👤 Shunsuke Funakoshi

Cardiac fibrosis drives dysfunction in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM); yet, effective therapies are limited. This study identifies FGFR1 as a critical target in cardiac fibrosis using transcriptomic and histological analyses of 58 human DCM biopsies. FGFR1 expression correlated with fibrosis severity, and inhibition by AZD4547 reduced fibrosis and improved cardiac function in organoid and murine models. These findings validate FGFR1 inhibition as a promising therapeutic strategy for mitigating fibrosis and improving outcomes in heart failure associated with DCM. Show less

Engineered cardiac tissue (ECT) using human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes is a promising tool for modeling heart disease. However, tissue immaturity makes robust disease modeling difficult. Here, we established a method for modeling hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) malignant (MYH7 R719Q) and nonmalignant (MYBPC3 G115 Show less

The purpose of the present study was to identify molecular markers of hepatic damage during lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment. LPS (15 mg/kg of bodyweight) or vehicle was injected i.p. into 5-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats. Proteins were extracted from the liver and were electrophoresed to examine the changes in the protein compositions during LPS treatment. Using a proteomic approach, major LPS-responsible protein in the liver was determined. A massive reduction in the levels of carbamoyl phosphate synthase-1 (CPS1), one of the most abundant proteins in liver mitochondria, was revealed during LPS administration. Electron microscopic and immunofluorescence analyses revealed large vacuoles, which were often localized in the vicinity of mitochondria, in the LPS-treated rat liver. Furthermore, we found that CPS1 is released into the circulation prior to liver damage marker alanine aminotransferase, indicating the active extrusion of CPS1 during LPS administration. Another liver mitochondrial protein, ornithine transcarbamylase, is also released into the circulation, implicating active extrusion of mitochondrial proteins. These phenomena are accelerated by a heme oxygenase inducer cobalt protoporphyrin whilst suppressed by a lysosome inhibitor chloroquine. Plasma CPS1 should be a possible marker of septic liver damage and may be involved in systemic responses elicited by septic shock. Show less

Lymphatic lipid transport in the intestine of adult and ageing rats was compared. Adult (8-10 months old) and old (24-26 months old) male Wistar rats were cannulated into the mesenteric lymph under ethrane anesthesia. On the following day, lipid emulsion containing 35.4 mg/h of olive oil was infused intraduodenally for 7 h and lymph collected hourly was assayed for triglyceride and apolipoprotein A-IV (apo A-IV). The results showed there was no difference in lymphatic lipid and apo A-IV transport between adult and old rats. Since apo A-IV synthesis in the enterocytes is linked to the intracellular assembly of lipoprotein, it is likely that in addition to lymphatic transport, production of chylomicrons is not impaired in ageing rats. Show less