Staffs & Members
Faculty Member
Ryo Goitsuka, Ph.D., D.V.M. (Professor)
Guest
Researchers
Yasuhiro Kawai, Ph.D (Postdoctoral fellow)
Students
Shinya Hidano
Yohei Nakahara
Yousuke Shindo
Tomoko Hirota
Reina Ariki
Research Focus
My laboratory is interested in how appropriate tissue homeostasis is maintained
during aging and also after exposure to abnormal conditions such as inflammation,
allergy and malignancies. The functions as well as the size and cellular
composition of adult tissues are maintained by the regulated balance between
cell death and cell renewal through the differentiation of adult tissue
stem cells. In many tissues, adult tissue stem cells are recruited to replace
tissue lost to natural turnover or during damage. Despite the self-renewal
capacity of stem cells, adult tissues stem cells appear to gradually lose
the ability to regenerate tissue over time, hallmarks of aging. In stem
cell homeostasis, a delicate balance also exists between self-renewal and
terminal differentiation, because excessive self-renewal may initiate malignancies,
and increased differentiation may lead to premature exhaustion of the stem
cell pool. We have focused our attention on a subset of hematopoietic cells
with a long life span, mast cells and antigen-experienced plasma cells,
because these cells share several characteristics phenotypically and genetically
with hematopoietic stem cells. By generating conditional gene-targeting
mice, we have begun to explore the function of homeobox transcription factors
that are associated with the self-renewal of stem cells in regulating differentiation,
survival and maintenance of these long-lived cells.
Current Areas of Research include:
1. Regulation of stem cell homeostasis by Homeodomain transcription factors
2. The mechanisms of signal transduction that induces mast cell development
and activation
3. The mechanisms of natural killer (NK) cell activation
Recent Selected Publications
Fujii, Y., Wakahara, S., Nakao, T., Hara, T., Ohtake, H., Komurasaki, T.,
Kitamura, K., Tatsuno, A., Fujiwara, N., Hozumi, N., Ra, C., Kitamura,
D., and Goitsuka, R. 2003. Targeting of MIST to Src-family kinases via
SKAP55-SLAP-130 adaptor complex in mast cells. FEBS Letters 540:111-116.
Sasanuma, H., Tatsuno, A., Tsuji, K., Hidano, S., Kitamura, T., Kuno, M.,
Kitamura, D. and Goitsuka, R. 2004. Transcriptional regulation of SLP-76
family hematopoietic cell adaptor MIST/Clnk by STAT5. Biochem.Biophys.Res.Comm.321:145-153.
Sasanuma, H., Tatsuno, A., Hidano, S., Ohshima, K., Matsuzaki, Y., Hayashi,
K., Lowell, C. A., Kitamura, D. and Goitsuka, R.: Dual function for the
adaptor MIST in IFN-g production by NK and CD4+NKT cells regulated by the Src-kinase Fgr. Blood
107(9):3647-3655,
2006
Fujiwara N, Hidano S, Mamada H, Ogasawara K, Kitamura D, Cooper MD, Hozumi
N, Chen CL, Goitsuka R.: A novel avian homologue of CD72, chB1r, down modulates
BCR-mediated activation signals. Int Immunol. 18(5): 775-783, 2006.