野田 泰子

Glucose metabolism is regulated by insulin, which is produced from β-cells in the pancreas. Because insulin is secreted into vessels in response to blood glucose, vascular structures of the pancreas, especially the relationship between vessels and β-cells, are important for physiological and pathological glucose metabolism. Here, we developed a system to visualize vessels surrounding mature β-cells expressing transcription factor MafA in a three-dimensional manner. Optical clearing of the pancreas prevented light scattering of fluorescence driven by the bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC)-mafA promoter in β-cells. Reconstruction of confocal images demonstrated mature β-cells and the glomerular-like structures of β-cell vasculatures labeled with DyLight 488-conjugated lectin in normal mice as well as in low-dose streptozotocin-injected diabetes model mice with reduced β-cell mass. This technological innovation of organ imaging can be used to investigate morphological changes in vascular structures during transplantation, regeneration and diabetes development.

We surveyed medical and dental schools to promote the exchange of information about university efforts to increase the number of research-oriented doctors. Periods in which students rotate through laboratories to conduct research were reported by more than two thirds of universities. Many comments asserted that these efforts are effective. However, a small number of respondents reported low student motivation and insufficient time for laboratory experience. MD-PhD courses, in which students take a leave of absence in the middle of undergraduate training and follow a PhD curriculum, have been employed by more than 10 universities. However, relatively few students have chosen such programs. Modified MD-PhD courses have recently been introduced by several universities. In these courses, by taking part of the graduate school curriculum in advance, undergraduate students can shorten the time they spend in graduate school. Students who take such courses are increasing. There were many opinions that extra positions and financial support for research-oriented doctors are effective and should be enhanced. There were also many opinions that emphasize the importance of identifying research-oriented students, improving laboratory working environments, attending academic meetings and inter-university consortia to maintain students' motivation, and promoting collaboration with departments of clinical medicine.

The working group for the future planning of the Japanese Association of Anatomists (JAA) has been working to address the issues that were consulted from the president of JAA since October 2009. After making the interim report in March 2010, a public hearing for general members of the JAA was held and a final report was submitted to the President in January 2011. The report contains the analysis of the current situation, the directions in which we should proceed, and recommendations of concrete actions that JAA should take for each issue. The issues discussed were as follows: 1. Future prospects of anatomy and morphological sciences. How can we maintain the specialties of morphological and anatomical sciences in the rapidly advancing field of life sciences and develop collaborations with other fields? 2. Improvement of the JAA academic meetings. How can we increase JAA members and young participants in the academic meetings of the JAA? 3. Fostering the next generation of young researchers. How can we increase young researchers graduated from the schools of Medicine or Dentistry? 4. Future prospects of education of gross anatomy. Prospects of education in gross anatomy and the body donation registration system in relation with some new cadaver-related movements.

Through interactions with microtubules, the kinesin superfamily of proteins (KIFs) could have multiple roles in neuronal function and development. During neuronal development, postmitotic neurons develop primary axons extending toward targets, while other collateral branches remain short. Although the process of collateral branching is important for correct wiring of the brain, the mechanisms involved are not well understood. In this study, we analyzed kif2a(-/-) mice, whose brains showed multiple phenotypes, including aberrant axonal branching due to overextension of collateral branches. In kif2a(-/-) growth cones, microtubule-depolymerizing activity decreased. Moreover, many individual microtubules showed abnormal behavior at the kif2a(-/-) cell edge. Based on these results, we propose that KIF2A regulates microtubule dynamics at the growth cone edge by depolymerizing microtubules and that it plays an important role in the suppression of collateral branch extension.