237 Kazu Kikuchi – Regulation of Cardiomyocyte Cell Cycle (Proliferation and Maturation)
Satveer Sangha
Kazu Kikuchi, PhD
Director of the Department of Cardiac Regeneration Biology at the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, Japan
Dr. Kazu Kikuchi is the Director of the Department of Cardiac Regeneration Biology at the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center in Japan. Prior to this position, Kazu Kikuchi was the head of the Cardiac Regeneration Laboratory at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute. Dr. Kikuchi earned both his undergraduate and graduate (PhD) degrees from the Tohoku University School of Medicine in Japan and then completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Motonari Kondo’s Lab at Duke University in North Carolina, USA. Throughout his career, Dr. Kikuchi has studied organ regeneration, more specifically heart regeneration.
Despite his current academic successes, , Dr. Kikuchi has admitted that he did poorly at school as a child, as he spent a lot of time fishing for crayfish and catching beetles with friends, . He rather enjoyed spending time in nature, but through hard work and determination he graduated at the top of his class.(Reference: https://www.victorchang.edu.au/news/fishing-for-clues) Certainly Kazu’s fascination with fish has shaped his career, as he grew intrigued by the capabilities of some freshwater fish to repair their heart, spinal column, kidneys, and fins. Kazu found that although zebrafish are 70% genetically identical to humans, zebrafish have significant differences including their remarkable abilities in regenerating tissues without scarring, possibly due to the activities of their immune system cells (specifically T cells). More recently Dr. Kikuchi and his lab have been identifying and investigating the enzymes and transcription factors that are involved in zebrafish heart repair. Specifically, they have found that the ventricular injury stimulates increased production of the enzyme Raldh2/AldhIa2 (within epicardial and endocardial cells close to the site of injury), which is necessary for cardiomyocyte proliferation (Developmental Cell, 2011 – put in the proper citation here). Additionally, they have found that after injury to the heart, there is an increased production of transcription factor klf1 within proliferating cardiomyoctes. Klf1 appears to play two roles: 1) enhancing cardiomyocyte proliferation (by up-regulating cell proliferation gene expression) and 2) stimulating cardiomyocte de-differentiation (by repressing myocardial differentiation) and influencing mitochondrial metabolism (Science, 2021 – put in the proper citation here). As a side note, within this study, the team was interested to find out that klf1 does not appear to have a role during fetal heart development, though you might have expected it to be influential during this time of cardiomyocyte proliferation and maturation. (Science, 2021 – put in the proper citation here)
References
Fishing for Clues: Profile on Dr Kazu Kikuchi. The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.
https://www.victorchang.edu.au/news/fishing-for-clues
Major Discoveries from the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute. The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute. https://www.victorchang.edu.au/heart-research/major-discoveries
More good photos here: https://www.victorchang.edu.au/news/fishing-for-clues
The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute – Past Scientists: Dr Kazu Kikuchi. The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.
https://www.victorchang.edu.au/about-us/our-alumni-past-scientists/dr-kazu-kikuchi World First Discovery Uncovers Secret Switch That Could Revolutionise Heart Attack
Treatment. The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute. https://www.victorchang.edu.au/news/discovery-uncovers-switch-revolutionise-heart-atta ck-treatment
More good references here:
1. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33833125/
Ogawa M, Geng FS, Humphreys DT, Kristianto E, Sheng DZ, Hui SP, Zhang Y, Sugimoto K, Nakayama M, Zheng D, Hesselson D, Hodson MP, Bogdanovic O, Kikuchi K. Krüppel-like factor 1 is a core cardiomyogenic trigger in zebrafish. Science. 2021 Apr 9;372(6538):201-205. doi: 10.1126/science.abe2762. PMID: 33833125.
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3586268/
Kikuchi K, Poss KD. Cardiac regenerative capacity and mechanisms. Annu Rev Cell Dev Biol. 2012;28:719-41. doi: 10.1146/annurev-cellbio-101011-155739. PMID: 23057748; PMCID: PMC3586268.
