Yoshiyuki Kusakari

Decreased keratinocyte motility in skin wound on mice lacking the epidermal fatty acid binding protein gene

Fatty acids are shown to be important in various skin functions. Fatty acid binding protein (FABP) is postulated to serve as a lipid shuttle, solubilizing hydrophobic fatty acids and delivering them to the appropriate metabolic system. Among the FABP family proteins, epidermal-type FABP (E-FABP) is solely expressed in keratinocyte but its specific role in skin is not yet fully established. We found an elevated expression of E-FABP in regenerative keratinocytes of healing wounds. However, E-FABP null mice showed no marked differences compared to wild type mice in the process of wound closure, in vivo. On the other hand, in keratinocyte culture, E-FABP gene disruption decreased the cell motility, but did not affect the cell proliferation. E-FABP deletion may be compensated for in vivo by the microenvironment comprised of various cells such as fibroblasts and endothelial cells around the wound. Our analyses suggest that the E-FABP elevation may be necessary for the activation of cell motility within regenerative epidermis during wound healing.

Successful adalimumab treatment of a psoriasis vulgaris patient with hemodialysis for renal failure: A case report and a review of the previous reports on biologic treatments for psoriasis patients with hemodialysis for renal failure

The efficacy and safety of biologic treatments have been established in patients with moderate to severe psoriasis, but there are few reports on biologic therapy for patients with psoriasis complicated by end‐stage renal failure on hemodialysis (HD). In this report, we demonstrated the efficacy and safety of adalimumab for patients with severe psoriasis on HD. A 46‐year‐old Japanese man with a 14‐year history of psoriasis was referred to our clinic in September 2009. He had developed hypertension and renal failure during a 7‐year history of cyclosporin treatment. With the infliximab treatment, he achieved 75% improvement of the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) score within 3 months from the PASI of 42.3 before the treatment. However, his renal failure gradually deteriorated, and HD was initiated at 1 year after the introduction of infliximab. Because of hydration during the i.v. injection of infliximab, he developed pulmonary edema with every infliximab treatment after starting HD. We switched to ustekinumab treatment, but his psoriasis was not improved. Then, we switched to adalimumab and achieved a PASI‐100 response within 2 months. The patient received adalimumab treatment for more than a year without any adverse effects. In addition to our case, five articles reported cases of psoriasis patients with renal failure on HD who were treated with biologics. The psoriatic lesions were improved by biologics in these cases, and no severe adverse effects on the renal function were reported. Thus, biologics are a reasonable treatment option for patients with severe psoriasis with renal failure on HD.

An Algorithm for Finding a Region with the Minimum Lotal L1 from Prescribed Terminals

Given k terminals and n axis-parallel rectangular obstacles on the plane, our algorithm finds a plane region R* such that, for any point p in R*, the total length of the k shortest rectilinear paths connecting p and the k terminals without passing through any obstacle is minimum. The algorithm is output-sensitive, and takes O((K + n) log n) time and O(K + n) space if k is a fixed constant, where K is the total number of polygonal vertices of the found region R*.

Finding a Noncrossing Steiner Forest in Plane Graphs Under a 2-Face Condition

AbstractLet G = (V,E) be a plane graph with nonnegative edge weights, and let

Finding a Shortest Pair of Paths on the Plane with Obstacles and Crossing Areas

\mathcal{N}

Merkel Cell Carcinoma Concomitant with Invasive Bowen's Disease: Immunohistochemical Investigation of Tumor-Infiltrating Leukocytes.

be a family of k vertex sets

Recurrent classic Kaposi's sarcoma in a Japanese man : detection of human herpesvirus 8 infection by PCR and immunostaining

N_1 ,N_2 ,...,N_k \subseteq V