Publications by authors named "Taku Saito"

Unlabelled: Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) and their small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) hold significant potential for regenerative medicine due to their tissue repair capabilities. The microRNA (miRNA) content in sEVs varies depending on ASC status; however, the effects of aging and cell passage on miRNA profiles remain unclear. In this study, we examined the effects of donor age and cell expansion on ASC characteristics and transcriptome using ASCs obtained from three young and three old donors.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
[Osteoporosis].

No Shinkei Geka

November 2024

Osteoporosis, the most prevalent bone disease, increases an individual's risk of fractures. Various factors, such as a past history of fractures, smoking, alcohol consumption, use of steroid medications, genetic background, and physical activity level, are associated with fracture risk. Notably, reduced physical activity should be emphasized for patients with brain or other neurological disorders, as impaired body balance and decreased muscle strength contribute to falls and fractures.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are linked to long-term mental health issues like PTSD, and are notably more common in military personnel who must preserve mental health for their duties.
  • A study with 752 recruits from the Japan Air Self-Defense Force found that self-compassion, which involves treating oneself kindly, significantly reduces PTSD symptoms and is negatively impacted by ACEs.
  • The research indicated that self-compassion only partially mediates the relationship between ACEs and PTSD symptoms, suggesting the need for further studies to develop educational programs aimed at increasing self-compassion in individuals with ACEs to help lessen PTSD symptoms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Disulfiram (DSF), an anti-alcoholism medication, shows potential in preventing bone loss by inhibiting osteoclast differentiation in osteoporotic mice.
  • Research utilized techniques like microcomputed tomography and single-cell RNA sequencing to study DSF effects on bone and osteoclast precursor cells.
  • Results indicated that DSF not only reduced the number of osteoclasts but did so without negatively impacting osteoblast formation, suggesting its possible role in osteoporosis treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: The "healthy warrior effect" (HWE), in which deployed military personnel are healthier than those not deployed, is known to be associated with deployment. However, the HWE associated with deployment to United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations (PKO) has not been examined. This study examined the HWE associated with deployment to UN PKO by examining the impact of pre-deployment mental health on the likelihood of deployment and whether this difference persisted after deployment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: Work engagement is critical in both occupational and mental health contexts. However, no studies have compared the usefulness of the nine-, three-, and two-item measures from the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES). Therefore, this study aimed to examine the internal consistency and convergent validity of the two-item measure and compare its usefulness with the nine-item and three-item versions for assessing engagement at work among Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) personnel.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * The study aimed to identify consistent DNA methylation (DNAm) markers associated with delirium by analyzing blood samples from four different patient cohorts.
  • * Results showed that 11 out of 13 previously identified top CpG sites had significant DNAm differences between delirious and non-delirious patients, suggesting that epigenetic biomarkers could be useful for diagnosis and understanding delirium's underlying biology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - A study analyzed 38 patients with rare subtrochanteric femoral fractures to identify underlying metabolic bone diseases associated with low bone formation, revealing that 4 of them had such disorders.
  • - The research aimed to evaluate the prevalence of risk factors like age, glucocorticoid use, and antiresorptive agents among the patients, many of whom were older adults with a history of these medications.
  • - Key findings included that some patients were diagnosed with specific conditions like hypophosphatemic osteomalacia and a genetic variant linked to bone health, emphasizing the need for clinicians to investigate latent bone diseases in patients with atypical femoral fractures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors, such as baricitinib, are widely used to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Clinical studies show that baricitinib is more effective at reducing pain than other similar drugs. Here, we aimed to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying the pain relief conferred by baricitinib, using a mouse model of arthritis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Various diseases and conditions cause joint disorders. Osteoarthritis (OA) is characterized by the degeneration of articular cartilage, synovitis, and anabolic changes in surrounding bone tissues. In contrast, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and hemophilic arthropathy (HA) display marked destruction of bone tissues caused by synovitis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Symptomatic neuroma represents a debilitating complication after major limb amputation. The regenerative peripheral nerve interface (RPNI) has emerged as a reproducible and practical surgery aimed at mitigating the formation of painful neuroma. Although previous animal studies revealed axonal sprouting, elongation, and synaptogenesis of proximal nerve stump within the muscle graft in RPNI, there is a lack of reports confirming these physiological reactions at the histopathological level in human samples.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Burnout and secondary traumatic stress (STS), also referred to as compassion fatigue, are undeniable negative consequences experienced by healthcare professionals when working with patients. As frontline healthcare professionals are essential to communities, it is crucial to understand their mental health and how they cope with negative psychological responses. This study investigated the relationships between burnout, STS, compassion satisfaction, dispositional empathy, and stress management among Japanese healthcare professionals and students taking care of patients in clinical practice.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cosmic large-scale structures, animal flocks and living tissues can be considered non-equilibrium organized systems created by dissipative processes. Replicating such properties in artificial systems is still difficult. Herein we report a dissipative network formation process in a dilute polymer-water mixture that leads to percolation-induced gel-gel phase separation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - This study examined how oral ferric citrate hydrate (FCH) affects iron absorption in hemodialysis patients and looked at the role of hepcidin-25, a hormone that regulates iron metabolism, in this process.
  • - Over six months, 268 participants were treated with FCH, and researchers tracked changes in serum iron levels to assess absorption, finding that lower hepcidin-25 levels correlated with better iron absorption.
  • - Results indicated that as erythropoiesis (red blood cell production) was limited, patients experienced higher hepcidin-25 levels, leading to lower iron absorption from the intestine despite ongoing treatment with FCH.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cartilage is considered to be immune privileged in general. Clinically, live cells are removed from subcutaneously transplanted allogeneic cartilage mainly for preservation and for infection control. However, because maintaining cartilage feature requires live chondrocyte, it would be beneficial to subcutaneously transplant cartilage with live chondrocyte even if it was allogeneic.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The mechanisms by which physical exercise benefits brain functions are not fully understood. Here, we show that vertically oscillating head motions mimicking mechanical accelerations experienced during fast walking, light jogging or treadmill running at a moderate velocity reduce the blood pressure of rats and human adults with hypertension. In hypertensive rats, shear stresses of less than 1 Pa resulting from interstitial-fluid flow induced by such passive head motions reduced the expression of the angiotensin II type-1 receptor in astrocytes in the rostral ventrolateral medulla, and the resulting antihypertensive effects were abrogated by hydrogel introduction that inhibited interstitial-fluid movement in the medulla.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Longitudinal bone growth relies on endochondral ossification in the cartilaginous growth plate, where chondrocytes accumulate and synthesize the matrix scaffold that is replaced by bone. The chondroprogenitors in the resting zone maintain the continuous turnover of chondrocytes in the growth plate. Malnutrition is a leading cause of growth retardation in children; however, after recovery from nutrient deprivation, bone growth is accelerated beyond the normal rate, a phenomenon termed catch-up growth.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Delirium is dangerous and a predictor of poor patient outcomes. We have previously reported the utility of the bispectral EEG (BSEEG) with a novel algorithm for the detection of delirium and prediction of patient outcomes including mortality. The present study employed a normalized BSEEG (nBSEEG) score to integrate the previous cohorts to combine their data to investigate the prediction of patient outcomes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Researchers studied genetic factors linked to lumbar spondylosis by comparing 83 severe cases with 182 healthy controls, discovering 65 candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).
  • A significant SNP, rs2054564, found in the ADAMTS17 gene, was confirmed in larger Japanese and Korean cohorts, indicating its potential impact on disease risk.
  • The study also highlighted the role of ADAMTS17 and fibrillin-1 (FBN1) in intervertebral discs, suggesting that disruptions in their interaction may contribute to lumbar spondylosis, with evidence from patients with Marfan syndrome further supporting this link.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Although the skeleton is essential for locomotion, endocrine functions, and hematopoiesis, the molecular mechanisms of human skeletal development remain to be elucidated. Here, we introduce an integrative method to model human skeletal development by combining in vitro sclerotome induction from human pluripotent stem cells and in vivo endochondral bone formation by implanting the sclerotome beneath the renal capsules of immunodeficient mice. Histological and scRNA-seq analyses reveal that the induced bones recapitulate endochondral ossification and are composed of human skeletal cells and mouse circulatory cells.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Voice-based depression detection methods have been studied worldwide as an objective and easy method to detect depression. Conventional studies estimate the presence or severity of depression. However, an estimation of symptoms is a necessary technique not only to treat depression, but also to relieve patients' distress.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Longitudinal bone growth relies on endochondral ossification in the cartilaginous growth plate where chondrocytes accumulate and synthesize the matrix scaffold that is replaced by bone. The chondroprogenitors in the resting zone maintain the continuous turnover of chondrocytes in the growth plate. Malnutrition is a leading cause of growth retardation in children; however, after recovery from nutrient deprivation, bone growth is accelerated beyond the normal rate, a phenomenon termed catch-up growth.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Synopsis of recent research by authors named "Taku Saito"

  • - Taku Saito's recent research spans a variety of topics within mental health and physical health, focusing significantly on the impacts of adverse experiences and the implementation of therapeutic interventions in military contexts, such as self-compassion as a moderator for PTSD symptoms.
  • - Notable findings include the beneficial effects of disulfiram on bone health in ovariectomized mice, and evidence of a "healthy warrior effect" in Japanese ground self-defense forces deployed in peacekeeping missions, indicating pre-deployment mental health factors may impact post-deployment wellbeing.
  • - The research also examines deeper biological mechanisms related to conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and the epigenetics of delirium, aiming to enhance understanding and treatment strategies across both psychological and physiological health domains.