Research Introduction

Our recent research interests are primarily in the areas of drug interactions, regulatory guidelines for drug development, vascular endothelial function, atherosclerosis, Marfan syndrome, and pulmonary hypertension. We enjoy productive research collaborations with numerous medical and pharmaceutical departments in Hamamatsu University School of Medicine and School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Shizuoka. In addition to research, we offer an outstanding subspecialty residency training program in Clinical Pharmacology.

Basic Research

One of our main research endeavors is to study the function of vascular endothelial cells. Vascular endothelial cells line the entire circulatory system, from the heart to the smallest capillary. Endothelial cells are involved in many aspects of vascular biology, including: barrier function, vasoconstriction, vasodilation and blood clotting, therefore, impaired endothelial function is linked to hypertension, cardiovascular disease and pulmonary hypertension. Correcting endothelial dysfunction by drug therapy holds great potential for the future treatment of cardiovascular disease.

Expression of endothelial function is regulated by the concentration of intracellular Ca²⁺. Production of Nitric Oxide, Endothelium-Delivered Hyperpolarizing Factor, and Prostacyclin PGI₂ are elevated as the concentration of intracellular Ca²⁺ increased. Store-operated Ca²⁺ entry plays an important role in regulating intracellular calcium concentration.

Our research focus is on the molecular biology mechanism of Store-operated Ca²⁺ entry in endothelial cells. We elucidated how myosin light chain kinase plays a pivotal role for cellular calcium ion regulation. We have reported on endothelial function in ischemic conditions in an in vitro study and endothelial cellular regeneration after cell injury in an in vivo study.

Currently, we are studying the aging of vascular endothelium in respect of Store-operated Ca²⁺ entry dynamics and STIM1-Ori1 pathway.

Clinical research

Polymorphism of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes can affect enzymatic activity, drug metabolism and drug interaction. We previously investigated the effects of rifampicin (inductive) and fluvoxamine (inhibitory) on the metabolism of omeprazole and CYP2C19 enzymatic activity.

Our department is a member of the Japan Pulmonary Hypertension Registry. Registered patients with pulmonary hypertension have been monitored through our outpatient clinic and we do routine catheterization and pulmonary exams periodically and evaluate the effect of prescribed medication.

We are developing a new seamless data stream from electric medical records (EMR) to an electric data capture (EDC) system using SS-MIX2 standards applied for observation research in Diabetes Mellitus.