Tohoku university school of medicine

A life that has born more than 35 to 40 billion years ago has now become 80 million also known as the "diversity". "Birth of the eye" has an important influence for this diversity. We have studied the eye. In particular, we have focused the treatment of retinal degeneration. Nobody can maintain the quality of life without good function of the eye. However, many refractory and still no cure eye diseases, especially retinal disease exists. We have been studying the development of new treatments for these eye diseases. These are cell transplantation, delivery of neurotrophic factor, development of new affinity for biological materials and so on. The evolution of organisms can not ignore the occurrence of oxygen and we have also examined weather this oxygen is available to maintain the retinal function or not. Because many of the devastating retinal diseases include ischemic retinal condition. With the department of Ophthalmology, we will try to introduce new therapeutic materials as soon as possible.

1)Topical doxycycline can induce expression of BDNF in transduced retinal pigment epithelial cells transplanted into the subretinal space. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. ;49(8):3631-9. 2008 BDNF expression from the cells transplanted at the subretinal space is controlled by DOX eye drops and rescue photoreceptor cells from various toxicities.

2)Iris pigment epithelial cell transplantation for degenerative retinal diseases. Prog Retin Eye Res. ;26(3):302-21. 2007 The results of cultured autologous iris pigment epithelial cell transplantation in patients with age-related macular degeneration and neurotrophic factor expressing cell transplantation in rats were described.

3)Development and commercialization of biomaterials using salmon atelocollagen “Industrial Achievement Award” of the Society for Biotechnology, Japan 12-9-2006 Collagen biomaterials were developed from discarded salmon skins in the food industry. Applications to small-caliber vascular grafts, artificial periodontal ligaments, and scaffolds for cell-sheet preparation and stretching culture were demonstrated. Salmon collagen is expected to be much safer because of the reduced risk of pathogen transmission such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

4)Development of salmon collagen vascular graft: Mechanical and biological properties and preliminary implantation study Journal of Biomedical Materials Research: Part B, Applied Biomaterials、DOI: 10.1007/s10856-008-3512-4 2008 Small-caliber vascular grafts were developed from salmon collagen. Their practical use for replacement material of abdominal aorta was demonstrated by animal study using rats.

5)In vitro growth and differentiated activities of human periodontal ligament fibroblasts cultured on salmon collagen gel Journal of Biomedical Materials Research. Part A, 82 (2), 395-402 2007 Cell culture scaffold was developed from salmon collagen. The paper demonstrated that growth and differentiated activities of the cells cultured on salmon collagen gel were comparable to those on porcine collagen gel.

Ophthalmology, Retinal disease, Cell transplantation, Neurotrophic factor, Gene therapy, Collagen, Ischemia, Oxygen, Cell culture, Regenerative medicine