Publications by authors named "Toshiyuki Ito"

Aims: Extracts of fermented feed obtained via fermentation of marine animal resources with thermophilic Bacillaceae bacteria increase the fecundity of livestock. The intestinal bacterial profiles in response to long-term administration of this extract to pigs were investigated.

Methods And Results: Half of a swine farm was supplied with potable water containing an extract of fermented feed for more than 2 years, whereas the other half was supplied with potable water without the extract.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive, often fatal lung disease characterized by tissue scarring and declining lung function. The promoter polymorphism rs35705950, a significant genetic predisposition for IPF, paradoxically associates with better survival and slower disease progression than other IPF genotypes. This study investigates the potential paradoxical protective effects of this variant in lung fibrosis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Coagulopathy is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in COVID-19 patients. Hypercoagulability in COVID-19 results in deep vein thrombosis, thromboembolic complications, and diffuse intravascular coagulation. Microbiome dysbiosis influences the clinical course of COVID-19.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a serious and progressive disease, and the role of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) in this condition is not well understood.
  • A study using transgenic mice that overexpress MMP-2 showed reduced inflammation and fibrosis compared to regular mice after lung injury caused by bleomycin.
  • The findings suggest that MMP-2 helps protect against pulmonary fibrosis by decreasing cell death (apoptosis) in the lung's epithelial cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Weizmannia coagulans SANK70258 is a spore-forming thermostable lactic acid bacterium and an effective probiotic for the growth of livestock animals, but its growth-promoting mechanism remains unclear. Here, the composition of fecal metabolites in broilers continuously administered with W. coagulans SANK70258 was assessed under a regular program with antibiotics, which was transiently given for 6 days after birth.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The composition of cellulosomal carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) secreted from a cellulolytic bacterium Clostridium thermocellum varies depending on the cellulosic substrate used during cultivation. C. thermocellum detects the polysaccharides in cellulosic material via anti-sigma factors and expresses the appropriate CAZyme gene via alternative sigma factors, SigIs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

IgA nephropathy (IgAN) is the most common form of glomerulonephritis worldwide. Pediatric patients in Japan are diagnosed with IgAN at an early stage of the disease through annual urinary examinations. Tumor necrosis factor-like weak inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK) and fibroblast growth factor-inducible 14 (Fn14) have various roles, including proinflammatory effects, and modulation of several kidney diseases; however, no reports have described their roles in pediatric IgAN.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Efficient cellulosic biomass saccharification technologies are required to meet biorefinery standards. Biological simultaneous enzyme production and saccharification (BSES), which is glucose production from cellulosic biomass by Clostridium thermocellum, can be a reliable cellulose saccharification technology for biorefineries. However, the current BSES processes require purified β-glucosidase supplementation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Free space optical (FSO) communications are enabling high-speed global wireless networks. Thanks to the highly directional nature of laser beam, they also yield a greater security advantage over radio frequency counterparts. When combined with a scheme of secret key agreement (SKA), FSO-SKA can establish at high speed a symmetric secret key which cannot be decrypted even by unbounded computer resources.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Secret key agreement using physical properties of a wireless channel is becoming a promising scheme to establish a secret key between two users, especially in short-distance radio frequency (RF) communications. In this scheme, the existence of codes or key distillation that can make the leaked information to an eavesdropper arbitrarily small can be derived in an information theoretical way, given a priori knowledge on the channel linking a sender (Alice), a legitimate receiver (Bob), and an eavesdropper (Eve), which is called the wiretap channel. In practice, however, it is often difficult for Alice and Bob to get sufficient knowledge on Eve.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Megasphaera elsdenii is able to produce several short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), such as acetate, propionate, butyrate, and valerate. These SCFAs serve as an energy source for host animals and play an important role in gut health. In this study, M.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Lactic acid produced by intestinal bacteria is fermented by lactate-utilizing bacteria. In this study, we developed a selective culture medium (KMI medium) for Megasphaera elsdenii, a lactate-utilizing bacterium that is abundant in pig intestines. Supplementation of the medium with lactate and beef extract powder was necessary for the preferential growth of M.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Quantum communication and quantum cryptography are expected to enhance the transmission rate and the security (confidentiality of data transmission), respectively. We study a new scheme which can potentially bridge an intermediate region covered by these two schemes, which is referred to as quantum photonic network. The basic framework is information theoretically secure communications in a free space optical (FSO) wiretap channel, in which an eavesdropper has physically limited access to the main channel between the legitimate sender and receiver.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We present experimental data on message transmission in a free-space optical (FSO) link at an eye-safe wavelength, using a testbed consisting of one sender and two receiver terminals, where the latter two are a legitimate receiver and an eavesdropper. The testbed allows us to emulate a typical scenario of physical-layer (PHY) security such as satellite-to-ground laser communications. We estimate information-theoretic metrics including secrecy rate, secrecy outage probability, and expected code lengths for given secrecy criteria based on observed channel statistics.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The chronological lifespan of Saccharomyces cerevisiae represents the duration of cell survival in the postdiauxic and stationary phases. Using a prototrophic strain derived from the standard auxotrophic laboratory strain BY4742, we showed that supplementation of non-essential amino acids to a synthetic defined (SD) medium increases maximal cell growth and extends the chronological lifespan. The positive effects of amino acids can be reproduced by modulating the medium pH, indicating that amino acids contribute to chronological longevity in a cell-extrinsic manner by alleviating medium acidification.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Recently, we reported that the oral administration of an extract of compost fermented with marine animal resources and thermophilic Bacillus species should confer health benefits in fish, pigs and rodents. Herein, the relations between fecundity and gut metabolites in laying hens and pigs on farms after oral exposure to compost were investigated. On the hen farms, the egg production of hens continuously administered the extract was maintained at significantly higher levels compared with the hens not administered the extract.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

An enzyme, -acetylserine(thiol)lyase (OASTL), also known as -acetylserine sulfhydrylase or cysteine synthase (CSase), catalyses the incorporation of sulfide into -acetylserine and produces cysteine. We previously identified a cDNA encoding an OASTL-like protein from , (), but a recombinant SoCSaseLP produced in did not show OASTL activity. The exon-intron structure of the gene shared conserved structures with other spinach OASTL genes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Photon upconversion based on triplet-triplet annihilation (TTA-UC) is a technology to convert presently wasted sub-bandgap photons to usable higher-energy photons. In this paper, ionogel TTA-UC samples are first developed by gelatinizing ionic liquids containing triplet-sensitizing and light-emitting molecules using an ionic gelator, resulting in transparent and nonflammable ionogel photon upconverters. The photophysical properties of the ionogel samples are then investigated, and the results suggest that the effect of gelation on the diffusion of the solutes is negligibly small.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Recently, a compost fermented with marine animals with thermophilic Bacillaceae in a clean and exclusive process at high temperature was reported as a possible feed additive to improve the healthy balance in sea fish and mammals (i.e., pigs and rodents).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Photon upconversion (UC) is a technology used to convert wasted lower energy photons to usable higher energy photons. Triplet-sensitized UC based on the triplet-triplet annihilation (TTA) of organic molecules has recently received attention because of its applicability to noncoherent sunlight. Among the various media proposed for this UC, ionic liquids (ILs) are practically advantageous because of their nonvolatility and nonflammability.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

NO (3) (-) is a major nitrogen source for plant nutrition, and plant cells store NO (3) (-) in their vacuoles. Here, we report that a unique compost made from marine animal resources by thermophiles represses NO (3) (-) accumulation in plants. A decrease in the leaf NO (3) (-) content occurred in parallel with a decrease in the soil NO (3) (-) level, and the degree of the soil NO (3) (-) decrease was proportional to the compost concentration in the soil.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The timings of the administration of microbial supplements to control the populations of gut microbiota of piglets have been poorly understood. Here the effects of temporal administering multispecies microbial supplements to sows on the composition of gut microbiota and on the bacteria-mediated fecal metabolites in their offsprings were investigated. During gestation and lactation, pregnant sows were fed either a normal diet (group A) or a diet with multispecies supplements comprised of nine microbial species such as Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Recent studies have shown that the combination of proton pump inhibitor, amoxicillin and clarithromycin is one of the best choices for Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy. However, increasing number of cases of H. pylori infection showing resistance to clarithromycin therapy has been reported and this is currently the main cause of eradication failure.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF