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Biomedical subjects

Masaki Kato

Publications and source records attributed to Masaki Kato.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

Influence of hepatitis B virus genotypes on the progression of chronic type B liver disease.

To investigate the hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotype-related differences in the progression of liver disease, 585 patients with chronic HBV infection including 258 with histologically verified chronic liver disease (CLD) and 74 with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were examined. The mean ages of both patients with advanced fibrosis (F3 or F4) and with HCC were significantly older in genotype B than in genotype C patients (P =.018, P =.024, respectively). Both the hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) negativity rate at biopsy and the cumulative HBe seroconversion rate in patients with CLD were significantly higher in genotype B patients than genotype C patients (P <.01, P =.022, respectively). Multivariate analysis revealed that genotype B, presence of precore mutation, high ALT levels, and severe histologic activity were independent factors for HBe seroconversion. Among all the biopsy-proven CLD patients, the ratio of patients with advanced fibrosis in genotype B was significantly lower than that in genotype C (4/30 vs. 74/224, respectively; P =.034). This difference was more remarkable in younger patients (< or =45 years; 1/25 vs. 47/180, respectively; P =.020), and there was no difference in older patients (>45 years). The distribution of each genotype between CLD and HCC was very similar (B and C: 11.2% and 87.0% vs. 10.8% and 89.2%, respectively). In conclusion, our results suggest that, although the patients with genotype B experience earlier HBe seroconversion, slower progression of liver fibrosis, and slower development of HCC, the life-long risk of progression to advanced fibrosis and development of HCC may not differ among genotypes B- and C-related chronic liver disease.

Adult↗

Identification of candidate genes for Sjögren's syndrome using MRL/lpr mouse model of Sjögren's syndrome and cDNA microarray analysis.

Sjögren's syndrome is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by focal lymphocytic infiltration of lacrimal and salivary glands, but the precise mechanism of this syndrome is poorly understood. To clarify the mechanism of onset and progression of Sjögren's syndrome, it is necessary to identify Sjögren's syndrome-related genes. For this purpose, we used MLR/MpJ-lpr/lpr (MRL/lpr) mouse as a model of human secondary Sjögren's syndrome and analyzed specific mRNA expression pattern in MRL/lpr mouse salivary glands by in-house cDNA microarray. Among arrayed 2304 genes, 13 genes were isolated as highly expressed genes in MRL/lpr mouse salivary gland in comparison with MRL/MpJ-+/+ (MRL/+) mouse tissue. Subsequently, we performed RT-PCR analysis and confirmed the high expression level of nine genes; caspase3, Ly-6C.2, vimentin, Mel-14 antigen, cathepsin B, mpt1, Laptm5, Gnai2 and UCP2. Five of the nine genes have already been identified in patients with Sjögren's syndrome or mice models of the syndrome, but the remaining four genes; mpt1, Laptm5, Gnai2, and UCP2 have not been reported previously as Sjögren's syndrome-related genes. Although, further experiments are necessary to examine the relationship between these four genes and Sjögren's syndrome, our system of mouse model of Sjögren's syndrome combined with in-house cDNA microarray is suitable for the isolation of Sjögren's syndrome-related genes.

Animals↗

Cbfa1-independent decrease in osteoblast proliferation, osteopenia, and persistent embryonic eye vascularization in mice deficient in Lrp5, a Wnt coreceptor.

The low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein (Lrp)-5 functions as a Wnt coreceptor. Here we show that mice with a targeted disruption of Lrp5 develop a low bone mass phenotype. In vivo and in vitro analyses indicate that this phenotype becomes evident postnatally, and demonstrate that it is secondary to decreased osteoblast proliferation and function in a Cbfa1-independent manner. Lrp5 is expressed in osteoblasts and is required for optimal Wnt signaling in osteoblasts. In addition, Lrp5-deficient mice display persistent embryonic eye vascularization due to a failure of macrophage-induced endothelial cell apoptosis. These results implicate Wnt proteins in the postnatal control of vascular regression and bone formation, two functions affected in many diseases. Moreover, these features recapitulate human osteoporosis-pseudoglioma syndrome, caused by LRP5 inactivation.

Animals↗

Identification of the p33(ING1)-regulated genes that include cyclin B1 and proto-oncogene DEK by using cDNA microarray in a mouse mammary epithelial cell line NMuMG.

The candidate tumor suppressor p33(ING1) plays an important role in inducinggrowth arrest at G(0)-G(1) phase of the cell cycle and/or promoting apoptosis in cancerous cells. p33(ING1) is reported to act as a transcriptional cofactor by associating with tumor suppressor p53, HAT, or histone deacetyltransferase, suggesting that p33(ING1) is involved in chromatin-mediated transcriptional regulation. However, the molecular mechanism of p33(ING1)-mediated transcriptional regulation is poorly understood. Here we analyzed expression profiles in mouse mammary epithelial cells (NMuMG) by using a cDNA microarray consisting of 2304 mouse cDNAs after inducing transformation with antisense inhibitor of growth 1 (ING1) in retrovirus vector. The subsequent confirmation of the altered expression levels of the selected genes by semiquantitative reverse transcription-PCR demonstrated that overexpression of the antisense ING1 stimulated expression of 14 genes, which included cyclin B1, 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate-inducible sequence 11, proto-oncogene DEK, and osteopontin, whereas we have detected transcriptional repression of 5 genes, including TPT1. In addition, adenovirus-mediated overexpression of ING1 in NMuMG cells resulted in down-regulation of cyclin B1, 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate-inducible sequence 11, DEK, and osteopontin, whereas the levels of TPT1 expression were increased. The further analysis using p53(-/-) SAOS2 cells showed that the p33(ING1)-induced cyclin B1 down-regulation was p53 dependent. Thus, our cDNA microarray analysis suggested that p33(ING1) targets the multiple genes, including proto-oncogene DEK and cyclin B1, at least some of which are regulated in a p53-dependent manner, in the cells undergoing cell growth or apoptosis.

Animals↗

Toxicogenomic effects of neonatal exposure to diethylstilbestrol on mouse testicular gene expression in the long term: a study using cDNA microarray analysis.

We examined the effect of neonatal exposure to diethylstilbestrol (DES) on mouse testicular gene expression, using in-house mouse fetus (day 14.5) cDNA microarrays. Newborn male ICR mice were exposed to DES (50 microg/mouse/day) from neonatal day 1 to 5. Differential expression was detected in 14 genes in 4-week-old (day 28) mouse testes by cDNA microarray analysis; 11 genes (AI035263, AU080565, AU080361, AU080678, AI131681, AU080631, AA986882, AI037066, AA986537, AI156816, and AI596237) were up-regulated and three genes (AI131656, AI118968, and AI117606) were down-regulated in DES-treated mouse testes. Higher expression levels of the former eight genes, out of the up-regulated genes picked-up by the microarray, were also confirmed by reverse transcription and real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time RT-PCR) analysis. However, the differential expression of other genes could not be confirmed. Real-time RT-PCR analysis also revealed that expression levels of the eight genes were still higher in DES-treated testes at 8 and 12 weeks of age. Our results suggest that cDNA microarray analysis is a useful method by which a large number of gene expressions are simultaneously detected and changes in gene expression are screened. In addition, our results suggest that these genes, whose expressions are changed in the testes of adult mice by fetal or neonatal exposure to exogenous chemicals, might be candidates for predictive biological markers.

Animals↗

Bisphenol a diglycidyl ether (BADGE) suppresses tumor necrosis factor-alpha production as a PPARgamma agonist in the murine macrophage-like cell line, RAW 264.7.

Bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (BADGE) is a newly described peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) antagonist in adipogenic cells. In contrast, in the macrophage-like cell line RAW 264.7, BADGE, like the PPARgamma agonist pioglitazone hydrochloride, not only increased promoter activity of the PPARgamma-luciferase reporter gene, but also suppressed lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) production. These results suggest that BADGE is a PPARgamma agonist in RAW 264.7 cells. Furthermore, overexpression of the coactivator p300 restored BADGE- or pioglitazone hydrochloride-suppressed promoter activity of the nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappaB)-luciferase reporter gene, suggesting that PPARgamma may interfere with NF-kappaB transcriptional activity via coactivator competition.

Animals↗