Publications by authors named "Akihiro Nita"

Cancer cells adeptly manipulate the tumor microenvironment (TME) to evade host antitumor immunity. However, the role of cancer cell-intrinsic signaling in shaping the immunosuppressive TME remains unclear. Here, we found that the Hippo pathway in cancer cells orchestrates the TME by influencing the composition of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Hippo pathway is a central regulator of tissue growth that has been widely studied in mammalian organ development, regeneration, and cancer biology. Although previous studies have convincingly revealed its cell-autonomous functions in controlling cell fate, such as cell proliferation, survival, and differentiation, accumulating evidence in recent years has revealed its non-cell-autonomous functions. This pathway regulates cell-cell communication through direct interactions, soluble factors, extracellular vesicles, and the extracellular matrix, providing a range of options for controlling diverse biological processes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Accumulating evidence suggests an association between iron metabolism and lung cancer progression. In biological systems, iron is present in either reduced (Fe ; ferrous) or oxidized (Fe ; ferric) states. However, ferrous and ferric iron exhibit distinct chemical and biological properties, the role of ferrous and ferric iron in lung cancer cell growth has not been clearly distinguished.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Accumulating evidence suggests that high levels of Fusobacterium nucleatum in colorectal tumor tissues can be associated with poor prognosis in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC); however, data regarding distinct prognostic subgroups in F. nucleatum-positive CRC remain limited. Herein, we demonstrate that high-iron status was associated with a worse prognosis in patients with CRC with F.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The CHD family contains nine ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling factors, with CHD4 playing a crucial role in regulating various cellular activities through interactions with several proteins, including the NuRD complex.
  • New research identified LCORL and NOL4L as novel proteins interacting with CHD4, using FLAG-tagged CHD4 in HeLa-S3 and HEK293T cells.
  • RNA-sequencing data indicated that depleting CHD4, LCORL, or NOL4L led to the up-regulation of genes associated with the Notch signaling pathway, suggesting these proteins collaborate with CHD4 to suppress this pathway in mammalian cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Although long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are transcripts that do not encode proteins by definition, some lncRNAs actually contain small open reading frames that are translated. TINCR (terminal differentiation-induced ncRNA) has been recognized as a lncRNA that contributes to keratinocyte differentiation. However, we here show that TINCR encodes a ubiquitin-like protein that is well conserved among species and whose expression was confirmed by the generation of mice harboring a FLAG epitope tag sequence in the endogenous open reading frame as well as by targeted proteomics.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - CHD8 is a protein important for remodeling chromatin and is frequently mutated in autism spectrum disorder; its exact functions are still not well understood.
  • - The study finds that CHD8 is crucial for maintaining hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), with its deletion in mouse bone marrow causing cell cycle issues, cell death, and blocked differentiation, linked to increased p53 activity.
  • - Interestingly, removing p53 can restore the impaired functions of CHD8-deficient HSCs, indicating that CHD8 and p53 work together to control the stemness and development of these cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

All trophoblast subtypes of the placenta are derived from trophoblast stem cells (TSCs). TSCs have the capacity to self-renew, but how the proliferation of these cells is regulated in the undifferentiated state has been largely unclear. We now show that the F-box protein Skp2 regulates the proliferation of TSCs and thereby plays a pivotal role in placental development in mice on the C57BL/6 background.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are maintained in a hypoxic niche to limit oxidative stress. Although iron elicits oxidative stress, the importance of iron homeostasis in HSCs has been unknown. Here we show that iron regulation by the F-box protein FBXL5 is required for HSC self-renewal.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity is a hallmark of stem cells including embryonic, adult tissue and cancer stem cells. The SCF(FBXL) (12) complex is an authentic ubiquitin ligase that targets ALDH3 for degradation. FBXL12 is essential for the differentiation of trophoblast stem cells into specific cell types in the placenta during mouse embryogenesis, but its physiological functions in adult tissues have remained unknown.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

How stem cells maintain their stemness or initiate exit from the stem cell state for differentiation remains largely unknown. Aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity is a hallmark of stem cells-including embryonic, adult tissue, and cancer stem cells-and is essential for their maintenance. The mechanisms by which ALDH activity is regulated in stem cells have remained poorly understood, however.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF