Laboratory for Cardiovascular Molecular Dynamics

Cardiovascular system consisting of the heart and blood vessels, which is established in early embryogenesis, is a very important biological system. The impairment of cardiovascular system is related to the main causes of death in Japanese. Therefore, the elucidation of molecular mechanism of cardiovascular formation in vertebrates is indispensable for both the pathologic understanding of human cardiovascular diseases and the development of the therapeutic drugs in the diseases. Our research group is performing the functional analysis of zebrafish mutants defective in the cardiovascular system by using the fluorescent proteins visualizing the cardiovascular formation. Further, we will clarify whether the molecular function of the cardiovascular key regulator identified from the zebrafish mutant is conserved in mammals including humans.

Research Subjects

• Functional analysis of zebrafish mutants defective in cardiovascular development
• Functional characterization of key regulators involved in cardiovascular system
• Measuring molecular dynamics and in vivo imaging of cardiovascular regulators

Publications

1. Kitaguchi T., Kawakami, K., and Kawahara, A.:
   "Transcriptional regulation of a myeloid-lineage specific gene lysozyme C during zebrafish myelopoiesis."
   Mechanisms of Development 126:314-323 (2009)
2. Fukui, H., Hanaoka, R., and Kawahara, A.:
   "Non-canonical activity of Seryl-tRNA synthetase is involved in vascular development."
   Circulation Research 104:1253-1259 (2009)
3. Kawahara, A., Nishi, T., Hisano, Y., Fukui, H., Yamaguchi, A., and Mochizuki, N.:
   "The sphingolipid transporter Spns2 functions in migration of zebrafish myocardial precursors."
   Science 323:524-527 (2009)
4. Kawahara, A., and Stainier, D.Y.R.:
   "Noncanonical activity of Seryl-tRNA synthetase and vascular development."
   Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine 19:179-182 (2009)
5. Kawahara, A.:
   "Genetic dissection of cardiac progenitor migration."
   Inflammation and Regeneration 29:324-328 (2009)
6. Hisano, Y., Nishi, T., Kawahara, A.:
   "The functional roles of sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) in immunity"
   The Journal of Biochemistry 152:305-311 (2012)
7. Kawahara, A., Endo, S., Dawid, I.B.:
   "Vap (Vascular Associated Protein): a novel factor involved in erythropoiesis and angiogenesis"
   Biochem. Biophy. Res. Commun. 421:367-374 (2012)
8. Hisano, Y., Ota, S., Arakawa, K., Muraki, M., Kono, N., Oshita, K., Sakuma, T., Tomita, M., Yamamoto, T., Okada, Y., Kawahara, A.:
   "Quantitative assay for TALEN activity at endogenous genomic loci"
   Biology Open in press (2013)
9. Ota, S., Hisano, Y., Muraki, M., Hoshijima, K., Dahlem, T.J., Grunwald, D.J., Okada, Y., Kawahara, A.:
   "Efficient identification of TALEN-mediated genome modifications using heteroduplex mobility assays"
   Genes to Cells in press (2013)