Kohei Kawamoto

• Medical Doctor at kawamoto ent clinic

Endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) has now become the standard treatment for medically refractory chronic sinusitis. The most frequently occurring complication is lateralization of the middle turbinate and synechia formation in the middle meatus, which increases the risk of recurrence of the sinusitis and may necessitate a revision surgery. Several met...

Eosinophilic chronic rhinosinusitis (ECRS) is an intractable form of CRS, which has a high incidence of recurrence after endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS). It causes several physical symptoms, such as nasal obstruction, nasal discharge, post-nasal drip and loss of smell, which have a negative impact on quality of life (QOL). To access the objective an...

Endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) has now become the standard treatment for medically refractory chronic sinusitis. The most frequently occurring complication is lateralization of the middle turbinate and synechia formation in the middle meatus, which increases the risk of recurrence of the sinusitis and may necessitate a revision surgery. Several met...

Primary sebaceous carcinoma of the parotid gland is extremely rare, and because of its rarity, clinicopathological characteristics and histogenesis are not fully understood. Here, we report a patient who presented with a left infra-auricular painless mass. We present the histological features and discuss possible optimal treatments based on previou...

Septoplasty is one of the frequently performed surgical procedures among nasal surgeries. Sometimes suture of the mucosa of the nasal septum is necessary and useful to prevent mucoperichondrial flap perforation or hematoma. Because the mucoperichondrial flap has little tension once peeled from the septum, suturing is not technically easy. We used a...

As shown in the concept of ‘one airway, one disease’, there is a close relationship between the upper and lower airways and the possibility for the development of airway inflammation. In many cases of the patients with eosinophilic sinusitis also developed the adult onset asthma. Otorhinolaryngologists and physicians of internal medicine evaluate u...

Presbycusis is the impairment of auditory function associated with aging, which stems from peripheral cochlear lesions and degeneration of the central auditory process. The effect of age-induced peripheral hearing loss on the central auditory process is not fully understood. C57Bl/6 (C57) mice present accelerated peripheral hearing loss, which is w...

Balloon sinuplasty is a technique in endoscopic sinus surgery that involves minimally invasive procedures to dilate the obstructed or stenosed anatomical sinus pathways. Procedure is derived from the well-recognized techinique of angioplasty. This article highlights the procedural methods with review of literature and my personal experience in ball...

Advanced endoscopy has become preferred modality in treating sinonasal inverted papilloma (IP) with Krouse staging T3 case. We applied maxillary swing approach to the nasolacrimal duct and inferior turbinate for IP because it provides a wide surgical field for the maxillary sinus without damaging for the nasolacrimal duct or inferior turbinate muco...

Whereas most epithelial tissues turn-over and regenerate after a traumatic lesion, this restorative ability is diminished in the sensory epithelia of the inner ear; it is absent in the cochlea and exists only in a limited capacity in the vestibular epithelium. The extent of regeneration in vestibular hair cells has been characterized for several ma...

Branchio-oto-renal (BOR) syndrome is an autosomal dominant inherited disorder characterized by malformation of the external ear, cervical fistula, hearing loss, and renal anomalies. Branchio-oto (BO) syndrome is a part of BOR in which the phenotype shows only cervical fistula and hearing loss. We experienced two cases of BO syndrome in a Chinese fa...

Several genes are candidates for treating inner ear diseases. For clinical applications, minimally invasive approaches to the inner ear are desirable along with minimal side-effects. Adeno-associated virus (AAV) was used as a vector into the guinea pig inner ear. Six AAV-cytomegalovirus hybrids (AAV-2/1, -2/2, -2/5, -2/7, -2/8 and -2/9) were infuse...

We attempted to rescue supralethally irradiated (SLI) mice by transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) plus thymus from variously aged donors (fetus, newborn and adult). Although the transplantations of these kinds of HSCs alone showed a very short survival, newborn liver cells (NLCs) (as the source of HSCs) plus newborn thymus (NT) trans...

Sensorineural hearing loss, which is often caused by degeneration of hair cells in the auditory epithelium, is permanent because lost hair cells are not replaced. Several conceptual approaches can be used to place new hair cells in the auditory epithelium. One possibility is to enhance proliferation of non-sensory cells that remain in the deaf ear...

Antidepressant treatments have been described to induce neurotrophic factors (NTFs) and reverse the cell loss observed in rodent stress models. Amitriptyline (AT), a tricyclic antidepressant agent, has been reported in recent studies to induce glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) synthesis and release in rat C6 glioblastoma cells. GDN...

When sinusoidal electric stimulation is applied to the intact cochlea, a frequency-specific acoustic emission can be recorded in the ear canal. Acoustic emissions are produced by basilar membrane motion, and have been used to suggest a corresponding acoustic sensation termed "electromotile hearing." Electromotile hearing has been specifically attri...

Until now, there has been no effective therapy for chronic sensorineural hearing impairment. This study investigated the role of bone marrow cells (BMCs) in cochlear dysfunction. BALB/c mice (2 months of age), a non-presbycusis-prone mouse strain, were lethally irradiated and then transplanted with BMCs from SAMP1 mice (2 months of age), a presbycu...

p27(Kip1) (p27) has been shown to inhibit several cyclin-dependent kinase molecules and to play a central role in regulating entry into the cell cycle. Once hair cells in the cochlea are formed, p27 is expressed in non-sensory cells of the organ of Corti and prevents their re-entry into the cell cycle. In one line of p27 deficient mice (p27(-/-)),...

Spinal anesthesia is a very common procedure that is performed on a daily basis in surgical clinical practice. Well known complications include headache, nausea and vertigo. Hearing loss is also a known yet uncommon complication that is usually transient and seldom presents any problems. We report a case of bilateral low-frequency sensorineural hea...

In the mammalian auditory system, sensory cell loss resulting from aging, ototoxic drugs, infections, overstimulation and other causes is irreversible and leads to permanent sensorineural hearing loss. To restore hearing, it is necessary to generate new functional hair cells. One potential way to regenerate hair cells is to induce a phenotypic tran...

Brief cochlear excitotoxicity produces temporary neural swelling and transient deficits in auditory sensitivity; however, the consequences of long-lasting excitotoxic insult have not been tested. Chronic intra-cochlear infusion of the glutamate agonist AMPA (a-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid) resulted in functional deficits in th...

The auditory sensory epithelium is a mosaic composed of sensory (hair) cells and several types of non-sensory (supporting) cells. All these cells are highly differentiated in their structure and function. Mosaic epithelia (and other complex tissues) are generally formed by differentiation of distinct and specialized cell types from common progenito...

Hair cell loss, the most common cause of deafness, is often associated with auditory nerve degeneration. Our goal was to determine the influence of combined ciliary-derived neurotrophic factor (CNTF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene therapy on the survival of spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) after elimination of inner hair cells in t...

Aminoglycosides are commonly used antibiotics that often induce ototoxicity leading to permanent hair cell loss and hearing impairment. The ototoxic effects of aminoglycosides have been linked to oxidative stress. To determine the feasibility of antioxidant gene therapy for protecting the inner ear against aminoglycoside-induced oxidative stress, w...

Problem: Hair cell loss in mammals is irreversible, leading to permanent hearing impairment. To restore hearing, it is necessary to generate new hair cells to replace the lost cells. Math1, the mouse homolog of the Drosophila gene atonal is necessary for hair cell development. Over-expression of Math1 in the adult guinea pig cochlea can generate ne...

Tight junctions (TJs) create ion-selective paracellular permeability barriers between extracellular compartments. In the organ of Corti of the inner ear, TJs of the reticular lamina separate K(+)-rich endolymph and Na(+)-rich perilymph. In humans, mutations of the gene encoding claudin 14 TJ protein cause profound deafness but the underlying pathog...

Hair cell loss in the mammalian cochlea is irreversible and results in permanent hearing loss. Math1, the basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor homolog of the Drosophila atonal gene, is a positive regulator of hair cell differentiation during cochlear development. Developing hair cells express Math1, and nonsensory cells do not. We set out to...

Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) overexpression in the inner ear can protect hair cells against degeneration induced by aminoglycoside ototoxicity. The protective efficiency of GDNF increases when it is combined with co-factors such as transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF-beta1), a ubiquitous cytokine. The aim of this study was t...

Gene transfer using a recombinant adenovirus is a powerful tool for research and clinical applications, but its cytotoxicity and immune response limit its use, especially when repeated application of the vector is necessary. This study investigated the effects of dexamethasone (DEX)-induced immunosuppression on the outcome of adenovirus gene transf...

As with other cranial nerves and many CNS neurons, primary auditory neurons degenerate as a consequence of loss of input from their target cells, the inner hair cells (IHCs). Electrical stimulation (ES) of spiral ganglion cells (SGCs) has been shown to enhance their survival. Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) has also been shown to...

To utilize the rapidly accumulating genetic information for developing new therapeutic technologies for inner ear disease, it is necessary to design technologies for expressing transgenes in the inner ear, especially in the organ of Corti. We examined the outcome of an adenovirus gene transfer into the organ of Corti via the scala media in guinea p...

Inner ear disease due to hair cell loss is common, and no restorative treatments for the balance and hearing impairment are currently available. To develop clinical means for enhancing protection and regeneration in the inner ear, it is necessary to understand the molecular basis for hereditary and acquired deafness and vestibular disorders. One ap...

Mice present an ideal model for inner ear gene therapy because their genome is being rapidly sequenced, their generation time is relatively short, and they serve as a valuable model for human hereditary inner ear disease. However, the small size of the mouse inner ear poses a particular challenge for surgical procedures. We have developed a new app...

Several groups demonstrated in animal experiments that gene transfer is a feasible tool for inner ear intervention. Various approaches for inoculation of vectors have been successfully used for inner ear gene therapy. One possible way to reduce the risk of hearing loss following the opening of the cochlea for application of the vector into the peri...

The availability of genetic information, transgenic and knock-out animals make the mouse a primary model in biomedical research. Aminoglycoside ototoxicity, however, has rarely been studied in mature mice because they are considered highly resistant to the drugs. This study presents models for kanamycin ototoxicity in adult CBA/J, C57BL/6 and BALB/...

Hintergrund: Mehrere Arbeitsgruppen haben im Tierexperiment demonstriert, dass eine Gentherapie zur Innenohrintervention geeignet sein kann. Verschiedene Zugangswege sind hierfür am Versuchstier erfolgreich angewendet worden. Um das Risiko einer Innenohrschädigung durch eine Eröffnung des Perilymphraums im Rahmen der Vektorapplikation zu vermeiden,...

Environmental inner ear insults often lead to hair cell injury and loss. Therapeutic measures for the prevention of hair cell loss are currently limited. Several reports have demonstrated the applicability of growth factors for hair cell protection. The goal of the experiments presented here was to assess the protective capability of the human GDNF...

Perceptual benefits from the cochlear prosthesis are related to the quantity and quality of the patient's auditory nerve population. Multiple neurotrophic factors, such as glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), have been shown to have important roles in the survival of inner ear auditory neurons, including protection of deafferented sp...

Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/42436/1/10162-1-4-315_00010315.pdf