Overview (Research)

Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital
Clinical Research and Innovation
Regenerative Medicine Director
Asuka Morizane

Research

Regenerative medicine using stem cells

In 2018, a doctor-initiated clinical trial of cell transplantation therapy for Parkinson's disease using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) began at Kyoto University. Similar clinical trials using iPS cells or ES cells have been started one after another in North America and Europe. There are many issues that need to be clarified in the future, such as not only the development of cells as donors, but also the optimal types of patients and how they should be transplanted in order to provide safer and more effective treatments. The Regenerative Medicine mainly conducts research on regenerative medicine for Parkinson's disease. In particular, I am working on research on regulation of post-transplantation immune responses. In addition to Parkinson's disease, we are conducting near-clinical translational research with a view to regenerative medicine for the central nervous system and other organs.

Clinical application

Our hospital has experts in various clinical fields, and the infrastructure for clinical trials is in place. Taking advantage of this advantage, we will promote the clinical application of regenerative medicine at our hospital. First, while promoting regenerative medicine for Parkinson's disease in the field of neurology, which is our area of specialization, we will build a foundation that can respond to regenerative medicine, which is expected to increase in number in the future, in other areas as well.

Staff Introduction (Members)

Last updated: May 8, 2024

(Director) Asuka Asuka Morizane, MD, PhD

Graduation year 1996
Areas of expertise and qualifications Japanese neurosurgeon Board Certified Surgeon
The Japanese Society for Neuroendovascular Therapy Specialist
Concurrent posts, etc. Doctor of Medicine Kyoto University
Delegate of the Japanese Society for Regenerative Medicine
Publication list
Publication list		 List

(Technical staff) Kasumi Ogata (Technical staff) Kasumi Ogata, M.S.

List of publications (Publication)

Publication List

  • Maheshwari S, Akram H, Bulstrode H, Kalia SK, Morizane A, Takahashi J, Natalwala A., Dopaminergic Cell Replacement for Parkinsonʼs Disease: Addressing the Intracranial Delivery Hurdle. J Parkinsons Dis. 14 (3), 415-435 (2024)
  • Morizane, A. Cell therapy for Parkinson's disease with induced pluripotent stem cells.Inflamm Regener 43 (16), (2023)
  • Adachi H, Morizane A, Torikoshi S, Raudzus F, Taniguchi Y, Miyamoto S, et al.,Pretreatment with Perlecan Conjugated Laminin E8 Fragment Enhances Maturation ofGrafted Dopaminergic Progenitors in Parkinson’s Disease Model. Stem Cells Transl Med 11,767-777 (2022)
  • Hiramatsu S, Morizane A, Kikuchi T, Doi D, Yoshida K, Takahashi J., Cryopreservation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Dopaminergic Neurospheres for Clinical Application. J Parkinsons Dis. 12 (3), 871-884 (2022)
  • Morizane A, & Takahashi J., Evading the Immune System: Immune Modulation and Immune Matching in Cell Replacement Therapies for Parkinson’s Disease. J Parkinsons Dis. 11 (s2): S167-S172 (2021)
  • Nakano-Kobayashi, A., Fukumoto, A., Morizane, A., Nguyen, D. T., Le, T. M., Hashida, K., Hosoya, T., Takahashi, R., Takahashi, J., Hori, O. & Hagiwara, M. Therapeutics potentiating microglial p21-Nrf2 axis can rescue neurodegeneration caused by neuroinflammation. Sci Adv 6, (2020).
  • Doi, D., Magotani, H., Kikuchi, T., Ikeda, M., Hiramatsu, S., Yoshida, K., Amano, N., Nomura, M., Umekage, M., Morizane, A. & Takahashi, J. Pre-clinical study of induced pluripotent stem cell-derived dopaminergic progenitor cells for Parkinson’s disease. Nat Commun 11, 3369 (2020).
  • Sakai, Y., Nakamura, T., Okamoto, I., Gyobu-Motani, S., Ohta, H., Yabuta, Y., Tsukiyama, T., Iwatani, C., Tsuchiya, H., Ema, M., Morizane, A., Takahashi, J., Yamamoto, T. & Saitou, M. Induction of the germ cell fate from pluripotent stem cells in cynomolgus monkeys†. Biol Reprod 102, 620-638 (2020).
  • Kitahara, T., Sakaguchi, H., Morizane, A., Kikuchi, T., Miyamoto, S. & Takahashi, J. Axonal Extensions along Corticospinal Tracts from Transplanted Human Cerebral Organoids. Stem Cell Reports 15, 467-481 (2020).
  • Sunohara, T., Morizane, A., Matsuura, S., Miyamoto, S., Saito, H. & Takahashi, J. MicroRNA-Based Separation of Cortico-Fugal Projection Neuron-Like Cells Derived From Embryonic Stem Cells. Front Neurosci 13, 1141 (2019).
  • Ueki, J., Nakamori, M., Nakamura, M., Nishikawa, M., Yoshida, Y., Tanaka, A., Morizane, A., Kamon, M., Araki, T., Takahashi, M. P., Watanabe, A., Inagaki, N. & Sakurai, H. Myotonic dystrophy type 1 patient-derived iPSCs for the investigation of CTG repeat instability. Sci Rep 7, 42522 (2017).
  • Morizane, A., Kikuchi, T., Hayashi, T., Mizuma, H., Takara, S., Doi, H., Mawatari, A., Glasser, M. F., Shiina, T., Ishigaki, H., Itoh, Y., Okita, K., Yamasaki, E., Doi, D., Onoe, H., Ogasawara, K., Yamanaka, S. & Takahashi, J. MHC matching improves engraftment of iPSC-derived neurons in non-human primates. Nature Communications 8, 385 (2017).
  • Kikuchi, T., Morizane, A., Doi, D., Okita, K., Nakagawa, M., Yamakado, H., Inoue, H., Takahashi, R. & Takahashi, J. Idiopathic Parkinson’s disease patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells function as midbrain dopaminergic neurons in rodent brains. J Neurosci Res 95, 1829-1837 (2017).
  • Kikuchi, T., Morizane, A., Doi, D., Magotani, H., Onoe, H., Hayashi, T., Mizuma, H., Takara, S., Takahashi, R., Inoue, H., Morita, S., Yamamoto, M., Okita, K., Nakagawa, M., Parmar, M. & Takahashi, J. Human iPS cell-derived dopaminergic neurons function in a primate Parkinson’s disease model. Nature 548, 592-596 (2017).
  • Sano, N., Shimogawa, T., Sakaguchi, H., Ioroi, Y., Miyawaki, Y., Morizane, A., Miyamoto, S. & Takahashi, J. Enhanced axonal extension of subcortical projection neurons isolated from murine embryonic cortex using neuropilin-1. Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience 11, 123 (2017).

News

Recruitment

Publication

2024.4
A review article by Morimi et al. entitled "Dopaminergic Cell Replacement for Parkinson's Disease: Addressing the Intracranial Delivery Hurdle" has been published in J Parkinsons Dis.
2023.8
A review article by Morimi, ``The Past and Future of Cell Transplant Therapy for Parkinson's Disease'' (Nippon Clinical 81(8) 1259-1264) was published in the journal Nippon Clinical.
2023.2.27
A review paper Cell therapy for Parkinson's disease with induced pluripotent stem cells. by Minoru Mori was published online in Inflammation & Regeneration.
https://rdcu.be/c6wtX
2021.6.3
Evading the Immune System: Immune Modulation and Immune Matching in Cell Replacement Therapies for Parkinson's Disease.