Hirotsugu Maekawa

All Publications

• Recapitulation of pro-inflammatory signature of monocytes with ACVR1A mutation using FOP patient-derived iPSCs. Orphanet journal of rare diseases Maekawa, H., Jin, Y., Nishio, M., Kawai, S., Nagata, S., Kamakura, T., Yoshitomi, H., Niwa, A., Saito, M. K., Matsuda, S., Toguchida, J. 2022; 17 (1): 364

  Abstract

  Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is a rare genetic disease characterized by progressive heterotopic ossification (HO) in soft tissues due to a heterozygous mutation of the ACVR1A gene (FOP-ACVR1A), which erroneously transduces the BMP signal by Activin-A. Although inflammation is known to trigger HO in FOP, the role of FOP-ACVR1A on inflammatory cells remains to be elucidated.We generated immortalized monocytic cell lines from FOP-iPSCs (FOP-ML) and mutation rescued iPSCs (resFOP-ML). Cell morphology was evaluated during the monocyte induction and after immortalization. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) was performed to evaluate the cell surface markers CD14 and CD16 on MLs. MLs were stimulated with lipopolysaccharide or Activin-A and the gene expression was evaluated by quantitative PCR and microarray analysis. Histological analysis was performed for HO tissue obtained from wild type mice and FOP-ACVR1A mice which conditionally express human mutant ACVR1A gene by doxycycline administration. Without any stimulation, FOP-ML showed the pro-inflammatory signature of CD16+ monocytes with an upregulation of INHBA gene, and treatment of resFOP-ML with Activin-A induced an expression profile mimicking that of FOP-ML at baseline. Treatment of FOP-ML with Activin-A further induced the inflammatory profile with an up-regulation of inflammation-associated genes, of which some, but not all, of which were suppressed by corticosteroid. Experiments using an inhibitor for TGFβ or BMP signal demonstrated that Activin-A-induced genes such as CD16 and CCL7, were regulated by both signals, indicating Activin-A transduced dual signals in FOP-ML. A comparison with resFOP-ML identified several down-regulated genes in FOP-ML including LYVE-1, which is known to suppress matrix-formation in vivo. The down-regulation of LYVE-1 in HO tissues was confirmed in FOP model mice, verifying the significance of the in vitro experiments.These results indicate that FOP-ML faithfully recapitulated the phenotype of primary monocytes of FOP and the combination with resFOP-ML is a useful tool to investigate molecular events at the initial inflammation stage of HO in FOP.

  View details for DOI 10.1186/s13023-022-02506-3

  View details for PubMedID 36131296

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC9494870

• Differentiation of Hypertrophic Chondrocytes from Human iPSCs for the In Vitro Modeling of Chondrodysplasias STEM CELL REPORTS Pretemer, Y., Kawai, S., Nagata, S., Nishio, M., Watanabe, M., Tamaki, S., Alev, C., Yamanaka, Y., Xue, J., Wang, Z., Fukiage, K., Tsukanaka, M., Futami, T., Ikegawa, S., Toguchida, J. 2021; 16 (3): 610-625

  Abstract

  Chondrodysplasias are hereditary diseases caused by mutations in the components of growth cartilage. Although the unfolded protein response (UPR) has been identified as a key disease mechanism in mouse models, no suitable in vitro system has been reported to analyze the pathology in humans. Here, we developed a three-dimensional culture protocol to differentiate hypertrophic chondrocytes from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and examine the phenotype caused by MATN3 and COL10A1 mutations. Intracellular MATN3 or COL10 retention resulted in increased ER stress markers and ER size in most mutants, but activation of the UPR was dependent on the mutation. Transcriptome analysis confirmed a UPR with wide-ranging changes in bone homeostasis, extracellular matrix composition, and lipid metabolism in the MATN3 T120M mutant, which further showed altered cellular morphology in iPSC-derived growth-plate-like structures in vivo. We then applied our in vitro model to drug testing, whereby trimethylamine N-oxide led to a reduction of ER stress and intracellular MATN3.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.stemcr.2021.01.014

  View details for Web of Science ID 000631903000004

  View details for PubMedID 33636111

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC7940258

• Prophylactic treatment of rapamycin ameliorates naturally developing and episode -induced heterotopic ossification in mice expressing human mutant ACVR1 ORPHANET JOURNAL OF RARE DISEASES Maekawa, H., Kawai, S., Nishio, M., Nagata, S., Jin, Y., Yoshitomi, H., Matsuda, S., Toguchida, J. 2020; 15 (1): 122

  Abstract

  Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is a rare autosomal-dominant disease characterized by heterotopic ossification (HO) in soft tissues and caused by a mutation of the ACVR1A/ALK2 gene. Activin-A is a key molecule for initiating the process of HO via the activation of mTOR, while rapamycin, an mTOR inhibitor, effectively inhibits the Activin-A-induced HO. However, few reports have verified the effect of rapamycin on FOP in clinical perspectives.We investigated the effect of rapamycin for different clinical situations by using mice conditionally expressing human mutant ACVR1A/ALK2 gene. We also compared the effect of rapamycin between early and episode-initiated treatments for each situation.Continuous, episode-independent administration of rapamycin reduced the incidence and severity of HO in the natural course of FOP mice. Pinch-injury induced HO not only at the injured sites, but also in the contralateral limbs and provoked a prolonged production of Activin-A in inflammatory cells. Although both early and injury-initiated treatment of rapamycin suppressed HO in the injured sites, the former was more effective at preventing HO in the contralateral limbs. Rapamycin was also effective at reducing the volume of recurrent HO after the surgical resection of injury-induced HO, for which the early treatment was more effective.Our study suggested that prophylactic treatment will be a choice of method for the clinical application of rapamycin for FOP.

  View details for DOI 10.1186/s13023-020-01406-8

  View details for Web of Science ID 000536945700004

  View details for PubMedID 32448372

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC7245788

• In vitro bone-like nodules generated from patient-derived iPSCs recapitulate pathological bone phenotypes NATURE BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING Kawai, S., Yoshitomi, H., Sunaga, J., Alev, C., Nagata, S., Nishio, M., Hada, M., Koyama, Y., Uemura, M., Sekiguchi, K., Maekawa, H., Ikeya, M., Tamaki, S., Jin, Y., Harada, Y., Fukiage, K., Adachi, T., Matsuda, S., Toguchida, J. 2019; 3 (7): 558-570

  Abstract

  The recapitulation of bone formation via the in vitro generation of bone-like nodules is frequently used to understand bone development. However, current bone-induction techniques are slow and difficult to reproduce. Here, we report the formation of bone-like nodules within ten days, via the use of retinoic acid (RA) to induce the osteogenic differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) into osteoblast-like and osteocyte-like cells that create human bone tissue when implanted in calvarial defects in mice. We also show that the induction of bone formation depends on cell signalling through the RA receptors RARα and RARβ, which simultaneously activate the BMP (bone morphogenetic protein) and Wnt signalling pathways. Moreover, by using patient-derived hiPSCs, the bone-like nodules recapitulated the osteogenesis-imperfecta phenotype, which was rescued via the correction of disease-causing mutations and partially by an mTOR (mechanistic target of rapamycin) inhibitor. The method of inducing bone nodules may serve as a fast and reproducible model for the study of the formation of both healthy and pathological bone.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41551-019-0410-7

  View details for Web of Science ID 000474416500012

  View details for PubMedID 31182836