Publications by authors named "Tomoko Kitsuki"

The patient was a man in his 60s with the gradually increasing mass in his mouth. A well-defined, elastic soft mass with a major diameter of 60 mm was found on the right floor of mouth. The magnetic resonance imaging findings showed a well-defined mass with high signal on both T1 and T2-weighted image in the right sublingual space.

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Background And Objective: As the interface between the oral cavity and the teeth, the junctional epithelial barrier is critical for gingival defense. The junctional epithelium is subject to mechanical stresses from biting force or external insults such as bacterial attacks, but little is known about the effects of mechanical stimuli on epithelial functions. Transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) functions as a mechanosensitive nonselective cation channel.

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Recurrent or chronic oral pain is a great burden for patients. Recently, the links between epithelial barrier loss and disease were extended to include initiation and propagation. To explore the effects of pathohistological changes in oral epithelia on pain, we utilized labial mucosa samples in diagnostic labial gland biopsies from patients with suspected Sjögren's syndrome (SS), because they frequently experience pain and discomfort.

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