logo3Department of Immunology and Microbiology

* Under construction (Last Update : July 12th, 2013)

Research

  1. Effect of Moxibustion and Acupuncture treatment for immune system
  2. Development of thymic microenvironments

Member

Staff

  • Manami Itoi (PI, Professor)
  • Shota Chiba (Assistant professor)
  • Takashi Amagai (Professor emeritus)

Grad students


Former member

Staff

  • Yuko Sakai
  • Yuichi Kondo
  • Noriyuki Tsukamoto

Grad students

  • Tomoko Sasaoka
  • Kazuya Mori
  • Noriyuki Tsukamoto
  • Kazushi Hayashida
  • Tsunao Kishida
  • Yuko Takayama
  • Daisuke Morishita
  • Kumiko Wada

Publications

Effect of Moxibustion and Acupuncture treatment for immune system

Takayama Y, Itoi M, Hamahashi T, Tsukamoto N, Mori K, Morishita D, Wada K and Amagai T.; Moxibustion activates host defense against herpes simplex virus type 1 through augmentation of cytokine production. Microbiol Immunol 54:551-557. 2010.

Development of thymic microenvironmet & Early T-cell development

Miyazaki M, Miyazaki K, Chen S, Itoi M, Miller M, Lu L-F, Varki N, Chang AN, Broide DH, Murre C.; Id2 and Id3 maintain the regulatory T cell pool to suppress inflammatory disease. Nat Immunol. 2014. 15(8): 767-776.

Takamura S, Kajiwara E, Tsuji-Kawahara S, Masumoto T, Fujisawa M, Kato M, Chikaishi T, Kawasaki Y, Kinoshita S, Itoi M, Sakaguchi N, Miyazawa M.; Infection of adult thymus with murine retrovirus induces virus-specific central tolerance that prevents functional memory CD8+ T cell differentiation. Pros Pathogens. 2014. 10(3): e1003937.

Cheng L, Guo J, Sun L, Fu J, Barnes PF, Metzger D, Chambon P, Oshima RG, Amagai T, Su DM.; Postnatal tissue-specific disruption of transcription factor FoxN1 triggers acute thymic atrophy. J Biol Chem. 285(8):5836-47. 2010.

Sun L, Guo J, Brown R, Amagai T, Zhao Y, Su DM.; Declining expression of a single epithelial cell-autonomous gene accelerates age-related thymic involution. Aging Cell. 9(3):347-357. 2010.

Hidaka K, Nitta T, Sugawa R, Schwartz RJ, Amagai T, Nitta S, Takahama Y, Morisaki T.; Differentiation of Pharyngeal Endoderm and Derivatives from Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells. Stem Cells Dev. 19(11):1735-43. 2010.

Vroegindeweij E, Crobach S, Itoi M, Satoh R, Zuklys S, Happe C, Germeraad WT, Cornelissen JJ, Cupedo T, Hollander GA, Kawamoto H, van Ewijk W.; Thymic cysts originate from Foxn1 positive thymic medullary epithelium. Mol Immunol. 47(5):1106-1113. 2010.

Mori K, Itoi M, Tsukamoto N, Amagai T.; Foxn1 is essential for vascularization of the murine thymus anlage. Cell Immunol. 260:66-69. 2010.

Sultana DA, Tomita S, Hamada M, Iwanaga Y, Kitahama Y, Khang NV, Hirai S, Ohigashi I, Nitta S, Amagai T, Takahashi S, Takahama Y.; Gene expression profile of the third pharyngeal pouch reveals role of mesenchymal MafB in embryonic thymus development. Blood. 113(13):2976-87. 2009.

Zuklys S, Gill J, Keller MP, Hauri-Hohl M, Zhanybekova S, Balciunaite G, Na KJ, Jeker LT, Hafen K, Tsukamoto N, Amagai T, Taketo MM, Krenger W, Holländer GA.; Stabilized beta-catenin in thymic epithelial cells blocks thymus development and function. J Immunol. 182(5):2997-3007. 2009.

Masuda K, Germeraad WT, Satoh R, Itoi M, Ikawa T, Minato N, Katsura Y, van Ewijk W, Kawamoto H.; Notch activation in thymic epithelial cells induced development of thymic microenvironments. Mol Immunol. 46(8-9):1756-1767. 2009.

Müller SM, Stolt CC, Terszowski G, Blum C, Amagai T, Kessaris N, Iannarelli P, Richardson WD, Wegner M, Rodewald HR.; Neural crest origin of perivascular mesenchyme in the adult thymus. J Immunol. 180(8):5344-51. 2008.

Miyazaki M, Miyazaki K, Itoi M, Katoh Y, Guo Y, Kanno R, Katoh-Fukui Y, Honda H, Amagai T, van Lohuizen M, Kawamoto H, Kanno M.; Thymocyte proliferation induced by pre-T cell receptor signaling is maintained through polycomb gene product Bmi-1-mediated Cdkn2a repression. Immunity. 28(2):231-245. 2008.

Itoi M, Tsukamoto N, Yoshida H, Amagai T.; Mesenchymal cells are required for functional development of thymic epithelial cells. Int Immunol. 19(8):953-964. 2007.

Mori K, Itoi M, Tsukamoto N, Kubo H, Amagai T.; The perivascular space as a path of hematopoietic progenitor cells and mature T cells between the blood circulation and the thymic parenchyma. Int Immunol. 19(6):953-964. 2007.

Itoi M, Tsukamoto N, Amagai T.; Expression of Dll4 and CCL25 in Foxn1-negative epithelial cells in the post-natal thymus.
Int Immunol. 19(2):127-132. 2007.

Terszowski G, Müller SM, Bleul CC, Blum C, Schirmbeck R, Reimann J, Pasquier LD, Amagai T, Boehm T, Rodewald HR.; Evidence for a functional second thymus in mice. Science. 312(5771):284-7. 2006.

Tsukamoto N, Itoi M, Nishikawa M, Amagai T.; Lack of Delta like 1 and 4 expressions in nude thymus anlages. Cell Immunol. 234(2):77-80. 2005.

Masuda K, Itoi M, Amagai T, Minato N, Katsura Y, Kawamoto H.; Thymic anlage is colonized by progenitors restricted to T, NK, and dendritic cell lineages. J Immunol. 174(5):2525-2532. 2005.

Miyazaki M, Kawamoto H, Kato Y, Itoi M, Miyazaki K, Masuda K, Tashiro S, Ishihara H, Igarashi K, Amagai T, Kanno R, Kanno M.; Polycomb group gene mel-18 regulates early T progenitor expansion by maintaining the expression of Hes-1, a target of the Notch pathway. J immunol. 174(5):2507-2516. 2005.

Germeraad WT, Kawamoto H, Itoi M, Jiang Y, Amagai T, Katsura Y, van Ewijk W.; Development of thymic microenvironments in vitro is oxygen-dependent and requires permanent presence of T-cell progenitors. J Histochem Cytochem. 51(9):1225-1235. 2003.

Ara T, Itoi M, Kawabata K, Egawa T, Tokoyoda K, Sugiyama T, Fujii N, Amagai T, Nagasawa T.; A role of CXC chemokines ligand 12/stromal cell-derived factor-1/pre-B cell growth stimulating factor and its receptor CXCR4 in fetal and adult T cell development in vivo. J immunol. 170(9):4649-4655. 2003.

Itoi M, Kawamoto H, Katsura Y and Amagai T : Two distinct steps of immigration of hematopoietic progenitors into the early thymus anlage. Int. Immunol. 13, 1203-1211. 2001.

Itoi M. and Amagai T.: Inductive role of fibroblastic cell lines in development of the mouse thymus anlage in organ culture. Cell. Immunol. 183, 32-41.1998.

van Ewijk W, Wang B-P, Hollander G, Kawamoto H, Spanopoulou E, Itoi M, Amagai T, Jiang Y-F, Germeraad W. T. V., Chen W-F, and Katsura Y.; Thymic microenvironments, 3-D versus 2-D? Seminars in Immunology 11, 57-64. 1998.

Amagai T, Itoi M, and Kondo Y; Limited development capacity of the earliest embryonic murine thymus. Eur. J. Immunol. 25: 757-762. 1995.

Other Publications

Satou Y, Hirayama K, Mita K, Fujie M, Chiba S, Yoshida R, Endo T, Sasakura Y, Inaba K, Satoh N.; Sustained Heterozygosity Across a Self-Incompatibility Locus in an Inbred Ascidian. Mol Biol Evol. Sep 18. Pii: msu268. 2014. 

Abdul-Wajid S, Veeman M.T., Chiba S, Turner T. L., Smith W.C.; Exploiting the extraordinary genetic polymorphism of Ciona for developmental genetics with whole genome sequencing. Genetics. 197(1):49-59. 2014. 

Satou Y., Shin-I T., Kohara Y., Satoh N. and Chiba S.; A genomic overview of short genetic variations in a basal chordate, Ciona intestinalis BMC Genomics. BMC Genomics 13:208. 2012. 

Veeman M.T., Chiba S. and Smith W.C.; Ciona Genetics: Vertebrate embryogenesis: embryological, cellular and genetic methods. In Method in molecular biology. Pelegri F. ed. (Humana Press, NJ, USA) vol. 770. 401-422. 2011. 

Tresser J., Chiba S., Veeman M., El-Nachef D., Newman-Smith E., Horie T., Tsuda M. and Smith W.C.;  Doublesex/mab3 related-1 (dmrt1) is essencial for development of anterior neural plate derivatives in Ciona. Development 137:2197 -2203. 2010.

Chiba S., Jiang D., Satoh N., Smith W.C.; Brachyury null mutant-induced defects in juvenile ascidian endodermal organs. Development 136:35-39. 2009.

Tsukamoto N, Hattori M, Yang H, Bos J. L and Minato N; Rap1 GTPase activating protein Spa-1 Negatively Regulates Cell Adhesion. J. Biol. Chem. 274, 18463-18469, 1999.

Kurachi H, Wada Y, Tsukamoto N, Maeda M, Kubota H, Hattori M and Minato N; Human SPA-1 Gene Product Selectively Expressed in Lymphoid Tissues Is a Specific GTPase-activating Protein for Rap1 and Rap2. J. Biol. Chem. 272, 28081-28088, 1997.

Hattori M, Tsukamoto N, Nur-E-Kamal M. S. A, Rubinfeld B, Iwai K, Kubota H, Maruta H and Minato N; Molecular Clorning of a Novel Mitogen-Inducible Nuclear Protein with a Ran GTPase-Activating Domain That Affects Cell Cycle Progression. Mol. Cell. Biol. 15, 552-560, 1995.

Takayama Y, Itoi M, Hamahashi T, Tsukamoto N, Mori K, Morishita D, Wada K and Amagai T.; Moxibustion activates host defense against herpes simplex virus type 1 through augmentation of cytokine production. Microbiol Immunol 54:551-557. 2010.

Okamoto Y, Eda Y, Ogura A, Shibata S, Amagai T, Katsura Y, Asano T, Kimachi K, Makizumi K and Honda M; In SCID-hu mice passive transfer of a humanized antibody prevents infection and atrophic change of medulla in human thymic implant due to intravenous inoculation of primary HIV-1 isolate. J. Immunol. 160, 69-76. 1998.

Amagai T, Matsumoto Y, Sakai Y, Roux P and Girard P-M. A common antigenic epitope expressed on human Peumocystis carinii. J. Protozool. 38. 169S-171S. 1991.


Address:
Department of Immunology and Microbiology                                                                       Meiji University of Integrative Medicine
Hiyoshi-cho, Nantan-city, Kyoto 629-0392, Japan

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