Kyushu University · Medicine
Professor Teruki Nii's research lab specializes in developing advanced biomaterial-based 3D in vitro models to mimic the tumor microenvironment for cancer research and regenerative medicine. The lab focuses on engineering functional hydrogels—particularly gelatin hydrogel microspheres—for controlled drug delivery and to study cell-cell interactions in cancer progression, such as those involving cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF) and tumor-associated macrophages (TAM). By integrating sustained-release systems with live cell aggregates, the lab creates physiologically relevant models that enhance drug screening accuracy and reveal mechanisms of cancer invasion and metastasis. Their work bridges the gap between in vitro experiments and in vivo conditions, aiming to improve preclinical drug evaluation and regenerative therapies.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
Anticancer drug screening is one of the most important research and development processes to develop new drugs for cancer treatment. However, there is a problem resulting in gaps between the in vitro drug screening and preclinical or clinical study. This is mainly because the condition of cancer cell culture is quite different from that in vivo. As a trial to mimic the in vivo cancer environment, there has been some research on a three-dimensional (3D) culture system by making use of biomaterial
This review aims to show case recent regenerative medicine based on biomaterial technologies. Regenerative medicine has arousing substantial interest throughout the world, with "The enhancement of cell activity" one of the essential concepts for the development of regenerative medicine. For example, drug research on drug screening is an important field of regenerative medicine, with the purpose of efficient evaluation of drug effects. It is crucial to enhance cell activity in the body for drug r
The objective of this study is to design a cancer invasion model based on an interaction between cancer cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF) aggregates. The strength of this study is to incorporate gelatin hydrogel microspheres (GM) containing pifithrin-α (PFT) of a p53 inhibitor (GM-PFT) with the CAF aggregates. Incorporation of GM-PFT allowed CAF aggregates to enhance the alpha-smooth muscle actin expression level at a high concentration of PFT. When the cancer cells were cocultured w
Gelatin, a denatured form of collagen, is an attractive biomaterial for biotechnology. In particular, gelatin particles have been noted due to their attractive properties as drug carriers. The drug release from gelatin particles can be easily controlled by the crosslinking degree of gelatin molecule, responding to the purpose of the research. The gelatin particles capable of drug release are effective in wound healing, drug screening models. For example, a sustained release of growth factors for
The objective of this study is to design a cancer invasion model by making use of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF) or tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) and gelatin hydrogel microspheres (GM) for the sustained release of drugs. The GM containing adenosine (A) (GM-A) were prepared and cultured with TAM to obtain three-dimensional (3D) TAM aggregates incorporating GM-A (3D TAM-GM-A). The GM-A incorporation enabled TAM to enhance the secretion level of vascular endothelial growth factor. When co
The present model is promising to realize the cancer invasion whose rate can be modified by changing the TGF-β1 concentration.
It is concluded that the co-culture system of 3D MSC2 aggregates incorporating GM and cancer cells is promising to evaluate the invasion of cancer cells in vitro.
Stress thallium-201 myocardial perfusion imaging was performed in a patient with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. Reverse redistribution phenomenon was observed in the absence of coronary artery disease. This seems to be the first report of normalization of this phenomenon in association with reversion of accessory pathway to normal atrioventricular conduction after pretreatment with procainamide.
Chronic sodium depletion has been reported to decrease ejection fraction in anesthetized dogs. We tested the hypothesis that this reduction in cardiac performance is due to either hemodynamic or humoral factors. Seven mongrel dogs were fed a low sodium diet (less than 2 mEq Na+ per day) for 5 weeks. Echocardiographic and radionuclide techniques were used to monitor cardiac function. There was a gradual but significant (p less than 0.01) decrease in ejection fraction from 61 +/- 7% (SD) at baseli
<b>Background:</b> We have previously reported engineered macrophages (MacTriggers) that can accelerate the release of tumor necrosis factor-α in response to M2 polarization. MacTriggers are characterized by two original characteristics of macrophages: (1) migration to tumors; and (2) polarization to the M2 phenotype in tumors. Intravenously administered MacTriggers efficiently accumulated in the tumors and induced tumor-specific inflammation. This study reports a novel methodology for enhancing
NCPs prepared in this study enhanced the level of inflammation in the lungs and support the preparation of in vivo models of tuberculosis.
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