Kumamoto University

About: Kumamoto University is a education organization based out in Kumamoto, Kumamoto, Japan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Cancer. The organization has 19602 authors who have published 35513 publications receiving 901260 citations. The organization is also known as: Kumamoto Daigaku.

Acyl-CoA dehydrogenases and acyl-CoA oxidases. Structural basis for mechanistic similarities and differences.

Abstract: Acyl-CoA dehydrogenases and acyl-CoA oxidases are two closely related FAD-containing enzyme families that are present in mitochondria and peroxisomes, respectively. They catalyze the dehydrogenation of acyl-CoA thioesters to the corresponding trans-2-enoyl-CoA. This review examines the structure of medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase, as a representative of the dehydrogenase family, with respect to the catalytic mechanism and its broad chain length specificity. Comparing the structures of four other acyl-CoA dehydrogenases provides further insights into the structural basis for the substrate specificity of each of these enzymes. In addition, the structure of peroxisomal acyl-CoA oxidase II from rat liver is compared to that of medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase, and the structural basis for their different oxidative half reactions is discussed.

Generation of kidney from pluripotent stem cells via blastocyst complementation.

Abstract: Because a shortage of donor organs has been a major obstacle to the expansion of organ transplantation programs, the generation of transplantable organs is among the ultimate goals of regenerative medicine. However, the complex cellular interactions among and within tissues that are required for organogenesis are difficult to recapitulate in vitro . As an alternative, we used blastocyst complementation to generate pluripotent stem cell (PSC)–derived donor organs in vivo . We hypothesized that if we injected PSCs into blastocysts obtained from mutant mice in which the development of a certain organ was precluded by genetic manipulation, thereby leaving a niche for organ development, the PSC-derived cells would developmentally compensate for the defect and form the missing organ. In our previous work, we showed proof-of-principle findings of pancreas generation by injection of PSCs into pancreas-deficient Pdx1 −/− mouse blastocysts. In this study, we have extended this technique to kidney generation using Sall1 −/− mouse blastocysts. As a result, the defective cells were totally replaced, and the kidneys were entirely formed by the injected mouse PSC-derived cells, except for structures not under the influence of Sall1 expression (ie, collecting ducts and microvasculature). These findings indicate that blastocyst complementation can be extended to generate PSC-derived kidneys. This system may therefore provide novel insights into renal organogenesis.

Induction of Strong and Tunable Circularly Polarized Luminescence of Nonchiral, Nonmetal, Low‐Molecular‐Weight Fluorophores Using Chiral Nanotemplates

Abstract: A new strategy is described for generating strong circularly polarized luminescence with highly tunable emission bands through chiral induction in nonchiral, totally organic, low-molecular-weight fluorescent dyes by chiral nanotemplate systems. Our approach allows the first systematic investigation to clarify the correlation between the circular dichroism and circularly polarized luminescence intensities. As a result, a dilute solution system with the highest circularly polarized luminescence intensity achieved to date and a dissymmetry factor of over 0.1 was identified.