The Suzuki Laboratory
Faculty > Masatoshi Suzuki
Masatoshi Suzuki
Associate Scientist, Waisman Center
Organ System/Disease Focus:Neruodegenerative disease, ALS
Aligned Research Focus: Using neural stem cells as a model to understand brain development and the possible application of stem cells as a therapy for neurodegenerative diseases.
Research Description:
Our long term objective is to apply stem cell technology to expand integrative sciences in both basic and translational research.
Human neural progenitor/stem cells are a good model for brain development. We have expanded our basic studies to elucidate novel effects and their underlying mechanisms of steroids and excitatory amino acids. We demonstrated that a neurosteroid, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) has powerful effects on the cell proliferation of human neural stem cells. DHEA is among the most abundant naturally occurring steroids in the blood of young humans, but levels decline with age and its physiological effects are poorly understood. Furthermore, we have continued to extend our studies to move from DHEA to other factors such as glutamate and epidermal growth factor (EGF) involved with human neural stem cell growth and differentiation.
We are also working on possible applications of stem cells for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS; Lou Gehrig’s disease), which is a fatal neurodegenerative disease causing the progressive loss of brain and spinal cord motor neurons. The overall aim of our current idea is to provide growth factor delivery by transplanting stem cells into the skeletal muscle (i.e. nerve terminals of motor neurons) and spinal cord (i.e. cell body) and to establish whether this can protect motor neurons from degeneration.
Selected References
Suzuki M, Svendsen CN. Combining growth factor and stem cell therapy for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Trends Neurosci, 31(4):192-8, 2008.
Nelson A*, Suzuki M*, Svendsen CN. A high concentration of epidermal growth factor (EGF) increases the growth and survival of neurogenic radial glial cells within human neurosphere cultures. Stem Cells, 26: 348-355, 2008. *: Equally contributed.
Suzuki M, McHugh J, Tork C, Shelley B, Klein SM, Aebischer P, Svendsen CN. GDNF secreting human neural progenitor cells protect dying motor neurons, but not their projection to muscle, in a rat model of familial ALS. PLoS ONE, 2: e689, 2007.
Suzuki M, Nelson AD, Eickstaedt JB, Wallace K, Wright LS, Svendsen CN. Glutamate enhances proliferation and neurogenesis in human neural progenitor cell cultures derived from the fetal cortex. Eur J Neurosci, 24:645-53, 2006.
Suzuki M, Wright LS, Marwah P, Lardy HA, Svendsen CN. Mitotic and neurogenic effects of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) on human neural stem cell cultures derived from the fetal cortex. PNAS, 101, 3202-3207, 2004.