ADT group).

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Open-window thoracostomy is an effective treatment for refractory postpneumonectomy empyema. However, it can leave large thoracic dead space, and bronchopleural fistulas (BPF) are a common major complication. These problems can be treated with myocutaneous flap transfer or negative-pressure wound therapy (NPWT).

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Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory and neurodegenerative disease affecting the brain and spinal cord. Genetic studies have identified many risk loci, that were thought to primarily impact immune cells and microglia. Here, we performed a multi-ancestry genome-wide association study with 20,831 MS and 729,220 control participants, identifying 236 susceptibility variants outside the Major Histocompatibility Complex, including four novel loci.

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Article Synopsis
  • Single-nucleus transcriptomic studies have identified specific glial cell states linked to Alzheimer's disease but lack context from the actual structure of the human neocortex.
  • This study used an unbiased analytic strategy to analyze spatially-registered transcriptomic data, finding that certain genes, including metallothioneins, are altered near amyloid plaques.
  • Validation through immunofluorescence showed that a reactive astrocyte subtype, Ast.5, is involved in the environment around these plaques, indicating its potential role in the disease process.
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Cobamides, the vitamin B (cobalamin) family of cofactors, are used by most organisms but produced by only a fraction of prokaryotes, and are thus considered key shared nutrients among microbes. Cobamides are structurally diverse, with multiple different cobamides found in most microbial communities. The ability to use different cobamides has been tested for several bacteria and microalgae, and nearly all show preferences for certain cobamides.

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  • After a stroke affecting the corticospinal tract (CST), individuals often experience motor deficits in their upper extremities, such as decreased muscle strength and control.
  • This study compared 15 stroke patients to 28 healthy individuals, focusing on how the ipsilesional CST and contralesional corticoreticulospinal tract (CReST) relate to motor behaviors in the paretic (weakened) arm.
  • Findings indicated that stronger ipsilesional CST projections improved motor control, while stronger contralesional CReST projections improved muscle strength, suggesting their complementary roles in recovery, regardless of whether deficits were in the arm or hand.
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Radiation exposure causes hepatitis which induces hepatic steatosis and fibrosis. Although hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) have been considered potential pathological modulators for the development of hepatitis due to viral and microbial infections, their involvement in radiation-induced hepatitis is yet to be determined. This study aimed to clarify the relationship between radiation exposure and expressions of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in HSCs in vitro and in vivo.

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Background: α-1 blockers and dutasteride are widely used as agents to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH); the impact of these drugs on prostatic inflammation is still unclear. Herein, we investigated the impact of α-1 blockers and dutasteride treatment of BPH in terms of the degree of prostatic inflammation.

Materials And Methods: Tissue specimens were obtained from 143 BPH patients who were administered α-1 blockers up until their operation.

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Human microglia play a pivotal role in neurological diseases, but we still have an incomplete understanding of microglial heterogeneity, which limits the development of targeted therapies directly modulating their state or function. Here, we use single-cell RNA sequencing to profile 215,680 live human microglia from 74 donors across diverse neurological diseases and CNS regions. We observe a central divide between oxidative and heterocyclic metabolism and identify microglial subsets associated with antigen presentation, motility and proliferation.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The CRISPR/Cas9 system has been applied to edit specific genes in HD and K326 tobacco cultivars, optimizing the system to target lignin and pectin synthesis genes (Ntab06050 and Ntab0857410).
  • - Eight constructs for lignin-related genes and five for pectin-related genes were created; targeting was guided by identifying PAM sequences for effective editing.
  • - Successful mutations of the targeted genes resulted in mutation frequencies of 6.2% for pectin-related NtabGAUT4 and 9.4% for lignin-related NtabCCoAMT.
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[Purpose] This study investigated the test-retest reliability of the ten-repetition maximum leg press (LP) and chest press (CP) tests in untrained young males and females. The secondary aim was to examine the test-retest reliability of the 10RM test according to gender. [Participants and Methods] All participants underwent the ten-repetition maximum test for the LP and CP across three sessions separated by 2 to 6 days of recovery: the first session was familiarization, the second for the initial test, and the third for the retest.

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Background: The superior gluteal artery (SGA) perforator (SGAP) flap is used more rarely for breast reconstruction with autologous tissue than other flaps because the SGA is often narrow, and the SGAP can be short. However, it provides ample fat, including in lean women. To improve its safety and utility, the preoperative SGA course in women who underwent autologous breast reconstruction was determined with three-dimensional computed tomography angiography.

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Purpose: Bladder dysfunction associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) includes urine storage and voiding disorders. We examined pathological conditions of the bladder wall in a rat T2DM model and evaluated the effects of the phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE-5) inhibitor tadalafil.

Materials And Methods: Male Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) rats and Long-Evans Tokushima Otsuka (LETO) rats were used as the T2DM and control groups, respectively.

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Article Synopsis
  • Researchers created a comprehensive cell atlas of the aging brain by analyzing 1.65 million single-nucleus RNA sequences from older adults, revealing specific cell types linked to Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
  • They discovered two distinct microglial subpopulations involved in the progression of amyloid-β and tau proteinopathies, as well as an astrocyte subpopulation linked to cognitive decline.
  • Using a new methodology called BEYOND, the study identified two different pathways of brain aging, which helps in developing personalized therapies targeting specific cellular communities related to AD and other forms of brain aging.
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Soil microbial communities perform critical ecosystem services through the collective metabolic activities of numerous individual organisms. Most microbes use corrinoids, a structurally diverse family of cofactors related to vitamin B12. Corrinoid structure influences the growth of individual microbes, yet how these growth responses scale to the community level remains unknown.

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Recent advancements in proteomics technologies using formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples have significantly advanced biomarker discovery. Yet, the effects of varying sample preparation protocols on proteomic analyses remain poorly understood. We analyzed mouse liver FFPE samples that varied in fixatives, fixation duration, and storage temperature using LC/MS.

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Soil microbial communities impact carbon sequestration and release, biogeochemical cycling, and agricultural yields. These global effects rely on metabolic interactions that modulate community composition and function. However, the physicochemical and taxonomic complexity of soil and the scarcity of available isolates for phenotypic testing are significant barriers to studying soil microbial interactions.

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Unlabelled: After corticospinal tract (CST) stroke, several motor deficits in the upper extremity (UE) emerge, including diminished muscle strength, motor control, and muscle individuation. Both the ipsilesional CST and contralesional corticoreticulospinal tract (CReST) innervate the paretic UE and may have different innervation patterns for the proximal and distal UE segments. These patterns may underpin distinct pathway relationships to separable motor behaviors.

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Soil microbial communities perform critical ecosystem services through the collective metabolic activities of numerous individual organisms. Most microbes use corrinoids, a structurally diverse family of cofactors related to vitamin B. Corrinoid structure influences the growth of individual microbes, yet how these growth responses scale to the community level remains unknown.

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Bacteria encounter chemically similar nutrients in their environment that impact their growth in distinct ways. Among such nutrients are cobamides, the structurally diverse family of cofactors related to vitamin B (cobalamin), which function as cofactors for diverse metabolic processes. Given that different environments contain varying abundances of different cobamides, bacteria are likely to encounter cobamides that enable them to grow robustly as well as those that do not function efficiently for their metabolism.

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Recent investigations of cell type changes in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) using single-cell profiling methods have focused on active lesional and peri-lesional brain tissue, and have implicated a number of peripheral and central nervous system cell types. However, an important question is the extent to which so-called "normal-appearing" non-lesional tissue in individuals with MS accumulate changes over the lifespan. Here, we compared post-mortem non-lesional brain tissue from donors with a pathological or clinical diagnosis of MS from the Religious Orders Study or Rush Memory and Aging Project (ROSMAP) cohorts to age- and sex-matched brains from persons without MS (controls).

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Microglia and neuroinflammation play an important role in the development and progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Inositol polyphosphate-5-phosphatase D (INPP5D/SHIP1) is a myeloid-expressed gene genetically-associated with AD. Through unbiased analyses of RNA and protein profiles in INPP5D-disrupted iPSC-derived human microglia, we find that reduction in INPP5D activity is associated with molecular profiles consistent with disrupted autophagy and inflammasome activation.

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