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This study investigates the role of topographic attributes in light scattering and diffuse reflection on the skin surface, and diffuse transmission across the surface layer. Validated ray-tracing simulations establish a quantitative link between subvisible micro texture (SMT) and macro texture to skin optical properties, representing youthful and healthy skin characteristics. Our findings reveal the dominant role of the subvisible micro texture parameter ( , the ratio of width to height) in governing light scattering. Smaller ratios, corresponding to fine SMT, result in increased diffuse reflection and create a more pronounced soft-focus effect, which plays a critical role in driving profound skin appearance such as radiance. While the macro texture parameter also influences scattering, its impact is less significant. Additionally, we quantify the impact of SMT on the transversal light movement from inside the skin to outside it. This simulation showed that more incident light leaves after traveling inside skin with smaller , a measure of finer SMT. Our validated 2D subvisible micro texture model accurately computes the light-skin interactions influenced by the various levels of the skin’s topographic features, offering valuable insights for cosmetics, dermatology, and aesthetic medical imaging.

Young women often complain about the daily fluctuation of their facial skin conditions. However, no objective study has been carried out on such changes. This study is aimed at quantitatively elucidating daily skin fluctuation and evaluating the efficacy of cosmetic skin care treatment. We developed the first portable and self-guided facial skin imaging device (eMR Pro) to reproducibly capture facial images at home. Two 8 week clinical studies were then conducted to analyze daily skin fluctuation of facial pore areas, roughness and redness in young Japanese women (n = 47 in study 1 and n = 57 in study 2) by collecting facial images three times a day, during the morning after wake-up, during the morning after face wash, and during the evening after face wash. After a 4 week baseline measurement period (week -4 to week -1), all subjects applied Galactomyces ferment filtrate (GFF, Pitera®) skin care formula twice a day for 4 weeks (week 1 to week 4). These three skin conditions did exhibit different fluctuation patterns. The pore area and roughness showed the “morning after wake-up”-largest fluctuation pattern, whereas redness showed the “evening after face wash”-largest fluctuation pattern. GFF treatment significantly reduced the net values and delta fluctuation of pore area, roughness, and redness, which were consistently observed in two studies. In conclusion, the daily fluctuation of facial skin conditions is potentially a new target field for investigating healthy skin maintenance.

The maternal contribution to the oocyte cytoplasm plays an important role during embryogenesis because it is involved in early cell fate specification and embryonic axis establishment. However, screening projects targeting maternal factors have only been conducted in a limited number of animal models, such as nematodes, fruit flies, and zebrafish, while few maternal genes have been analysed because of difficulties encountered in inhibiting gene products already expressed in the ovaries. Therefore, simple and efficient methods for large-scale maternal screening are necessary. The appendicularian Oikopleura dioica is a planktonic tunicate member of the chordates. Gonadal microinjection and a novel gene knockdown method, DNA interference (DNAi), have been developed for use in this animal with the aim of inhibiting gene functions during oogenesis within the gonad. In this study, we adapted these methods for large-scale maternal factor screening, and observed malformation phenotypes related to some maternal factors. Approximately 2000 (56.9%) ovary-enriched gene products were screened, of which the knockdown of seven encoding genes resulted in various abnormalities during embryonic development. Most of these were related to microtubules and cell adhesion-related proteins. We conclude that DNAi is a potentially powerful screening tool for the identification of novel maternal factors in chordates.

RNA sequencing analysis was carried out to characterize egg and larval transcriptomes in the appendicularian, Oikopleura dioica, a planktonic chordate, which is characterized by rapid development and short life cycle of 5 days, using a Japanese population of the organism. De novo transcriptome assembly matched with 16,423 proteins corresponding to 95.4 % of the protein-encoding genes deposited in the OikoBase, the genome database of the Norwegian population. Nucleotide and amino acid sequence identities between the Japanese and Norwegian O. dioica were estimated to be around 91.0 and 94.8 %, respectively. We discovered 175 novel protein-encoding genes: 144 unigenes were common to both the Japanese and Norwegian populations, whereas 31 unigenes were not found in the OikoBase genome reference. Among the total 12,311 unigenes, approximately 63 % were detected in egg-stage RNAs, whereas 99 % were detected in larval stage RNAs; 3772 genes were up-regulated, and 1336 genes were down-regulated more than four-fold in the larvae. Gene ontology analyses characterized gene activities in these two developmental stages. We found a messenger RNA (mRNA) 5′ trans-spliced leader, which was observed in 40.8 % of the total unique transcripts. It showed preferential linkage to adenine at the 5′ ends of the downstream exons. Trans-splicing was observed more frequently in egg mRNAs compared with larva-specific mRNAs.

Dullness or lack of radiance in facial appearance is a common concern among females. Previous studies have linked skin dullness to aging and revealed alterations in skin pigments. However, younger individuals (ages ≤ 35) also report concerns about dull skin in their hectic daily lives, which may not involve pigmentation changes. We hypothesized that the mechanisms underlying dullness in youth differ from those associated with aging. To investigate this, we measured cellular and molecular changes in 132 healthy Japanese and Chinese females aged 18 to 35 using biophotonic multiphoton tomography and biochemical tape-strip analysis. Our findings revealed that dull skin exhibited a thicker stratum granulosum and less densely packed keratinocytes in deeper layers. Biochemical analysis showed upregulation of interleukin-36γ and downregulation of E-cadherin in dull skin, with interleukin-36γ levels negatively correlating (p = 0.023) with metabolites of filaggrin. These alterations resemble those observed in inflammatory skin conditions, suggesting an additional mechanism of skin dullness beyond pigmentation. In vitro cultured cell models evaluated the efficacy of three skincare ingredients: galactomyces fermentation filtrate, bisabolol, and batyl alcohol. Galactomyces suppressed interleukin-36γ (p = 0.037), while both batyl alcohol (p = 0.006) and bisabolol (p = 0.049) showed beneficial effects on filaggrin. Targeting these biomarkers may improve the appearance of dull skin.

The appendicularian Oikopleura dioica is a chordate that has a remarkably simple adult body with small cell number. Its transparency, stereotyped cell lineages, short life cycle, and small genome make it a promising new experimental model of chordate developmental biology. However, the functions of its various genes are still poorly understood due to lack of a tool for suppression of gene expression. Here, we applied a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-based-RNA interference (RNAi) method in O. dioica. For introducing dsRNA into eggs and embryos, we injected dsRNAs into the ovary. dsRNA, which is specific to EGFP or mCherry mRNA, decreased the exogenous mRNA-derived fluorescence in both eggs and embryos. dsRNA specific to the Brachyury gene of O. dioica, which is a homologous gene of a key notochord transcriptional factor in ascidians, triggered degradation of endogenous Brachyury mRNA and induced malformation or loss of the notochord in the tail. This effect was Brachyury sequence specific, as three dsRNAs covering different sequences produced the same phenotype. The result is in accordance with its expression site and also with the key regulatory function of Brachyury in notochord formation in other chordates. RNAi in O. dioica would be a useful tool for gaining insight into the oogenesis and early developmental processes in chordates.

Background Well‐being is commonly communicated across industries; however, experimental understanding how human perceive skin health and skin stresses are not sufficient. Materials and Methods Image analysis algorithm, a* gradient, was developed to evaluate spatial pattern and shape of red signal on skin. Human perception for skin health and stresses were compared with technical measurements in two visual perception studies. Results a* gradient correlated with perceived Inflamed Skin (R = 0.73, p < 0.01), Stressed Skin (R = 0.79, p < 0.01), Sensitive Skin (R = 0.75, p < 0.01), Healthy Skin (R = ‐0.83, p < 0.01), and Start Aging (R = 0.75, p < 0.01). Conclusions Disordered spatial pattern of redness signal drives human perception of skin health, stress, and aging. This new skin index of redness signal shows higher correlation with those human perception than basal a* mean, unevenness of a*, and other conventional skin color attributes.

RNA interference is widely employed as a gene-silencing system in eukaryotes for host defence against invading nucleic acids. In response to invading double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), mRNA is degraded in sequence-specific manner. So far, however, DNA interference (DNAi) has been reported only in plants, ciliates and archaea, and has not been explored in Metazoa. Here, we demonstrate that linear double-stranded DNA promotes both sequence-specific transcription blocking and mRNA degradation in developing embryos of the appendicularian Oikopleura dioica. Introduced polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products or linearized plasmids encoding Brachyury induced tail malformation and mRNA degradation. This malformation was also promoted by DNA fragments of the putative 5′-flanking region and intron without the coding region. PCR products encoding Zic-like1 and acetylcholine esterase also induced loss of sensory organ and muscle acetylcholinesterase activity, respectively. Co-injection of mRNA encoding EGFP and mCherry, and PCR products encoding these fluorescent proteins, induced sequence-specific decrease in the green or red fluorescence, respectively. These results suggest that O. dioica possesses a defence system against exogenous DNA and RNA, and that DNA fragment-induced gene silencing would be mediated through transcription blocking as well as mRNA degradation. This is the first report of DNAi in Metazoa.

RNA interference is widely employed as a gene-silencing system in eukaryotes for host defence against invading nucleic acids. In response to invading double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), mRNA is degraded in sequence-specific manner. So far, however, DNA interference (DNAi) has been reported only in plants, ciliates and archaea, and has not been explored in Metazoa. Here, we demonstrate that linear double-stranded DNA promotes both sequencespecific transcription blocking and mRNA degradation in developing embryos of the appendicularian OUoopleura dioica. Introduced polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products or linearized plasmids encoding Brachyury induced tail malformation and mRNA degradation. This malformation was also promoted by DNA fragments of the putative 5'-flanking region and intron without the coding region. PCR products encoding Zic-likel and acetylcholine esterase also induced loss of sensory organ and muscle acetylcholinesterase activity, respectively. Co-injection of mRNA encoding EGFP and mCherry, and PCR products encoding these fluorescent proteins, induced sequence-specific decrease in the green or red fluorescence, respectively. These results suggest that O. dioica possesses a defence system against exogenous DNA and RNA, and that DNA fragment-induced gene silencing would be mediated through transcription blocking as well as mRNA degradation. This is the first report of DNAi in Metazoa.

Simulating the effects of skincare products on face is a potential new way to communicate the efficacy of skincare products in skin diagnostics and product recommendations. Furthermore, such simulations enable one to anticipate his/her skin conditions and better manage skin health. However, there is a lack of effective simulations today. In this paper, we propose the first simulation model to reveal facial pore changes after using skincare products. Our simulation pipeline consists of 2 steps: training data establishment and facial pore simulation. To establish training data, we collect face images with various pore quality indexes from short-term (8-weeks) clinical studies. People often experience significant skin fluctuations (due to natural rhythms, external stressors, etc.,), which introduces large perturbations in clinical data. To address this problem, we propose a sliding window mechanism to clean data and select representative index(es) to represent facial pore changes. Facial pore simulation stage consists of 3 modules: UNet-based segmentation module to localize facial pores; regression module to predict time-dependent warping hyperparameters; and deformation module, taking warping hyperparameters and pore segmentation labels as inputs, to precisely deform pores accordingly. The proposed simulation is able to render realistic facial pore changes. And this work will pave the way for future research in facial skin simulation and skincare product developments.