Hisashi Fujioka, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Pharmacology
Director of the CWRU SOM EM Facility
Phone: (216) 368-2490
Fax: Not availabe now
E-mail: hisashi.fujioka@case.edu
IP 114
Research
My personal research interests recently have shifted to mitochondrial studies in cells of mammalian origin. Aging leads to cardiac impairment via a loss of myocytes and compromised physiologic function. An increase in chronic oxidative damage during aging, including that occurring in mitochondria, leads in cardiac dysfunction. Cardiac mitochondria exist in two functionally distinct populations; subsarcolemmal mitochondria (SSM) that lie beneath the plasma membrane, and interfibrillar mitochondria (IFM) that are ensconced among the myofibrils. Aging decreases oxidative phosphorylation through cytochrome oxidase (COX) in cardiac interfibrillar mitochondria (IFM). I am attempting to demonstrate a decrease in COX VIIa protein content by using a highly sensitive immunoelectron microscopic technique. I have expanded my ultrastructural studies of mitochondria by using high resolution scanning electron microscopy to examine the internal configuration of transected organelles.
CWRU SOM EM Facility
The EM Facility has become an independent entity under the Research Office of the School of Medicine. It is located on the site of the former EM suite in the Institute of Pathology. This Facility provides critical ultrastructural skills, including immunocytochemistry, in addition to conventional techniques; in standard transmission electron microscopy the methodology can be tailored to specific needs. With respect to my goal of establishing the Core EM Facility, I have been a key contributor to the field of Plasmodium ultrastructure, and have been collaborating with members of many outstanding laboratories that utilize the techniques of molecular biology, immunology, and microbiology. Based on this experience, we can provide critical ultrastructural skills to collaborators who require electron microscopy to complement their research.
Selected References:
Moore, LR., Fujioka H.., Williams, PS., Chalmers, JJ., Peter Zimmerman, P. and
Zborowski, M. (2006) Hemoglobin degradation in malaria-infected erythrocytes
determined from live cell magnetophoresis. FASEB J. 20, 747-749.
Furuya T., Mu J., Hayton K., Liu A., Duan J., Joy DA., Fujioka H., Vaidya AB.,
Wellems TE and Su X. (2005) Disruption of Plasmodium falciparum pfmdv-1 leads to Early Arrest of Sexual Development. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA., 102, 16813-16818.
Wang Q, Fujioka H. and Nussenzweig V. (2005) Exit of Plasmodium sporozoites from
oocysts is an active process that involves the circumsporozoiye protein. PLoS Pathog., 1,
72-79.
Fairhurst, R.M., Baruch D.I., Brittain, N., Ostera, G.R., Wallach, J.S., Hoang, H.L., Hayton,
K., Guindo, A., Tounkara, A., Doumbo, O.K., Dapa A. Diallo, D.A., Fujioka, H., Ho, M.
and Wellems, T.E. (2005) Abnormal PfEMP-1 display on hemoglobin C erythrocytes
protects against malaria. Nature, 435, 1117-1121.
Omara-Opyene, AL., Moura, P., Sulsona, CR., Bonilla, JA., Yowell, CA., Fujioka, H.,
Fidock DA. and Dame, JB. (2004) Genetic evidence for a revision of the concept of
targeting individual vacuolar aspartic proteases as antimalarial drug targets. J Biol Chem,
279, 54088-54096.
Waller, K.L., Muhle, R.A., Ursos, L.M., Horrocks, P., Verdier-Pinard, D., Fujioka, H., Roepe, P. and Fidock, D.A. (2003) Chloroquine resistance modulated in vitro expression levels of the Plasmodium falciparum chloroquine resistance transporter (PfCRT). J Biol Chem, 278, 33593-33601.
Cooper, R.A., Ferdig, M.T., Su, X.-Z., Ursos, L.M.B., Fujioka, H., Mu, J., Nomura, T.,
Fidock, D., Roepe, P.D. and Wellems, T.E. (2002) Alternative mutations at Position 76 of
the vacuolar transmembrane protein PfCRT produce chloroquine resistance and unique
stereospecific quinine and quinidine responses in Plasmodium falciparum. Mol.Pharmacol.,
61, 35-42.
Mehlotra R.K., Fujioka, H., Roepe, P.D., Janneh, O., Ursos, L.M., Jacobs-Lorena, V., McNamara, D.T., Bockarie, M.J., Kazura, J.W., Kyle, D.E., Fidock, D. and Zimmerman, P.A. (2001) Evolution of new Plasmodium falciparum chroloquine-resistance phenotype in association with Pfcrt polymorphism in Papua New Guinea and South America. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA., 98, 12689-12694.
Fujioka, H. and Aikawa, M. (2002) Structure and Life Cycle. In: Malaria Immunology
(Ed. By Perlman, P), Chemical Immunology, Vol. 80, Karger AG, Basel, Switzerland, pp1-
26.
Wellems, T. E., Wootton, J. C., Fujioka, H., Su, X-z., Cooper, R., Brauch, D. and Fidock,
D (1998) P. falciparum CG2, linked to chloroquine resistance, does not resemble Na+/H+
exchangers. Cell, 94, 285-286.