Does Pramipexole Treatment Improve Headache in Patients with Concomitant Migraine and Restless Legs Syndrome?

Background: Recent studies have suggested a strong link between migraines and restless legs syndrome (RLS). It is possible that these disorders share a dopaminergic dysfunction in the hypothalamic A11 nucleus that contributes to this association. However, there have been no clinical studies to evaluate the effect of dopaminergic treatment on migraine symptoms in patients with concomitant migraines and RLS. Methods: We present an illustrative patient with concomitant RLS and migraine who showed improvement in her headache frequency and RLS symptoms following immediate‐release pramipexole (P‐IR) treatment and provide review results from the medical records of patients who experienced both migraines and RLS in our previous cross‐sectional study. Results: Ten patients (nine patients from the previously completed single‐center study) received P‐IR treatment were included in the study. RLS symptoms improved markedly in all of the subjects. Five out of the 10 patients (50%) reported improvement in migraine headaches. Of these five patients, four (80%) had reported morning headaches before P‐IR treatment. Discussion: Our results indicate that the identification of RLS in migraine patients is clinically significant and that dopaminergic treatment may improve both migraines, particularly morning headache (80% improvement in this study), and RLS symptoms. However, further clinical studies are warranted to verify our results

Infection of RANKL-Primed RAW-D Macrophages with Porphyromonas gingivalis Promotes Osteoclastogenesis in a TNF-α-Independent Manner

Infection of macrophages with bacteria induces the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines including TNF-α. TNF-α directly stimulates osteoclast differentiation from bone marrow macrophages in vitro as well as indirectly via osteoblasts. Recently, it was reported that bacterial components such as LPS inhibited RANKL-induced osteoclastogenesis in early stages, but promoted osteoclast differentiation in late stages. However, the contribution to osteoclast differentiation of TNF-α produced by infected macrophages remains unclear. We show here that Porphyromonas gingivalis, one of the major pathogens in periodontitis, directly promotes osteoclastogenesis from RANKL-primed RAW-D (subclone of RAW264) mouse macrophages, and we show that TNF-α is not involved in the stimulatory effect on osteoclastogenesis. P. gingivalis infection of RANKL-primed RAW-D macrophages markedly stimulated osteoclastogenesis in a RANKL-independent manner. In the presence of the TLR4 inhibitor, polymyxin B, infection of RANKL-primed RAW-D cells with P. gingivalis also induced osteoclastogenesis, indicating that TLR4 is not involved. Infection of RAW-D cells with P. gingivalis stimulated the production of TNF-α, whereas the production of TNF-α by similarly infected RANKL-primed RAW-D cells was markedly down-regulated. In addition, infection of RANKL-primed macrophages with P. gingivalis induced osteoclastogenesis in the presence of neutralizing antibody against TNF-α. Inhibitors of NFATc1 and p38MAPK, but not of NF-κB signaling, significantly suppressed P. gingivalis-induced osteoclastogenesis from RANKL-primed macrophages. Moreover, re-treatment of RANKL-primed macrophages with RANKL stimulated osteoclastogenesis in the presence or absence of P. gingivalis infection, whereas re-treatment of RANKL-primed macrophages with TNF-α did not enhance osteoclastogenesis in the presence of live P. gingivalis. Thus, P. gingivalis infection of RANKL-primed macrophages promoted osteoclastogenesis in a TNF-α independent manner, and RANKL but not TNF-α was effective in inducing osteoclastogenesis from RANKL-primed RAW-D cells in the presence of P. gingivalis

Properties of a novel radiophotoluminescent readout system using a cw modulated UV laser diode and phase-sensitive technique

We have proposed and constructed a novel readout system for measuring a dose-dependent radiophotoluminescence (RPL) signal of a silver-activated phosphate glass dosimeter. The present reader consists of a modulated continuous-wave (cw) ultraviolet (UV) laser diode at 375 nm as an excitation and a phase-sensitive technique using a lock-in amplifier. Preliminary results using a home-made reader are compared with those of the conventional technique based on a combination of a pulsed UV N2 laser excitation at 337 nm and a photon counting system. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Formation and assignment of silver defect centres in phosphate glass induced by femtosecond laser pulses

We have investigated the formation and assignment of silver defect centres such as Ag0, Ag2+ and other molecular silver species induced by femtosecond (fs) laser pulse irradiation. In particular, direct precipitation of silver nanoparticles without heat treatment was demonstrated to clarify the formation kinetics of silver defect centres in a radiophotoluminescent phosphate glass by 250 kHz high repetition rate fs laser pulses. Comparison using X-ray and fs laser irradiation methods is also presented. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Non-destructive readout of 2D and 3D dose distributions using a disk-type radiophotoluminescent glass plate

Novel disk-type X-ray two- and three-dimensional (2D, 3D) dose distributions have been developed using atomic-scale defects as minimum luminescent units, such as radiation- induced silver (Ag)-related species in a Ag-activated phosphate glass. This luminescent detector is based on the radiophotoluminescence(RPL) phenomenon. Accurate accumulated dose distributions with a high spatial resolution on the order of microns over large areas, a wide dynamic range covering three orders of magnitude and a non-destructive readout were successfully demonstrated for the first time by using a disk-type glass plate with a 100-mm diameter and a 1-mm thickness. In addition, the combination of a confocal optical detection system with a transparent glass detector enables 3D reconstruction by piling up each dose image at different depths within the material. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd

The role of silver in the radiophotoluminescent properties in silver-activated phosphate glass and sodium chloride crystal

金沢大学人間社会研究域人間科学系We have systematically investigated the X-ray-induced radiophotoluminescence (RPL) bands in a silver-activated phosphate glass (PG:Ag), and we have ascribed these bands to Ag0, Ag2+ and Ag2+ centres, using optical characterisation such as absorption, excitation, emission and lifetime measurements. The absorption spectrum of PG:Ag irradiated with X-rays was decomposed into six Gaussian bands on the basis of its strong analogy with irradiated silver-activated sodium chloride (NaCl:Ag). We confirmed that blue emission peaking at 450 nm was connected with the 270 and 345 nm bands of the excitation spectrum, while orange emission peaking at 560 nm was associated with the 308 nm excitation band. Each band of the excitation spectrum was in turn attributed to an Ag2+, Ag0 or Ag2+ centre by analogy with the RPL of NaCl:Ag. The excited-state lifetimes for each emissive process were also determined for different X-ray doses. In conclusion, we determined that both blue and orange emissions result from radiation-induced (rather than intrinsic) properties in the range of 1.22-24.5 Gy. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

A stress-reduced passaging technique improves the viability of human pluripotent cells

Xeno-free culture systems have expanded the clinical and industrial application of human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs). However, reproducibility issues, often arising from variability during passaging steps, remain. Here, we describe an improved method for the subculture of human PSCs. The revised method significantly enhances the viability of human PSCs by lowering DNA damage and apoptosis, resulting in more efficient and reproducible downstream applications such as gene editing and directed differentiation. Furthermore, the method does not alter PSC characteristics after long-term culture and attenuates the growth advantage of abnormal subpopulations. This robust passaging method minimizes experimental error and reduces the rate of PSCs failing quality control of human PSC research and application

18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging evaluation of chorea

Chorea is thought to be caused by deactivation of the indirect pathway in the basal ganglia circuit. However, few imaging studies have evaluated the basal ganglia circuit in actual patients with chorea. We investigated the lesions and mechanisms underlying chorea using brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET). This retrospective case series included three patients with chorea caused by different diseases: hyperglycemic chorea, Huntington’s disease, and subarachnoid hemorrhage. All the patients showed dysfunction in the striatum detected by both MRI and FDG-PET. These neuroimaging findings confirm the theory that chorea is related to an impairment of the indirect pathway of basal ganglia circuit