Urea is an endogenous metabolite, known to enhance stratum corneum hydration. Yet, topical urea anecdotally also improves permeability barrier function, and it appears to exhibit antimicrobial activity. Hence, we hypothesized that urea is not merely a passive metabolite, but a small-molecule regulator of epidermal structure and function. In 21 human volunteers, topical urea improved barrier fun...

The challenges and dilemmas faced by disadvantaged populations with kidney disease are tremendous. Patients, health care providers, and investigators struggle to manage and understand the high burden of disease, the practical approach to delivery of high cost renal replacement therapy with limited resources, implementation of preventive strategies , and the difficult ethical dilemmas. The purpo...

Purpose We investigate the effect of topical application of mizoribine (MZR) eye drops on CD4+ T-cell-mediated immunity and epithelial damage in ocular surface of dry eye disease (DED). Methods Topical application of MZR or vehicle eye drops was performed in mice subjected to desiccating stress (DS). The phenol red cotton test was used to measure tear production, and Oregon-green-dextran (OGD...

A length-dependent neuropathy with pain in the feet is a common complication of diabetes (painful diabetic neuropathy). It was hypothesized that pain may arise from sensitized-hyperactive cutaneous nociceptors, and that this abnormal signaling may be reduced by topical administration of the α(2)-adrenergic agonist, clonidine, to the painful area. This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-con...

BACKGROUND Recent advances in infantile nystagmus syndrome (INS) surgery have uncovered the therapeutic importance of proprioception. In this report, we test the hypothesis that the topical carbonic anhydrase inhibitor (CAI) brinzolamide (Azopt) has beneficial effects on measures of nystagmus foveation quality in a subject with INS. METHODS Eye movement data were taken, using a high-speed dig...

PURPOSE This « in-vitro » study had two specific aims: the first, to test using a universal testing machine whether sub-ablative Er:YAG laser irradiation prior to acid etching is effective in orthodontic bracket bonding and secondly using micro-hardness measurements and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) observations to investigate the effectiveness of de-mineralization reduction in enamel trea...

Palpation, a standard procedure in the diagnostic process of muscular pain conditions – myalgia, aims to provoke a muscular pain response. The origin of pain elicited by palpation is not fully understood. There is also a possibility that the pressure elicit response from mechanoreceptors in skin, sub mucosal tissue or periosteum, which may affect the validity of the method. The aim of this stud...

Experimental protocols and functional studies: All animal procedures were approved by the Animal Studies Subcommittee (IACUC) of the San Francisco Veterans Administration Medical Center and performed in accordance with their guidelines. Since hesperidin is not soluble in 100% ethanol, 70% ethanol was used as vehicle. Since the turnover time for hairless is about 8-9.5 days in normal young mice ...