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Welcome!

Welcome to our homepage. We introduce our research information in this page. Our laboratory (Molecular Cell Biology Laboratory) belongs to the Shibaura Institute of Technology. The location of our laboratory is Saitama-City, Saitama-Prefecture of Japan. Saitama-City is located on the north area of Metropolitan-Tokyo. It takes about 40 min by train. Our university is a private university. If you want to know extra information of our university, please check university official website or send an email to me.

Research

The final goal of our research is to elucidate the mechanism of brain aging.
In order to clarify the mechanism of brain aging, we have been focusing on oxidative stress. This hypothesis is based on the “free radical theory of aging”. This famous hypothesis was presented by Dr. Harman at 1950’s. The aging process cannot prevent in aerobic organisms, because we use oxygen in respiratory system. In our body (especially mitochondria), oxygen reacts with free electron which leaks from electron transport system in mitochondria, and produces superoxide anion radical. This superoxide anion radical is rapidly detoxified by superoxide dismutase (antioxidant enzyme) and produces to hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide is detoxified to water by catalase or glutathione (both substances are antioxidant enzymes). However, it is well known that the antioxidant enzyme activities gradually attenuate during aging. Attenuation of antioxidant enzyme activities enhance protein oxidation. Increment and/or accumulation of oxidative products are one of the reasons of development and progression of neurodegenerative disorders. We are continuing to research about the mechanism of brain oxidation. Furthermore, oxidative stress is related to neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease and more. In our laboratory, it is maintaining transgenic model mice of Alzheimer’s disease (5xFAD mice from JAX). We have assessed cognitive, motor and respiratory metabolism functions using several specific tasks (Morris water maze, Radical arm maze, Y-maze, Rotor-rod, Treadmill, and respiratory metabolism apparatus). We keep some cell lines such as Neuro2a, SHSY-5Y, PC12, N1E-115, Hela, HEK, 3T3-L1, A1, HepG2 and more. Our experimental style is in vivo and in vitro.
 Vitamin E is one of the most famous antioxidant lipophilic vitamins. Especially, we are focusing on tocotrienols. We have been studying neuroprotective effect of tocotrienols. In our experimental model, treatment with tocotrienols to cell lines which elongated axon prevented morphological degeneration. Recently, we found new biological function of tocotrienols. It’s an anti-obesity effect. Treatment with tocotrienols on the obese mice, the body weight significantly decreased compared to the untreated obese mice. Now, we are continuing the elucidation of the mechanism of anti-obesity effect of tocotrienols.
The keywords of our laboratory are Aging, Antioxidants, Oxidative Stress, Axonal degeneration, Preventive Medicine, Nutrition and Minerals.
If you have an interested in our work, please contact anytime to me.
We look for new collaborators. Many young researchers and students came to our lab (Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico, China). We are waiting for new challenges from abroad, anytime.
Thank you.

Profile

Name:　Koji Fukui, Ph. D

Research History:

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