Asakura, Atsushi, Department of Neurology in the Medical School at the University of Minnesota

Atsushi Asakura, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

Year of Appointment:  2005

Graduate School:  University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, 1993

Fellowships:  Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, 1993-1997; McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada, 1998-2000; Ottawa Health Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada, 2000-2003 

Research Interests:

• Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a progressive disorder in which the absence of the protein dystophin results in loss of the dystrophin complex at the skeletal muscle fiber, cardiomyocyte and endothelial cell membrane.  Definitive treatment for muscular dystrophies will likely require that the dystrophin complex is restored in all affected skeletal muscle groups, heart, as well as, in endothelium.  Our long-term objectives are to restore muscle fibers, heart and vasculature using cell therapy.
  
  
• We have demonstrated that novel muscle stem cells called side population (SP) cells that exclude Hoechst dye possess a myogenic potential and contribute to muscle regeneration following transplantation.  Our preliminary data showed that muscle-derived SP cells are capable of differentiation into endothelial cells, indicating that muscle-derived SP cells contain muscle-derived endothelial progenitors (MDEP).  The MDEP also retain myogenic potential.  Currently, we are using MDEP for therapeutic purposes.  We are testing whether MDEP are capable of restoring infarcted mouse heart and skeletal muscle of muscular dystrophy model mice.  Such insights and developments will potentially lead to new cell-based therapeutic interventions for heart and muscle diseases.

Email:  asakura@umn.edu

Recent Publications
Asakura, Atsushi. Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Gene Regulation by HEXIM1 in Heart. Circ. Res. 2008; 102; 398-400.