Research projects

生体の7割を占める「水」はどのような役割をもつのか。溶媒としての「水分子」は、バイオマーカーと言われる溶質が特定の立体的構造を形成し、生物学的機能を発現する際の要である。つまり溶媒と溶質の相互関係を可視化することが出来れば、“なぜ生命体が「水」を 必要とするのか”の問いに答えられるのではないか。

Based on the finding that membrane damage caused by ultra-quick freezing is rescued by the expression of AQP4, we proposed a novel cell-selection method using ultra-quick freezing combined with AQP expression. In this project, we examined if the residual undifferentiated cells can be removed during differentiation from iPS cells to neural stem cells by the ultra-quick freezing since AQP4 expression is induced in neural stem cells. As expected, AQP4 positive cells were slightly concentrated. However, there was no difference, before and after the ultra-quick freezing, in terms of tumor formation after transferring of the neural stem cells into mouse testis tissues. Further optimal conditioning of AQP4 expression is required in neural stem cells for clinical application.

The aim of this research is provided that a hypoxia microenvironment is a key component of the human oral mucosa stem cell. Because, tissue culture plays an important role in cell biology by using the CO_2 incubator have been widely employed. But this conventional CO_2 incubator poses a structural problem if hypoxia tissue culture is to be performed. We proposed the individual tissue culture system with hypoxic atmosphere for the microenvironment of stem cell.

Here we show that membrane damage caused by ultra-quick freezing is rescued by the expression of AQP4. We next examine if the expression of AQP4 combined with ultra-quick freezing can bes used to select cells efficiently under freezing conditions where most cells are died. Finally we propose that this simple but efficient and safe method may be applicable to the selection of mammalian cells for applications in regenerative medicine as well as cell-based functional assays or drug screening protocols.