著者

Qing Li

出版者

The Japanese Society for Hygiene

雑誌

Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine (ISSN:1342078X)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.27, pp.43, 2022 (Released:2022-11-01)

参考文献数

63

被引用文献数

17

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Humans have enjoyed forest environments for ages because of the quiet atmosphere, beautiful scenery, mild climate, pleasant aromas, and fresh, clean air. In Japan, since 2004, serial studies have been conducted to investigate the effects of forest environments (Forest bathing/Shinrin-yoku) on human health. My research team has established a new medical science called Forest Medicine. The Forest Medicine is a new interdisciplinary science, belonging to the categories of alternative medicine, environmental medicine and preventive medicine, which studies the effects of forest environments (Forest bathing/Shinrin-yoku) on human health. It has been reported that Forest bathing/Shinrin-yoku has the following beneficial effects on human health:1 Shinrin-yoku increases human natural killer (NK) activity, the number of NK cells, and the intracellular levels of anti-cancer proteins, suggesting a preventive effect on cancers. 2 Shinrin-yoku reduces blood pressure and heart rate showing preventive effect on hypertension and heart diseases. 3 Shinrin-yoku reduces stress hormones, such as urinary adrenaline and noradrenaline and salivary/serum cortisol contributing to stress management. 4 Shinrin-yoku increases the activity of parasympathetic nerves and reduces the activity of sympathetic nerves to stabilize the balance of autonomic nervous system. 5 Shinrin-yoku improve sleep. 6 Shinrin-yoku increases the levels of serum adiponectin and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate. 7 In the Profile of Mood States (POMS) test, Shinrin-yoku reduces the scores for anxiety, depression, anger, fatigue, and confusion, and increases the score for vigor, showing preventive effects on depression. 8 Shinrin-yoku may apply to rehabilitation medicine 9 Shinrin-yoku in city parks also has benefits on human health. 10 Shinrin-yoku may have preventive effect on COVID-19 by boosting immune function and by reducing mental stress.Taken together, these findings suggest that Shinrin-yoku may have potential preventive effects on non-communicable diseases.

著者

Qing Li

出版者

The Medical Association of Nippon Medical School

雑誌

Journal of Nippon Medical School (ISSN:13454676)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.74, no.2, pp.92-105, 2007 (Released:2007-05-14)

参考文献数

77

被引用文献数

34 59

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Organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) are widely used throughout the world as insecticides in agriculture and as eradicating agents for termites around homes. The main toxicity of OPs is neurotoxicity, which is caused by the inhibition of acetylcholinesterase. OPs also affect the immune response, including effects on antibody production, interleukin-2 production, T cell proliferation, decrease of CD5 cells, and increases of CD26 cells and autoantibodies, Th1/Th2 cytokine profiles, and the inhibition of natural killer (NK) cell, lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cell, and cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) activities. However, there have been few studies of the mechanism of OP-induced immunotoxicity, especially the mechanism of OP-induced inhibition of cytolytic activity of killer cells. This study reviews new mechanisms of OP-induced inhibition of the activities of NK cells, LAK cells, and CTLs. It has been reported that NK cells, LAK cells, and CTLs induce cell death in tumors or virus-infected target cells by two main mechanisms. The first mechanism is direct release of cytolytic granules that contain the pore-forming protein perforin, several serine proteases termed granzymes, and granulysin by exocytosis to kill target cells, which is called the granule exocytosis pathway. The second mechanism is mediated by the Fas ligand (Fas-L)/Fas pathway, in which FasL (CD95 L), a surface membrane ligand of the killer cell cross links with the target cell's surface death receptor Fas (CD95) to induce apoptosis of the target cells. To date, it has been reported that OPs inhibit NK cell, LAK cell, and CTL activities by at least the following three mechanisms: 1) OPs impair the granule exocytosis pathway of NK cells, LAK cells, and CTLs by inhibiting the activity of granzymes, and by decreasing the intracellular levels of perforin, granzyme A, and granulysin, which were mediated by inducing degranulation of NK cells and by inhibiting the transcription of the mRNAs of perforin, granzyme A, and granulysin. 2) OPs impair the FasL/Fas pathway of NK cells, LAK cells, and CTLs, as investigated by using perforin-knockout mice, in which the granule exocytosis pathway of NK cells does not function and only the FasL/Fas pathway remains functional. 3) OPs induce apoptosis of immune cells.

著者

Qing LI Yong FAN Xiaofang SUN Yanhong YU

出版者

日本繁殖生物学会

雑誌

Journal of Reproduction and Development (ISSN:09168818)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.2012-109, (Released:2012-11-09)

被引用文献数

2 13

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The ectopic expression of transcription factors for reprogramming human somatic cells to a pluripotent state represents a valuable resource for the development of in vitro-based models for human disease and has great potential in regenerative therapies. However, the majority of studies have used skin fibroblasts to generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) that typically require the enforced expression of several transcription factors, thereby posing a mutagenesis risk by the insertion of viral transgenes. To reduce this risk, iPSCs have been generated with OCT4 and KLF4 from human neural stem cells that endogenously express the remaining reprogramming factors. However, human neural stem cells are rare and difficult to obtain. Here, we show that iPSCs can be generated from human amniotic fluid cells (hAFCs) with two transcription factors: OCT4 and KLF4. Furthermore, iPSCs can be readily derived from hAFCs in a feeder-free conditions, thereby eliminating the potential variability caused by using feeder cells. Our results indicate that hAFCs represent an accessible source of cells that can be reprogrammed into pluripotent stem cells with two Yamanaka factors. Therefore, hAFCs may become a preferred cell type in the future for safe reprogramming without any exogenous genetic material.

著者

Yong FAN Yumei LUO Xinjie CHEN Qing LI Xiaofang SUN

出版者

The Society for Reproduction and Development

雑誌

Journal of Reproduction and Development (ISSN:09168818)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.1204060449, (Released:2012-04-13)

被引用文献数

29 36

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Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from somatic cells of patients represent a powerful tool for biomedical research and may have a wide range of applications in cell and gene therapy. However, the safety issues and the low efficiency associated with generating human iPSCs have limited their usage in clinical settings. The cell type used to create iPSCs can significantly influence the reprogramming efficiency and kinetics. Here, we show that amniotic fluid cells from the prenatal diagnosis of a β-thalassemia patient can be efficiently reprogrammed using a doxycycline (DOX)-inducible humanized version of the single lentiviral “stem cell cassette” vector flanked by loxP sites, which can be excised with Cre recombinase. We also demonstrated that the patient-derived iPSCs can be characterized based on the expression of pluripotency markers, and they can be differentiated into various somatic cell types in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, microarray analysis demonstrates a high correlation coefficient between human β-thalassemia iPS cells and human embryonic stem (hES) cells but a low correlation coefficient between human β-thalassemia amniotic fluid cells and human β-thalassemia iPS cells. Our data suggest that amniotic fluid cells may be an ideal human somatic cell resource for rapid and efficient generation of patient-specific iPS cells.