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Molecular Transport分子輸送学講座
Staffs
- Professor (concurrent): Katsuya Yamada
- Lecturer: Hideki Iijima
- Assistant professor: Yota Tatara, Shuya Kasai
Research Projects
Dr. Yamada has been engaged in the development and application of fluorophore-bearing L-glucose analogues for imaging functional anomalies of mammalian cells during his career. He discovered that various types of malignant tumor cells are capable of taking in the L-glucose analogues in a specific manner.
To understand mechanisms underlying the uptake has been one of major subjects of intensive studies in his laboratory. Applications of the L-glucose analogues in clinical settings especially for cancer diagnosis have been targeted as well over the last decade. Experiments focusing on cellular treatment of cancer are ongoing based on the specific uptake of the L-glucose analogues.
Further Details
Mammalian cells take D-glucose into cells as a fuel. Dr. Yamada has established that NBD (a small green fluorophore)-bearing D-glucose analogue 2-NBDG is useful to monitor this process in single living cells with Drs. Hideaki Matsuoka and Nobuya Inagaki. To evaluate the uptake of 2-NBDG more precisely, he developed NBD-bearing L-glucose analogue 2-NBDLG as a negative control substrate. Beyond his expectation, a small population of mouse insulin-secreting clonal cells that express malignant phenotypes took up abundant 2-NBDLG. Similar uptake was confirmed in a human osteosarcoma cell line as well.
The 2-NBDLG uptake in these cells was specifically abolished by phloretin, a broad-spectrum inhibitor of transporters/channels. The 2-NBDLG uptake was detected in living ascites cells of cancer patients as well. Five-year prognosis of the patients has suggested that 2-NBDLG is a promising marker for identifying cancer cells based on a functional anomaly in the cellular activity.