Masatoshi Fujita

Kyoto University | Kyodai · Department of Cardiovascular Medicine

Background Metformin is the most widely used oral antihyperglycemic agent for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Despite the possible benefits of metformin on diabetes mellitus (DM) and heart failure (HF), acute or unstable HF remains a precaution for its use. Objective The aim of the present prospective randomized controlled trial was...

Background:Guidelines for peripheral arterial disease (PAD) recommend long-term antiplatelet therapy in symptomatic patients to reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality risk. Although diabetes is a known risk factor for PAD, PAD has been undertreated in these patients. This study aimed to evaluate risk factors for major amputation in patients...

Surveillance of cardiovascular Events in Antiplatelet-treated arterioSclerosis Obliterans patients in JapaN (SEASON) is a 2-year, prospective, real-world, registry study conducted in Japan from 2009 to 2013. This post hoc analysis evaluated risk factors for limb ischemia in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and ankle-brachial index (A...

The present analysis was intended to evaluate the real-world management of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in Asia, and to explore cardiovascular events in patients with PAD undergoing antiplatelet therapy over 2 years of follow-up. The Surveillance of cardiovascular Events in Antiplatelet-treated arteriosclerosis Obliterans patients in JapaN (SE...

Aim: This study aimed to determine the normal range of the lectin-like oxidised LDL receptor (LOX) index during pregnancy and investigate whether the index can be used as a biomarker of maternal endothelial function. Methods: We conducted a prospective pilot study consisting of 12 pregnant women without obstetric or medical complications and eight...

Background: Despite mounting evidence of increased cardiovascular events in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), the overall incidence of cardiovascular events in PAD patients has not been fully clarified in Japan. The prospective Surveillance of cardiovascular Events in Antiplatelet-treated arterioSclerosis Obliterans patients in Japa...

Introduction: Various trace elements are deficient in hemodialysis patients, but the relationship of such deficiencies with cardiac hypofunction is unclear. We examined the deficiencies of trace elements in the blood and hair of hemodialysis patients diagnosed with uremic cardiomyopathy and investigated cardiac hypofunction mechanism from myocardia...

Buerger disease is a rare disease of unknown etiology and cannot be treated by bypass surgery or percutaneous re-endovascularization. Although the need for effective limb ischemia prevention strategies is increasingly being recognized, effective preventative strategies are insufficient. The aim of this study using a new pulsed ultrasound device, SX...

Introduction: Heart failure is associated with pathological growth and mitochondrial dysfunction of constituent cardiomyocytes. To achieve effective oral pharmacological therapy for heart failure, we screened compounds isolated from natural products and found that auraptene derived from the peel of Citrus Hassaku may be applicable to pharmacologica...

Background: Increasing evidence suggests that N-terminal probrain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) may be a more discerning marker for the detection and evluation of heart failure than BNP. However, fundamental mechanisms that contribute to the heart failure in aortic stenosis (AS) and ischemic heart disease (IHD) via NT-proBNP remain unclear. Objec...

Electronic band dispersions in copper oxide superconductors have kinks around 70 meV that are typically attributed to coupling of electrons to a bosonic mode. We performed angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments on overdoped cuprate high temperature superconductors to test the relationship between the superconducting transition temper...

Introduction: A zinc finger protein GATA4 associates with not only ERK1/2 but also an intrinsic histone acetyltransferase p300 and regulates myocardial transcriptional activities in response to hypertrophic stimuli. We recently reported that Retinoblastoma protein (Rb)-associated protein 48 and 46 (RbAp48/46) are novel components of the p300/GATA4...

Aim: Smoking induces vascular inflammation and increases the risk of cardiovascular events. Lectinlike oxidized low-density lipoprotein receptor-1 (LOX-1) is a scavenger receptor that is induced by oxidative stress and is associated with atherosclerotic plaque formation and destabilization. LOX-1 interacts with C-reactive protein (CRP) and plays a...

Objective: To elucidate changes in endothelial function throughout the gestational period in normal pregnancy and its relationship with plasma soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1) levels. Methods: Endothelial function was evaluated by reactive hyperemia index (RHI) using Endo-PAT2000 and plasma sFlt-1 levels were measured simultaneously b...

Background: Although increased attention is given to assess absolute values of serum cholesterol profiles as optimal markers for preventing future cardiovascular (CV) events, changes in cholesterol profiles also have the potential to be associated with CV disease outcome in Japanese patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Methods: From the...

Current understanding of cuprate superconductivity is based exclusively on an effective one-band electronic band structure formed by states of in-plane dx2-y2 symmetry. By studying the La-based cuprates with polarization-dependent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, here we uncovered another group of states of distinct c-axis symmetry that c...

We have performed inelastic neutron scattering measurements on the single-layer cuprate Bi2+xSr2-xCuO6+y (Bi2201) with x=0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5, a doping range that spans the spin-glass (SG) to superconducting (SC) phase boundary [1]. The doping evolution of low energy spin fluctuations (11 meV) was found to be characterized by a change of incommens...

We have performed inelastic neutron scattering measurements on the single-layer cuprate Bi_{2+x}Sr_{2-x}CuO_{6+y} (Bi2201) with x=0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5, a doping range that spans the spin-glass to superconducting phase boundary. The doping evolution of low energy spin fluctuations (≲11 meV) was found to be characterized by a change in the incommen...

Background: Although manganese, zinc and copper are essential cofactors for superoxide dismutase (SOD) activation, and selenium is an essential cofactor required for activation of glutathione peroxidase (GSHPx), their roles in cardiac diseases remain unclear. We therefore investigated the relationship between levels of these trace elements and card...

Introduction: A zinc finger protein GATA4 associates with an intrinsic histone acetyltransferase p300 and regulates myocardial transcriptional activities in response to hypertrophic stimuli. Retinoblastoma protein (Rb)-associated protein 48 and 46 (RbAp48, RbAp46) form a repressor complex with HDACs and are implicated in chromatin remodeling and tr...

Background: The mechanisms that lead from obesity to atherosclerotic disease are not fully understood. Obesity involves angiogenesis in which vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) plays a key role. Vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C), a homologue of the VEGF family, plays a pivotal role in lymphangiogenesis. Circulating levels of...

This editorial refers to ‘Lack of ecto-5′-nucleotidase (CD73) promotes arteriogenesis’ by Y.C. Boring et al ., pp. 88-96, this issue. The principal therapeutic approach to atherosclerotic obstructive disease is to provide a sufficient blood flow to the jeopardized area perfused by the severely narrowed or occluded artery, which is accomplished by...

Context: Circulating endothelial cells (CECs) and progenitor cells (CEPs) have been intensively studied as a promising tool for treating ischemic diseases and monitoring cancer treatments, but how the menstrual cycle affects the variation in their counts remains unclear. Objective: The aims of the study were to determine the influence of the men...

It has been shown that oxidative stress may play an important role in the development of atherosclerosis, and carvedilol has the capacity of reducing oxidative stress. Accordingly, we assessed the hypothesis that carvedilol may reduce the severity of atherosclerosis in apolipoprotein E (apoE)-deficient mice in addition to its hemodynamic effects. A...

Sympathetic nerve activity is augmented by calcium-channel blocker treatment as a result of decreased blood pressure. Dihydropyridine calcium-channel blockers are divided into three different types. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether treatment effects on hemodynamics, cardiac autonomic nerve activity and plasma norepinephri...

The whole body periodic acceleration (WBPA) system was recently developed as a passive exercise device by providing increased pulsatile shear stress for improvement of endothelial function. This study aimed to investigate the acute effects of WBPA on coronary microcirculation and glucose tolerance in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). The study s...

Background: Recent evidence suggests that erythromycin (EM), a major macrolide antibiotic, has many biological functions in addition to the anti-bacterial actions, including anti-inflammatory and free radical scavenging actions. However, the effects of the drug upon inflammatory myocardial diseases are unknown. We tested the hypothesis that EM ame...

Arterial stiffness is one of the biggest predictors of coronary heart disease (CHD). We evaluated whether brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) and augmentation index (AI) are correlated with risk factors of CHD. All of the 528 participants (270 males and 258 females) in this study were healthy workers aged from 36 to 69 (mean age: 47.9 ± 8.1...

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of treatment with an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor (Cilazapril) for early hypertensive patients in terms of coronary blood flow reserve evaluated by13NH3-positron emission tomography (PET). Methods Before and after 12 weeks of ACE inhibitor treatment,13NH3-PET with dipyrid...

Background: Lectin-like oxidized low-density lipoprotein receptor-1 (LOX-1) is a scavenger receptor, induced by oxidative stress, and suggested to be associated with atherosclerotic plaque destabilization. Soluble LOX-1 (sLOX-1) is known as a biomarker of acute coronary syndrome. It is reported that the LOX index, represented by multiplication of L...

Curcumin is an inhibitor of p300 histone acetyltransferase activity, which is associated with the deterioration of heart failure. We reported that native curcumin, at a dosage of 50 mg/kg, prevented deterioration of the systolic function in rat models of heart failure. To achieve more efficient oral pharmacological therapy against heart failure by...

We have recently found that the charge inhomogeneities provide significant broadening in the Cu-O bond stretching phonon of La2-xSrxCuO4, and the line shape of the phonon at zone boundary is well reproduced by the simple model which takes charge inhomogeneous effect into account [1]. The question is, now, how large intrinsic line width of the phono...

Lattice translational symmetry breaking has wide implications with a variety of emergent quantum phases of condensed matters. In cuprate superconductors, various types of shadow bands have been observed in ARPES as band replicas that are displaced from the main bands by specific wave vectors in momentum space, suggestive of the breaking of lattice...

While smoking cessation (SC) leads to a reduction of cardiovascular events, atherogenic biomarkers specifically connected with cigarette smoking and SC are unknown. Circulating levels of oxidatively modified low-density-lipoprotein (LDL) are associated with a high risk of cardiovascular diseases. Recently, two novel, oxidatively modified LDL marker...

We evaluated the durability of aortic valve preservation with root reconstruction for acute type A aortic dissection (AAAD). From January 2002 to March 2011, 140 patients [70 males, 68 ± 12 (SD) years] underwent emergency operation for AAAD. The aortic valve was preserved and one or more Valsalva sinuses were reconstructed. Techniques used for reco...

The mechanisms that lead from obesity to atherosclerotic disease are not fully understood. Obesity involves angiogenesis in which vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) plays a key role. On the other hand, vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C) plays a pivotal role in lymphangiogenesis. Circulating levels of VEGF-A and VEGF-C are elev...

Introduction: One of intrinsic histone acetyltransferases (HAT), p300, serves as a coactivator of hypertrophy-responsive transcriptional factors such as a cardiac zinc finger protein GATA4 and is involved in its hypertrophic stimulus-induced acetylation and DNA binding. Disruption of this complex results in the inhibition of hypertrophic responses...

Background: A zinc finger protein GATA4 is one of hypertrophy-responsive transcription factors, and increases its DNA-binding and transcriptional activities in response to hypertrophic stimuli in cardiomyocytes. Activation of GATA4 during this process is mediated, in part, through acetylation by intrinsic histone acetyltransferases such as a transc...

Background: We found that curcumin, a p300 histone acetyltransferase (HAT) inhibitor, prevents deterioration of the systolic function in rat heart failure models in vivo. To clinically apply this novel therapy to humans, it should be clarified whether or not curcumin has additional effects on conventional heart failure therapy comprising angiotensi...

Siberian ginseng (SG), the rhizome and root of Eleutherococcus senticosus, has been used as a tonic and anti-fatigue agent in northeastern Asia from ancient time. In recent years, SG has been becoming fairly popular as dietary supplements and health foods worldwide. In order to establish a convenient and sensitive method for authentication, chlorop...

Purely local experimental probes of many copper oxide superconductors show that their electronic states are inhomogeneous in real space. For example, scanning tunneling spectroscopic imaging shows strong variations in real space, and according to nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) studies, the charge distribution in the bulk varies on the nanoscale...

The Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department, Japan Coast Guard, have been developing precise seafloor positioning systems using the GPS/acoustic combination technique under technical cooperation with the Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo and carrying out campaign observations along the major trenches in the Pacific Ocean, s...

We have performed elastic neutron scattering measurements on the Fe-doped La 2-xSr xNiO 4 (LSNO) with 0.12 ≤ x ≤ 0.50 to study the magnetic impurity effects on the static spin correlations. In the pristine LSNO system, it is well known that both spin and charge stripe orders are stabilized at low temperatures in the wide hole concentration range fr...

The etiology of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is unknown. Orthostatic intolerance (OI) is common in CFS patients. Recently, small heart with low cardiac output has been postulated to be related to the genesis of both CFS and OI. Small heart is associated with OI in patients with CFS. Study CFS patients were divided into groups of 26 (57%) CFSOI(+)...

Purpose: There are several reports regarding an excessively high prevalence of undiagnosed sleep disordered breathing (SDB) in patients with permanent pacemaker implantation. Some programs for pacemakers utilize transthoracic impedance changes between the generator and the electrode tip to derive minute ventilation as a sensor for rate adaptation....

Purpose: Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) has been demonstrated to play an important role in the progression of left ventricular (LV) remodeling following myocardial damage by regulating the enzymatic systems of proteolysis and antiproteolysis. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether G-CSF acts as autocrine/paracrine facto...

Whole-body periodic acceleration (WBPA) has been developed as a passive exercise technique to improve endothelial function by increasing shear stress through repetitive movements in spinal axis direction. We investigated the effects of WBPA on blood flow recovery in a mouse model of hindlimb ischemia and in patients with peripheral arterial disease...

We assessed the hypothesis whether behavioral stress may affect the development of atherosclerosis and whether regular exercise training may influence the composition of atherosclerotic plaques in apolipoprotein (apo) E-deficient mice. Atherosclerosis was induced in apo E-deficient mice fed a high fat diet. Exercise training (45 min swimming, 3 tim...

Inelastic neutron scattering experiments have been performed on lightly doped La1.975Sr0.025CuO4, which contains a hole concentration slightly higher than the critical concentration for three-dimensional long-range antiferromagnetic order. We previously found that the magnetic excitation spectrum in the insulating phase with a diagonal incommensura...

A natural p300-specific histone acetyltransferase (HAT) inhibitor, curcumin, may have therapeutic potential for heart failure. However, it is unclear whether curcumin exhibits beneficial additive or synergistic effects on conventional therapy with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs). Rats were subjected to a sham operation or left coro...

We measured laser-induced damage thresholds (LIDTs) of dielectric and metallic coatings with Nd:YAG laser pulses. This study is the first trial to evaluate the temperature dependence of optical coating's LIDTs.

Curcumin is a polyphenol that is commonly used for its perceived health benefits. However, the absorption efficacy of curcumin is too low to exhibit beneficial effects. We have successfully developed a highly absorptive curcumin dispersed with colloidal nano-particles, and named it THERACURMIN. The absorption efficacy of THERACURMIN was investigate...

Coronary collateral circulation (CCC) is defined as an alternative blood-conveying circuit to the ischemic myocardium supplied by a jeopardized coronary artery. Accumulating evidence on CCC and its functional role has been derived from basic and clinical studies over several decades. Progress in molecular biology and genetic engineering has enabled...

The aims of this study were: (1) to show the feasibility of using adipose-derived stromal vascular fraction (SVF) as an alternative to bone marrow mono nuclear cell (BM-MNC) for cell transplantation into chronic ischemic myocardium; and (2) to explore underlying mechanisms with focus on anti-inflammation role of engrafted SVF and BM-MNC post chroni...

S100A8/A9 complex is a new inflammation-related protein and has a positive correlation with C-reaction protein level. However its role in chronic heart failure (CHF) remains unclear. Circulating levels of S100A8/A9 complex and other biomarkers (IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, and BNP) were measured in CHF (n = 54) and hypertensive without CHF (n = 31) as well a...

Whole-body periodic acceleration (WBPA) has been developed as a passive exercise device capable of improving endothelial function by applying pulsatile shear stress to vascular endothelium. We hypothesized that treatment with WBPA improves exercise capacity, myocardial ischemia, and left ventricular (LV) function because of increased coronary and p...

ChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 100 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract of an article which was published elsewhere, please select a “Full Text” option. The original article is trackable via the “References” option.

Low-energy spin excitation below 10 meV in non-superconducting lightly-doped BiSrCuO(BSCO)x=0.4 was studied by neutron-scattering measurement. We observed a broad single peak centered at (0.5, 0.5) reciprocal position in tetragonal notation. The intensity is enhanced with increasing the temperature, and weakens at the equivalent magnetic position w...

The Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department, Japan Coast Guard have been developing precise seafloor positioning systems using the GPS/acoustic combination technique under technical cooperation with the Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo and carrying out campaign observations along the major trenches in the Pacific Ocean, su...

Magnetic fluctuations of are investigated by using neutron scattering technique. Non-superconducting FeTe0.92 shows a pronounced magnetic fluctuation around , which is slightly smaller than the magnetic ordering vector . On the other hand, superconductor shows a magnetic fluctuation at , which is close to a reciprocal lattice vector Q = (0.5,0.5,0....

The circadian change in coronary microvascular function has not been directly assessed in human beings. Recent advances in transthoracic Doppler echocardiography (TTDE) provide noninvasive, physiological assessment of coronary flow velocity reserve (CFVR). This study consisted of 20 young healthy subjects (24 ± 2 years, 20 men) who underwent CFVR e...

Lectin-like oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor-1 (LOX-1) is a receptor for oxidized LDL, and is strongly expressed in endothelial cells at an early stage of atherosclerosis. LOX-1 expression in adipocytes is induced by PPARγ ligands and appears to be involved in adipocyte cholesterol metabolism. However, the role of adipose tissue LOX-...

Calcium channel blockers (CCB) and statins are frequently prescribed for patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) complicated by hypertension and/or hypercholesterolemia. CCB have pleiotropic actions beyond their blood pressure-lowering effect, while statins have pleiotropic actions beyond their cholesterol-lowering effect. We assessed the hypot...

Antiplatelet therapy is widely performed for arteriosclerosis obliterans (ASO) to relieve ischemic symptoms and prevent cardiovascular events. However, the overall rate of cardiovascular events in patients with ASO under treatment with antiplatelet agents has not been fully investigated in Japan. The SEASON registry is a nationwide observational pr...

Purpose: Signals activated by increased hemodynamic overload to the heart finally reach nuclei of cardiac myocytes, change patterns of gene expression and cause their maladaptive hypertrophy. Nuclear acetylation controlled by histone deacetylases and an intrinsic histone acetyltransferase (HAT), p300, is a critical event during this process. Recent...

Background: Vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C) plays a key role in lymphangiogenesis through binding to VEGF receptor-3 (VEGFR-3). A recent report demonstrated that naturally occurring soluble VEGFR-2 (sVEGFR-2) acts as a VEGF-C antagonist, while we reported that serum sVEGFR-2 levels are increased in patients with metabolic syndrome (Me...

Background: Placental growth factor (PlGF) is a homologue of vacular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) which is essential for angiogenesis and adipogenesis in obesity. PlGF plays an important role in pathological, but not in physiological, angiogenesis, and its inactivation impairs adipose tissue development in a murine model of diet-induced obe...

Low-dose antihypertensive drugs in combination are prescribed frequently in clinical practice. Combination treatment is superior to monotherapy with higher doses of each drug in terms of blood pressure reduction and side effects. However, it is unclear whether combination treatment provides additional prognostic benefit beyond the blood pressure lo...

Introduction: An intrinsic histone acetyltransferase (HAT), p300 is required for acetylation and the transcriptional activity of GATA4 as well as for cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and the development of heart failure in vivo. By mass spectrometric analyses, we identified SNF5/INI1, a component of the human SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex, as a nov...

Introduction: A zinc finger protein GATA4 is one of the hypertrophy-responsive transcription factors, and increases its DNA-binding and transcriptional activities in response to hypertrophic stimuli in cardiac myocytes. By tandem affinity purification and mass spectrometric analyses, we identified that retinoblastoma binding proteins, RbAp46 and Rb...

Calcium channel blockers (CCB) and statins are frequently prescribed for patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) complicated by hypertension and/or hypercholesterolemia. CCB have pleiotropic actions beyond their blood pressure-lowering effect, while statins have pleiotropic actions beyond their cholesterol-lowering effect. We assessed the hypot...

Myocardial ischaemia and angina have been demonstrated in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). We hypothesized that left ventricular (LV) systolic or diastolic dysfunction would be provocated by pacing tachycardia in patients with HCM. We investigated LV global and regional systolic and diastolic function in 17 patients with HCM without...

Lectin-like oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor-1 (LOX-1) is a receptor for oxidized LDL, and is strongly expressed in endothelial cells at an early stage of atherosclerosis. LOX-1 expression in adipocytes is induced by PPARgamma (ligands and appears to be involved in adipocyte cholesterol metabolism. However, the role of adipose tissue...

There is a tremendous body of data concerning the coronary collateral circulation in both experimental animals and humans. The functional importance of a well-developed coronary collateral circulation has now been documented. The paradigm regarding the principal stimulus for coronary collateral growth has shifted from myocardial ischemia to increas...