417 results match your criteria: "International Research Center for Medical Sciences[Affiliation]"

Progenitor effect in the spleen drives early recovery via universal hematopoietic cell inflation.

Cell Rep

January 2025

Division of Cell Regulation, Center for Experimental Medicine and Systems Biology, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; Division of Cell Engineering, Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; Laboratory for Stem Cell Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, Tsukuba University, Ibaraki, Japan. Electronic address:

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) possess the capacity to regenerate the entire hematopoietic system. However, the precise HSC dynamics in the early post-transplantation phase remain an enigma. Clinically, the initial hematopoiesis in the post-transplantation period is critical, necessitating strategies to accelerate hematopoietic recovery.

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Nucleic acid metabolism: the key therapeutic target for myeloid tumors.

Exp Hematol

December 2024

Division of Molecular Oncology, Department of Computational Biology and Medical Sciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Japan. Electronic address:

Nucleic acid analogs, including cytarabine, decitabine, and azacitidine, have significantly advanced therapeutic approaches for myeloid tumors over the past five decades. Nucleic acid metabolism is a crucial pathway driving myeloid tumorigenesis, with emerging evidence indicating that myeloid tumors are particularly dependent on the de novo nucleotide synthesis pathway, underscoring its potential as a therapeutic target. This review provides a comprehensive overview of nucleic acid metabolism, focusing on de novo nucleotide synthesis.

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Iron regulates MT1-MMP-mediated proMMP-2 activation and cancer cell invasion.

Biochem Biophys Res Commun

January 2025

Division of Education for Global Standard, Institute of Liberal Arts and Science, Kanazawa University, Kakuma-machi, Kanazawa, 920-1192, Japan. Electronic address:

Cellular iron plays a crucial role in many crucial physiological processes. Excessive iron retention due to iron influx and efflux imbalance contributes to cancer development and proliferation, as well as malignant conversion. Membrane-type 1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) plays a crucial role in tumor invasion and metastasis, because this enzyme can degrade various extracellular matrix components and cleave membrane tethered proteins on the cell surface.

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Rapid test for hepatitis B core-related antigen to identify people living with hepatitis B having high viral load in Cameroon.

Virology

January 2025

Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Unité d'Épidémiologie des Maladies Émergentes, Paris, France; International Research Center for Medical Sciences (IRCMS), Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan; Pasteur International Unit at Kumamoto University / National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Japan. Electronic address:

This study presents a retrospective assessment of the diagnostic performance of the newly developed hepatitis B core-related antigen rapid diagnostic test (HBcrAg-RDT) in detecting plasma samples with elevated hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA levels (≥200,000 IU/ml) in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Samples were collected consecutively from treatment-naïve adults living with HBV between January 1, 2021, and June 30, 2023. Analyzing 146 samples from participants with a median age of 36 years, the HBcrAg-RDT exhibited a sensitivity of 97.

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Microbiome and Hemato-immune Aging.

Exp Hematol

January 2025

Laboratory of Stem Cell Stress, International Research Center for Medical Sciences, Kumamoto University, Japan; Center for Metabolic Regulation of Healthy Aging, Kumamoto University, Japan. Electronic address:

The microbiome is a highly complex and diverse symbiotic component that undergoes dynamic changes with the organismal aging. Microbial perturbations, termed dysbiosis, exert strong influence on dysregulating the bone marrow niche and subsequently promoting the aging of hematopoietic and immune system. Accumulating studies have revealed the substantial impact of intestinal microbiome on the initiation and progression of age-related hematologic alteration and diseases, such as clonal hematopoiesis and blood cancers.

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Bone morphogenetic protein 4 induces hematopoietic stem cell development from murine hemogenic endothelial cells in culture.

Stem Cell Reports

December 2024

Department of Cell Differentiation, Institute of Molecular Embryology and Genetics, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan. Electronic address:

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) develop from hemogenic endothelial cells (HECs) during mouse embryogenesis. Understanding the signaling molecules required for HSC development is crucial for the in vitro derivation of HSCs. We previously induced HSCs from embryonic HECs, isolated at embryonic day 10.

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From ashes to insights: decoding water and electrolyte balance in colitis.

Hypertens Res

January 2025

Developmental Cardiology Laboratory, International Research Center for Medical Sciences (IRCMS), Kumamoto University, 2-2-1 Honjo, Chuo-ku, Kumamoto City, 860-0811, Japan.

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Cell class-specific long-range axonal projections of neurons in mouse whisker-related somatosensory cortices.

Elife

October 2024

Laboratory of Sensory Processing, Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland.

Article Synopsis
  • - The study examines long-range axonal projections of various neocortical excitatory neurons and their role in processing sensory, cognitive, and motor signals across the brain.
  • - Researchers utilized light-sheet imaging and convolutional networks to analyze axon distributions from specific genetically defined neuronal classes in the somatosensory cortex, mapping their density using the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas.
  • - Findings revealed distinct projection patterns to multiple brain areas from different neuron classes, indicating organized connectivity, particularly between somatosensory and motor cortices, which reflect the anatomical structure of these connections.
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IRF8 defines the epigenetic landscape in postnatal microglia, thereby directing their transcriptome programs.

Nat Immunol

October 2024

Division of Developmental Biology, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.

Microglia are innate immune cells in the brain. Transcription factor IRF8 (interferon regulatory factor 8) is highly expressed in microglia. However, its role in postnatal microglia development is unknown.

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Expansion effect of romiplostim on hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells versus thrombopoietin and eltrombopag.

Int J Hematol

November 2024

Research Division, Research Unit, Biomedical Science Research Laboratories 2, Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd, 3-6-6, Asahi-Machi, Machida-Shi, Tokyo, 194-8533, Japan.

Romiplostim, a thrombopoietin (TPO) receptor agonist, is a clinically approved drug that is clearly effective in reconstituting hematopoiesis in refractory aplastic anemia and idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. However, the mechanism underlying its biological effect is unknown, and its differences from other TPO receptor agonists remain unclear. Therefore, we determined the in vitro expansion effect of romiplostim on human CD34 + hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) versus recombinant human TPO (rhTPO) and another clinically available drug, eltrombopag.

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Article Synopsis
  • Limb reduction has a long history in tetrapods, with emus being a key model for studying genetic mechanisms behind this phenomenon.
  • The study reveals that the absence of distal muscles leads to skeletal shortening, fusion, and variability in wing structure due to immobilization.
  • Analysis shows that muscle progenitor cells with distinct signatures contribute to this process, and their death is linked to reduced mechanical loading, impacting the wing's morphology during development.
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Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) react to various stress conditions. However, it is unclear whether and how HSCs respond to severe anemia. Here, we demonstrate that upon induction of acute anemia, HSCs rapidly proliferate and enhance their erythroid differentiation potential.

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From a biochemical viewpoint, the cell cycle is controlled by the phosphorylation of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) substrates, and the phosphorylation level is determined by the enzymatic balance between CDK and protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A). However, the conventional techniques for analyzing protein phosphorylation using radioisotopes and antibodies involve many operational steps and take days before obtaining results, making them difficult to apply to high-throughput screening and real-time observations. In this study, we developed luminescent probes with a light intensity that changes depending on its phosphorylation state.

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Subsoil is a large organic carbon reservoir, storing more than half of the total soil organic carbon (SOC) globally. Conventionally, subsoil is assumed to not be susceptible to climate change, but recent studies document that climate change could significantly alter subsoil carbon cycling. However, little is known about subsoil microbial responses to the interactive effects of climate warming and altered precipitation.

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Background: Mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) induces cardiac inflammation cooperatively with nuclear factor-κB and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3); MR blockers exert anti-inflammatory effects. However, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. We investigated the anti-inflammatory effect of esaxerenone, a novel MR blocker, in experimental myocardial infarction (MI) and its underlying mechanisms.

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Article Synopsis
  • Somatic hypermutations (SHMs) in the immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) gene are common in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and are known to result in immunogenic neoantigens, but their prognostic impact hasn't been extensively studied.
  • The BIOMED-2 PCR protocol, a standard for analyzing lymphoid malignancies, can miss some cases due to these SHMs, prompting the design of three primer sets to enhance detection.
  • A study of 301 DLBCL patients showed that complete detection of IgH V PCR patterns via this improved approach correlated with worse overall survival and progression-free survival compared to patients with different patterns, indicating its potential utility in clinical prognosis.
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[Infection stress and a driver mutation interact to promote transformation to hematological malignancies].

Rinsho Ketsueki

August 2024

Laboratory of Transcriptional Regulation in Leukemogenesis, International Research Center for Medical Sciences, Kumamoto University.

Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is a refractory cancer that arises from hematopoietic stem cells and predominantly affects elderly adults. In addition to driver gene mutations, which are also found in clonal hematopoiesis in healthy elderly people, systemic inflammation caused by infection or collagen disease has long been known as an extracellular factor in the pathogenesis of MDS. Wild-type HSCs have an "innate immune memory" that functions in response to infection and inflammatory stress, and my colleagues and I used an infection stress model to demonstrate that the innate immune response by the TLR-TRIF-PLK-ELF1 pathway is similarly critical in impairment of hematopoiesis and dysregulation of chromatin in MDS stem cells.

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Transition of signal requirement in hematopoietic stem cell development from hemogenic endothelial cells.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

July 2024

Department of Cell Differentiation, Institute of Molecular Embryology and Genetics, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto 860-0811, Japan.

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) develop from hemogenic endothelial cells (HECs) in vivo during mouse embryogenesis. When cultured in vitro, cells from the embryo phenotypically defined as pre-HSC-I and pre-HSC-II have the potential to differentiate into HSCs. However, minimal factors required for HSC induction from HECs have not yet been determined.

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Mobilization dynamics of bone marrow hematopoietic stem cells during hematopoietic regeneration.

Exp Hematol

October 2024

Laboratory of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Engineering, International Research Center for Medical Sciences, Kumamoto University, Chuo-Ku, Kumamoto, Japan. Electronic address:

Under stress hematopoiesis, previous studies have suggested the migration of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) from bone marrow (BM) to extramedullary sites such as the spleen. However, there is little direct evidence of HSC migration from the BM to the spleen. Here, we induced myeloablation via 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and showed direct evidence of HSC migration from BM to spleen during hematopoietic regeneration via a photoconvertible fluorophore.

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Integrin-α9 overexpression underlies the niche-independent maintenance of leukemia stem cells in acute myeloid leukemia.

Gene

November 2024

Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore; International Research Center for Medical Sciences, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan; Department of General Internal Medicine, Kumamoto Kenhoku Hospital, Kumamoto, Japan. Electronic address:

Leukemia stem cells (LSCs) are widely believed to reside in well-characterized bone marrow (BM) niches; however, the capacity of the BM niches to accommodate LSCs is insufficient, and a significant proportion of LSCs are instead maintained in regions outside the BM. The molecular basis for this niche-independent behavior of LSCs remains elusive. Here, we show that integrin-α9 overexpression (ITGA9 OE) plays a pivotal role in the extramedullary maintenance of LSCs by molecularly mimicking the niche-interacting status, through the binding with its soluble ligand, osteopontin (OPN).

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IL-10 induces activated phenotypes of monocytes observed in virally-suppressed HIV-1-infected individuals.

Biochem Biophys Res Commun

October 2024

Joint Research Center for Human Retrovirus Infection, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan. Electronic address:

Article Synopsis
  • HIV-1-infected individuals on antiretroviral therapy still face higher risks of non-AIDS-related health issues due to ongoing chronic inflammation, marked by specific changes in monocytes like increased CD16 subsets and elevated soluble markers sCD163 and sCD14.
  • The study reveals that IL-10, an anti-inflammatory cytokine, can activate monocytes by increasing CD16 and other soluble markers through multiple signaling pathways, including Stat3 and AMPK.
  • Additionally, the HIV-1 protein Nef promotes the production of IL-10 in macrophages, suggesting that IL-10 contributes to the persistent activated state of monocytes in individuals who have achieved viral suppression.
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