Tohoku university school of medicine

Roles of matricellular proteins such as galectin-9 and osteopontin, in infectious disease have been investigated.  The teachers are also involved in Laboratory of disaster-related infectious diseases in International Research Institute of Disaster Science. The researches on ATL, AIDS, tuberculosis, Dengue and Leptospirosis are the target of research.  Variety of international collaborative researches are on-going.  Galcetin-9 levels were found to be extremely elevated in acute and Dengue and HIV  virus infections.  Immunological studies of latent tuberculosis infection in south-east Asia and sub-Sahara Africa are also on-going.

1) Involvement of osteopontin and its signaling molecule CD44 in clinicopathological features of ATL Leukemia Res 35:1484-90, 2011

2) Quinolone-induced up-regulation of osteopontin gene promoter activity in human lung epithelial cell line A549. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. 2012 56(6):2868-72. Epub 2012 Mar 19.

3) Cell Surface Galectin-9 Expressing Th Cells Regulate Th17 and Foxp3+ Treg Development by Galectin-9 Secretion. PLoS One. 2012;7(11):e48574. doi: 10.1371

4) Genotypes and characteristics of clustering and drug-susceptibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates in Heilongjiang Province, China J Clin Microbiol. (4):1354-62, 2011

5) Characterization of a CD4-independent clinical HIV-1 that can efficiently infect human hepatocytes through chemokine (C-X-C motif) receptor 4. AIDS.22(14):1749-57. 2008

ATL, AIDS, tuberculosis, Dengue, Galectin 9, Leptospirosis, Galectin-9, Osteopontin, ART, sub-Sahara