Publications by authors named "Tomoko Funakoshi"

In metazoans, the nuclear envelope (NE) disassembles during the prophase and reassembles around segregated chromatids during the telophase. The process of NE formation has been extensively studied using live-cell imaging. At the early step of NE reassembly in human cells, specific pattern-like localization of inner nuclear membrane (INM) proteins, connected to the nuclear pore complex (NPC), was observed in the so-called "core" region and "noncore" region on telophase chromosomes, which corresponded to the "pore-free" region and the "pore-rich" region, respectively, in the early G1 interphase nucleus.

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infection can be regulated by autophagy-related () genes. Here, we found that the depletion of , one of the core genes, in HeLa cells suppressed growth in the inclusion. The growth was restored by re-expressing or an mutant impairing lipid scramblase activity in -knockout (KO) cells.

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NRF2 is a transcription factor responsible for antioxidant stress responses that is usually regulated in a redox-dependent manner. p62 bodies formed by liquid-liquid phase separation contain Ser349-phosphorylated p62, which participates in the redox-independent activation of NRF2. However, the regulatory mechanism and physiological significance of p62 phosphorylation remain unclear.

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Article Synopsis
  • Autophagy plays a key role in regulating the degradation of specific biomolecular structures, such as p62/SQSTM1 bodies, to prevent diseases like cancer.
  • Researchers developed a new method to purify and analyze the components of p62 bodies in human cells, revealing that a complex called vault is involved in this process.
  • The study identifies a mechanism called vault-phagy, where major vault protein interacts with NBR1 to facilitate the degradation of vaults, and suggests that disruptions in this process may link to certain liver cancers.
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Neutrophil adhesion on the atheroprone femoral artery of high-fat diet-fed low-density lipoprotein receptor-null mice was enhanced more than in wild-type mice. The inhibition of histone H3 citrullination of neutrophils reversed the enhancement of neutrophil adhesion, suggesting that hypercitrullination contributes to enhanced neutrophil adhesion. Furthermore, pemafibrate reduced the citrullination of histone H3 in these mice.

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L-Ascorbic acid (AsA) is a water-soluble antioxidant. We examined the effect of AsA deficiency on skeletal muscle using senescence marker protein-30 (SMP30)-knockout (KO) mice that are defective in AsA biosynthesis, which makes this mouse model similar to humans, to clarify the function of AsA in skeletal muscle. Eight-week-old female SMP30-KO mice were divided into the following two groups: an AsA-sufficient group [AsA(+)] that was administered 1.

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Several studies have reported the effects of vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid, AA) on ultraviolet B (UVB)-induced cell damage using cultured keratinocytes. However, the epidermis consists of multiple cell layers, and the effect of AA on UVB-induced damage to the human epidermis remains unclear. Therefore, we investigated the effect of AA on UVB-induced skin damage using reconstituted human epidermis.

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Article Synopsis
  • Muscle satellite cells are specialized cells that help maintain muscle mass but can also turn into fat cells, which may contribute to fat buildup in aging muscles or in diabetes.
  • Quercetin, a natural compound found in foods like onions and apples, has properties that may help prevent muscle satellite cells from turning into fat cells.
  • In experiments with rat muscle cells, researchers found that quercetin effectively blocked the process of fat cell formation by reducing the activity of specific genes associated with fat development.
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Introduction: Macrophage infiltration may play an important role in mediating the development of muscle atrophy. However, temporal differences in the activation of muscle atrophy signaling pathways and the progress of macrophage infiltration during the atrophic phases of cast immobilization are currently unknown.

Methods: C57BL/6J mice were euthanized after cast immobilization at 1, 3, 7, and 14 days.

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Nucleocytoplasmic transport is crucial not only for basic cellular activities but also for the physiological adaptation of cells to various environmental stimuli that affect development, cell-fate determination, or disease development. The basic transport mechanisms have been revealed during the past two decades through the identification and biochemical characterizations of factors mediating the transport, dissecting the transport process and examining the function of nuclear pore complexes (NPCs). In this chapter, we describe methods for a nuclear transport reconstitution assay using digitonin-permeabilized mammalian cells.

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In eukaryotic cells, the nucleus is a complex and sophisticated organelle that organizes genomic DNA to support essential cellular functions. The nuclear surface contains many nuclear pore complexes (NPCs), channels for macromolecular transport between the cytoplasm and nucleus. It is well known that the number of NPCs almost doubles during interphase in cycling cells.

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In metazoans with "open" mitosis, cells undergo structural changes involving the complete disassembly of the nuclear envelope (NE). In post-mitosis, the dividing cell faces the difficulty to reassemble NE structures in a highly regulated fashion around separated chromosomes. The de novo formation of nuclear pore complexes (NPCs), which are gateways between the cytoplasm and nucleoplasm across the nuclear membrane, is an archetype of macromolecular assembly and is therefore of special interest.

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A nuclear pore complex (NPC) is a large protein assembly that mediates the nucleocytoplasmic exchange of molecules. During the cell cycle, NPCs assemble, disassemble, and dynamically change their distribution on assembled nuclear envelope (NE), whereas in post-mitosis, NPCs are extremely stable. Extensive studies on its components, structure, and building blocks allow the study of its assembly and disassembly at the molecular level.

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In open mitosis the nuclear envelope (NE) reassembles at the end of each mitosis. This process involves the reformation of the nuclear pore complex (NPC), the inner and outer nuclear membranes, and the nuclear lamina. In human cells cell cycle-dependent NE subdomains exist, characterized as A-type lamin-rich/NPC-free or B-type lamin-rich/NPC-rich, which are initially formed as core or noncore regions on mitotic chromosomes, respectively.

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The nuclear pore complex (NPC) is a large protein assembly that mediates molecular trafficking between the cytoplasm and the nucleus. NPCs assemble twice during the cell cycle in metazoans: postmitosis and during interphase. In this study, using small interfering RNA (siRNA) in conjunction with a cell fusion-based NPC assembly assay, we demonstrated that pore membrane protein (Pom)121, a vertebrate-specific integral membrane nucleoporin, is indispensable for an early step in interphase NPC assembly.

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Nuclear volume and the number of nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) on the nucleus almost double during interphase in dividing cells. How these events are coordinated with the cell cycle is poorly understood, particularly in mammalian cells. We report here, based on newly developed techniques for visualizing NPC formation, that cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdks), especially Cdk1 and Cdk2, promote interphase NPC formation in human dividing cells.

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The translational regulator YB-1 binds to mRNAs. In the brain, YB-1 is prominently expressed from the prenatal stage until the first week after birth, being associated with polysomes and distributed in neuronal dendrites, but its expression declines to a much lower level thereafter. It is therefore of interest to identify the mRNAs whose translation is controlled by YB-1 in the postnatal growing brain.

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Pom121 is one of the integral membrane components of the nuclear pore complex (NPC) in vertebrate cells. Unlike rodent cells carrying a single POM121 gene, human cells possess multiple POM121 gene loci on chromosome 7q11.23, as a consequence of complex segmental-duplications in this region during human evolution.

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Y-box proteins are DNA- and RNA-binding proteins and control specific gene expression at both transcriptional and translational levels. Particularly in germ cells, it has been reported that Y-box proteins bind to paternal or maternal mRNAs to form mRNPs, mask them from translation and control cell maturation. In this study, we cloned cDNA for a Y-box protein from rat brain.

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Neuronal cell-specific BC1 RNA is a unique RNA polymerase III (Pol III) transcript. The transcription is controlled by an activator E2 site and by BCRE, a repressor element, in response to neuronal activity. BC1 RNA is localized to dendritic domains as ribonucleoprotein particles, and it has been suggested to play a functional role in translational regulation of dendritic mRNAs.

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