GRADUATE SCHOOL

GRADUATE SCHOOL

Departments

Graduate School of Medicine/Graduate School of Public Health

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Staff Information

Tomohiko Usui

M.D., Ph.D.,
Graduate School of Medicine, Affiliation Campus: Narita

Specialized Field

General ophthalmology, corneal diseases, conjunctival diseases, keratoplasty, transplantation immunology, angiogenesis, gene therapy

Message to Students

Human being receives about 80% of their information about outside world through the sense of sight. Ophthalmology is very important surgical medicine, which deals with eyes. There are many projects, which are approached by basic medicine as well as clinical research. We would like to challenge these attractive projects with you.

Research Theme

Pathophysiology and gene therapy of corneal dystrophy
Development of nucleic acid-based drug for corneal neovascularization and corneal dystrophy
Analysis of corneal endothelial functions
Clinical investigation of keratoplaty
Clinical investigation of corneal crosslinking

References

  1. Taketani Y, et al. Repair of the TGFBI gene in human corneal keratocytes derived from a granular corneal dystrophy patient via CRISPR/Cas9-induced homology-directed repair. Sci Rep. 2017; 7:76163
  2. Taketani Y, et al. Topical Use of Angiopoietin-like Protein 2 RNAi-loaded Lipid Nanoparticles Suppresses Corneal Neovascularization. Mol Ther Nucleic Acid. 2016; 5:e292.
  3. Toyono T et al. Angiopoietin-like 7 is an anti-angiogenic protein required to prevent vascularization of the cornea.PLoS One. 2015; 10:e0116838.
  4. Toyono T et al. Angiopoietin-like protein 2 is a potent hemangiogenic and lymphangiogenic factor in corneal inflammation. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2013; 54:4278.
  5. Fukuda R et al. Tear meniscus evaluation by anterior segment swept-source optical coherence tomography. Am J Ophthalmol. 2013; 155:620.
  6. Albuquerque RJ et al. Alternatively spliced vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 is an essential endogenous inhibitor of lymphatic vessel growth. Nat Med. 2009; Sep15: 1023
  7. Usui T et al. Inhibition of corneal neovascularization by blocking the angiotensin II type 1 receptor. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2008; 49:4370
  8. Sugisaki K et al. Photodynamic therapy for corneal neovascularization using polymeric micelles encapsulating dendrimer porphyrins. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2008; 49:894
  9. Usui T et al. Role of macrophage migration inhibitory factor in corneal neovascularization. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2007; 48:3545
  10. Usui T et al. VEGF164(165) as the pathological isoform: differential leukocyte and endothelial responses through VEGFR1 and VEGFR2. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2004; 45:368
  11. Ishida S et al. VEGF164-mediated inflammation is required for pathological, but not physiological, ischemia-induced retinal neovascularization. J Exp Med. 2003; 198:483
  12. Ishida S et al. Leukocytes mediate retinal vascular remodeling during development and vaso-obliteration in disease. Nat Med. 2003; Jun9: 781
  13. Usui T et al. Molecular basis of ocular abnormalities associated with proximal renal tubular acidosis. J Clin Invest. 2001; 108: 107
  14. Usui T et al. Functional and molecular evidence for Na(+)-HCO3- cotransporter in human corneal endothelial cells. Pflugers Arch. 1999; 438:458
  15. Usui T et al. Extracellular matrix production regulation by TGF-beta in corneal endothelial cells. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 1998; 39:1981