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Ulva prolifera , known as Aonori in Japan, is an edible alga species that is mass-cultivated in Japan. Supplementation with Aonori-derived biomaterials has been reported to enhance metabolic health in previous studies. This was an experimental study that evaluated the metabolic health effects of NBF2, a formula made of algal and junos Tanaka citrus -derived biomaterials, on obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2DM). We used 18 obese and hyperglycemic Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) rats that were assigned randomly to three groups of six animals: a high-dose NBF2 drink (20 mg/kg) group, a low-dose (10 mg/kg) NBF2 drink group and the control group that received 2 mL of tap water daily for a total of six weeks. We also used eight LETO rats as the normal control group. In addition to the glucose tolerance test (OGTT), ELISA and real-time PCR assays were performed. High-dose and lowdose NBF2 improved insulin sensitivity, as well as glycemic and lipid profiles, as compared with control rats. The OGTT showed that both NBF2 groups and LETO rats had normalized glycemia by the 90-min time-point. NBF2 up-regulated PPARα/γ-mRNA and Sirt2-mRNA gene expressions in BAT and improved the blood pressure profile. These findings suggest that the NBF2 formula, which activates PPAR-α/γ mRNA and Sirt2-mRNA, may reverse dyslipidemia and hyperglycemia in T2DM. more...

Background and Purpose: Plaque control is very important in the treatment of periodontitis. However, plaque is difficult to remove because one cannot see one's own oral cavity. The purpose of this study was to verify the plaque removal effect of a prototype device that has a built-in image sensor in the head of an electric toothbrush, enabling the user to brush while checking the condition of the tooth surface on a monitor in real time and to assess their sense of use., Materials and Methods: The subjects were 10 fifth-year students from the Graduate School of Dental Science, Fukuoka Dental College, Fukuoka, Japan. The subjects were divided into those who used electric toothbrushes while having the condition of the tooth surface checked with a monitor (monitor group) and those without a monitor (non-monitor group). O'Leary plaque control records before and after brushing and the brushing time were measured, and questionnaires were given to the subjects after brushing. Scaling and professional tooth cleaning were performed after completing the questionnaire. One week later, subjects were switched to the opposite group and had the same measurements and questionnaires. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare both groups before and after the examination at a 5% significance level., Results: The monitor group had significantly better plaque removal than the non-monitor group. In addition, the monitor group spent significantly more time brushing than the control group., Conclusion: Brushing while monitoring oral conditions in real time using an electric toothbrush with a built-in image sensor showed that significantly better plaque removal can be achieved with a longer brushing time., Competing Interests: Akinori Oyama is a representative of the company that developed the prototype of the device used in this study., (Copyright © 2024, Yoshinaga et al.) more...

Podoplanin is a mucin-type highly O-glycosylated glycoprotein identified in several somatyic cells: podocytes, alveolar epithelial cells, lymphatic endothelial cells, lymph node stromal fibroblastic reticular cells, osteocytes, odontoblasts, mesothelial cells, glia cells, and others. It has been reported that podoplanin-RhoA interaction induces cytoskeleton relaxation and cell process stretching in fibroblastic cells and osteocytes, and that podoplanin plays a critical role in type I alveolar cell differentiation. It appears that podoplanin plays a number of different roles in contributing to cell functioning and growth by signaling. However, little is known about the functions of podoplanin in the somatic cells of the adult organism because an absence of podoplanin is lethal at birth by the respiratory failure. In this report, we investigated the tooth germ development in podoplanin-knockout mice, and the dentin formation in podoplanin-conditional knockout mice having neural crest-derived cells with deficiency in podoplanin by the Wnt1 promoter and enhancer-driven Cre recombinase: Wnt1-Cre;PdpnΔ/Δmice. In the Wnt1-Cre;PdpnΔ/Δmice, the tooth and alveolar bone showed no morphological abnormalities and grow normally, indicating that podoplanin is not critical in the development of the tooth and bone. more...

Rodent mandibular incisors have a unique anatomical structure that allows teeth to grow throughout the lifetime of the rodent. This report presents a novel transplantation technique for studying the apical bud differentiation of rodent mandibular incisors. Incisal apical end tissue with green fluorescent protein from transgenic mouse was transplanted to wild type mice, and the development of the transplanted cells were immunohistologically observed for 12 weeks after the transplantation. Results indicate that the green fluorescent apical end tissue replaced the original tissue, and cells from the apical bud differentiated and extended toward the incisal edge direction. The immunostaining with podoplanin also showed that the characteristics of the green fluorescent tissue were identical to those of the original. The green fluorescent cells were only found in the labial side of the incisor up to 4 weeks. After 12 weeks, however, they were also found in the lingual side. Here the green fluorescent cementocyte-like cells were only present in the cementum close to the dentin surface. This study suggests that some of the cells that form the cellular cementum come from the apical tissue including the apical bud in rodent incisors. more...