Takanori Hasegawa

Novel regulation of MHC class II function in B cells

The presence of post‐translational regulation of MHC class II (MHC II) under physiological conditions has been demonstrated recently in dendritic cells (DCs) that potently function as antigen‐presenting cells (APCs). Here, we report that MARCH‐I, an E3 ubiquitin ligase, plays a pivotal role in the post‐translational regulation of MHC II in B cells. MARCH‐I expression was particularly high in B cells, and the forced expression of MARCH‐I induced the ubiquitination of MHC II. In B cells from MARCH‐I‐deficient mice (MARCH‐I KO), the half‐life of surface MHC II was prolonged and the ubiquitinated form of MHC II completely disappeared. In addition, MARCH‐I‐deficient B cells highly expressed exogenous antigen‐loaded MHC II on their surface and showed high ability to present exogenous antigens. These results suggest that the function of MHC II in B cells is regulated through ubiquitination by MARCH‐I.

Membrane-bound human SCF/KL promotes in vivo human hematopoietic engraftment and myeloid differentiation

In recent years, advances in the humanized mouse system have led to significantly increased levels of human hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) engraftment. The remaining limitations in human HSC engraftment and function include lymphoid-skewed differentiation and inefficient myeloid development in the recipients. Limited human HSC function may partially be attributed to the inability of the host mouse microenvironment to provide sufficient support to human hematopoiesis. To address this problem, we created membrane-bound human stem cell factor (SCF)/KIT ligand (KL)-expressing NOD/SCID/IL2rgKO (hSCF Tg NSG) mice. hSCF Tg NSG recipients of human HSCs showed higher levels of both human CD45(+) cell engraftment and human CD45(+)CD33(+) myeloid development compared with NSG recipients. Expression of hSCF/hKL accelerated the differentiation of the human granulocyte lineage cells in the recipient bone marrow. Human mast cells were identified in bone marrow, spleen, and gastrointestinal tissues of the hSCF Tg NSG recipients. This novel in vivo humanized mouse model demonstrates the essential role of membrane-bound hSCF in human myeloid development. Moreover, the hSCF Tg NSG humanized recipients may facilitate investigation of in vivo differentiation, migration, function, and pathology of human mast cells.

Cell-autonomous involvement of Mab21l1 is essential for lens placode development.

The mab-21 gene was first identified because of its requirement for ray identity specification in Caenorhabditis elegans. It is now known to constitute a family of genes that are highly conserved from vertebrates to invertebrates, and two homologs, Mab21l1 and Mab21l2, have been identified in many species. We describe the generation of Mab21l1-deficient mice with defects in eye and preputial gland formation. The mutant mouse eye has a rudimentary lens resulting from insufficient invagination of the lens placode caused by deficient proliferation. Chimera analyses suggest that the lens placode is affected in a cell-autonomous manner, although Mab21l1 is expressed in both the lens placode and the optic vesicle. The defects in lens placode development correlate with delayed and insufficient expression of Foxe3, which is also required for lens development, while Maf, Sox2, Six3 and PAX6 levels are not significantly affected. Significant reduction of Mab21l1 expression in the optic vesicle and overlying surface ectoderm in Sey homozygotes indicates that Mab21l1 expression in the developing eye is dependent upon the functions of Pax6 gene products. We conclude that Mab21l1 expression dependent on PAX6 is essential for lens placode growth and for formation of the lens vesicle; lack of Mab21l1 expression causes reduced expression of Foxe3 in a cell-autonomous manner.

Murine induced pluripotent stem cells can be derived from and differentiate into natural killer T cells.

NKT cells demonstrate antitumor activity when activated to produce Th1 cytokines by DCs loaded with alpha-galactosylceramide, the prototypic NKT cell-activating glycolipid antigen. However, most patients do not have sufficient numbers of NKT cells to induce an effective immune response in this context, indicating a need for a source of NKT cells that could be used to supplement the endogenous cell population. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) hold tremendous potential for cell-replacement therapy, but whether it is possible to generate functionally competent NKT cells from iPSCs has not been rigorously assessed. In this study, we successfully derived iPSCs both from embryonic fibroblasts from mice harboring functional NKT cell-specific rearranged T cell receptor loci in the germline and from splenic NKT cells from WT adult mice. These iPSCs could be differentiated into NKT cells in vitro and secreted large amounts of the Th1 cytokine IFN-gamma. Importantly, iPSC-derived NKT cells recapitulated the known adjuvant effects of natural NKT cells and suppressed tumor growth in vivo. These studies demonstrate the feasibility of expanding functionally competent NKT cells via an iPSC phase, an approach that may be adapted for NKT cell-targeted therapy in humans.

Inference of gene regulatory networks incorporating multi-source biological knowledge via a state space model with L1 regularization.

Comprehensive understanding of gene regulatory networks (GRNs) is a major challenge in the field of systems biology. Currently, there are two main approaches in GRN analysis using time-course observation data, namely an ordinary differential equation (ODE)-based approach and a statistical model-based approach. The ODE-based approach can generate complex dynamics of GRNs according to biologically validated nonlinear models. However, it cannot be applied to ten or more genes to simultaneously estimate system dynamics and regulatory relationships due to the computational difficulties. The statistical model-based approach uses highly abstract models to simply describe biological systems and to infer relationships among several hundreds of genes from the data. However, the high abstraction generates false regulations that are not permitted biologically. Thus, when dealing with several tens of genes of which the relationships are partially known, a method that can infer regulatory relationships based on a model with low abstraction and that can emulate the dynamics of ODE-based models while incorporating prior knowledge is urgently required. To accomplish this, we propose a method for inference of GRNs using a state space representation of a vector auto-regressive (VAR) model with L1 regularization. This method can estimate the dynamic behavior of genes based on linear time-series modeling constructed from an ODE-based model and can infer the regulatory structure among several tens of genes maximizing prediction ability for the observational data. Furthermore, the method is capable of incorporating various types of existing biological knowledge, e.g., drug kinetics and literature-recorded pathways. The effectiveness of the proposed method is shown through a comparison of simulation studies with several previous methods. For an application example, we evaluated mRNA expression profiles over time upon corticosteroid stimulation in rats, thus incorporating corticosteroid kinetics/dynamics, literature-recorded pathways and transcription factor (TF) information.

Hyperactivation of JAK1 tyrosine kinase induces stepwise, progressive pruritic dermatitis

Skin homeostasis is maintained by the continuous proliferation and differentiation of epidermal cells. The skin forms a strong but flexible barrier against microorganisms as well as physical and chemical insults; however, the physiological mechanisms that maintain this barrier are not fully understood. Here, we have described a mutant mouse that spontaneously develops pruritic dermatitis as the result of an initial defect in skin homeostasis that is followed by induction of a Th2-biased immune response. These mice harbor a mutation that results in a single aa substitution in the JAK1 tyrosine kinase that results in hyperactivation, thereby leading to skin serine protease overexpression and disruption of skin barrier function. Accordingly, treatment with an ointment to maintain normal skin barrier function protected mutant mice from dermatitis onset. Pharmacological inhibition of JAK1 also delayed disease onset. Together, these findings indicate that JAK1-mediated signaling cascades in skin regulate the expression of proteases associated with the maintenance of skin barrier function and demonstrate that perturbation of these pathways can lead to the development of spontaneous pruritic dermatitis.

KDEL receptor 1 regulates T-cell homeostasis via PP1 that is a key phosphatase for ISR

KDEL receptors are responsible for retrotransporting endoplasmic reticulum (ER) chaperones from the Golgi complex to the ER. Here we describe a role for KDEL receptor 1 (KDELR1) that involves the regulation of integrated stress responses (ISR) in T cells. Designing and using an N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU)-mutant mouse line, T-Red (naïve T-cell reduced), we show that a point mutation in KDELR1 is responsible for the reduction in the number of naïve T cells in this model owing to an increase in ISR. Mechanistic analysis shows that KDELR1 directly regulates protein phosphatase 1 (PP1), a key phosphatase for ISR in naïve T cells. T-Red KDELR1 does not associate with PP1, resulting in reduced phosphatase activity against eIF2α and subsequent expression of stress responsive genes including the proapoptotic factor Bim. These results demonstrate that KDELR1 regulates naïve T-cell homeostasis by controlling ISR.

Generating a transgenic mouse line stably expressing human MHC surface antigen from a HAC carrying multiple genomic BACs

The human artificial chromosome (HAC) vector is a promising tool to improve the problematic suppression and position effects of transgene expression frequently seen in transgenic cells and animals produced by conventional plasmid or viral vectors. We generated transgenic mice maintaining a single HAC vector carrying two genomic bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs) from human HLA-DR loci (DRA and DRB1). Both transgenes on the HAC in transgenic mice exhibited tissue-specific expression in kidney, liver, lung, spleen, lymph node, bone marrow, and thymus cells in RT-PCR analysis. Stable functional expression of a cell surface HLA-DR marker from both transgenes, DRA and DRB1 on the HAC, was detected by flow cytometric analysis of splenocytes and maintained through at least eight filial generations. These results indicate that the de novo HAC system can allow us to manipulate multiple BAC transgenes with coordinated expression as a surface antigen through the generation of transgenic animals.

The mouse YAF2 gene generates two distinct transcripts and is expressed in pre-and postimplantation embryos

Mammalian Polycomb group (PcG) proteins are known to function during the maintenance of spatially restricted expression of Hox cluster genes and cellular proliferation. To understand the molecular basis of PcG functions, it is important to identify the components of mammalian PcG complexes. We isolated mouse YAF2 as a protein that interacts with Ring1B, a known constituent of mammalian PcG complexes. We show that the murine YAF2 locus generates two different transcripts, mYAF2-a and mYAF2-b by alternative splicing of the third exons which encode two YAF2 isoforms of 179 and conceptual 60 amino acids, respectively. At least five exons encoding mYAF2 transcripts are mapped on chromosome 15E3 region. Expression of mYAF2 mRNA was observed in both pre- and postimplantation embryos. In mid-gestation embryos, mYAF2 expression is strongly seen in the region close to the surface ectoderm. Finally, biochemical evidence and colocalization studies in tissue culture cells suggest that the product of the mYAF2 gene is involved in PcG complexes together with Ring1B and/or Ring1A.

Integrated Molecular Profiling of Human Gastric Cancer Identifies DDR2 as a Potential Regulator of Peritoneal Dissemination

Peritoneal dissemination is the most frequent, incurable metastasis occurring in patients with advanced gastric cancer (GC). However, molecular mechanisms driving peritoneal dissemination still remain poorly understood. Here, we aimed to provide novel insights into the molecular mechanisms that drive the peritoneal dissemination of GC. We performed combined expression analysis with in vivo-selected metastatic cell lines and samples from 200 GC patients to identify driver genes of peritoneal dissemination. The driver-gene functions associated with GC dissemination were examined using a mouse xenograft model. We identified a peritoneal dissemination-associated expression signature, whose profile correlated with those of genes related to development, focal adhesion, and the extracellular matrix. Among the genes comprising the expression signature, we identified that discoidin-domain receptor 2 (DDR2) as a potential regulator of peritoneal dissemination. The DDR2 was upregulated by the loss of DNA methylation and that DDR2 knockdown reduced peritoneal metastasis in a xenograft model. Dasatinib, an inhibitor of the DDR2 signaling pathway, effectively suppressed peritoneal dissemination. DDR2 was identified as a driver gene for GC dissemination from the combined expression signature and can potentially serve as a novel therapeutic target for inhibiting GC peritoneal dissemination.