Masaki Yoshida
| Name | Masaki Yoshida |
| Department/Research Field | Dermatology |
| Research content |
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The final target of our study is development of spot treatment. As the disease has multiple functional abnormalities both in keratinocytes and melanocytes, we simultaneously take research approaches for multiple targets to clarify the pathogenic mechanism, e.g. melanocyte migration, keratinocyte proliferation, and keratinocyte differentiation. We are now trying to develop specific inhibitors for ATP2C1, a calcium / manganese pump, and manganese ionophore because we found that it is specifically localized at the basal layer of epidermis and down-regulation of ATP2C1 induced differentiation and up-migration of basal keratinocytes via depletion of manganese in Golgi apparatus. The drug is expected to induce evacuation of accumulated melanin from the epidermis leading to improve spot pigmentation. Establishment of skin diagnosis method using attached cells to pulled vellus hair is the other target of our study. The method enables us to harvest living cells for exhaustive analyses from any parts of the skin with less invasion, and we can easily collect the information about gene expressions and mutations in the normal and lesional skins. We obtained patent of the method in 2022, and are aiming generalization for various skin diagnoses. |
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| Research theme |
1. Differentiation of basal keratinocytes during up-migration into supra-basal area |
| Research keywords |
| skin , diagnostics , cosmetics |
| Lab link |