Shiseido Company, Limited

The General Hospital Corporation

Jiro Kishimoto

Hiroshi Okamoto

Satoshi Amano

Robert E Burgeson

Ohji Ifuku

Tsutomu Soma

Bruce A Morgan

Shigeyoshi Fujiwara

Masahiro Tajima

Shinichiro Haze

Toshii Iida

Mitsuo Yanagi

Toshihiko Kaminuma

Yuka Fuse

Ritsuko Ehama

Ichiro Kato

Kazuo Nakahama

Takayuki Arai

Shunsuke Iriyama

Toshio Nishiyama

Hirofumi Aoki

Kiichiro Yano

Osamu Moro

Yumiko Ishimatsu

Ritsuro Ideta

Shinitiro Haze

Robert Eugene Burgeson

The present invention provides a method of producing a cell mass capable of serving as a primitive organ-like structure comprised of a plurality of somatic cell types of somatic origin, comprising: preparing cultures containing the plurality of types of somatic cells; mixing the plurality of types of somatic cell cultures followed by adding a Wnt signal activator to the mixed cell culture; subjecting the culture containing the Wnt signal activator to non-plate contact culturing over a predetermined time period; and replacing the medium of the culture cultured by the non-plate contact culturing with medium not containing Wnt signal activator and further culturing for a predetermined time period; wherein, at least one type of the plurality of somatic cells is maintained in an undifferentiated state.

Cell mass capable of serving as a primitive organ-like structure comprised of a plurality of cell types of somatic origin

Primitive organ-like structure comprising keratinocytes and hair papilla cells

Disclosed is a cell transformed by a vector containing human Wnt3a gene, wherein the cell is selected from a group consisting of hair follicle-derived cells and prostate cancer-derived cells.

Cell transformed by human Wnt3a gene

The present invention provides a skin test method for predicting the formation of spots in the skin. This method is characterized by judging skin to be susceptible to spot formation in the case expression of genes consisting of MLSTD1, MOGAT1, FADS2, FADS1, HSD3B1, ELOVL3, BG1, PECR, FABP7, FA2H, HAO2, ALOX15B, PDE6A, LZTS1, SEC14L4, BAMBI, CIDEA, TERE1, GAL, THRSP, INSIG1 or CUTL2 in the epidermis is accelerated, or the expression of genes consisting of RBBP6, MSMB, WIF1, ANKRD12, FLG, SYNE2, SCEL, NKTR or AMBP in the epidermis is decreased as compared with normal expression in the epidermis.

Method of predicting spot formation on the skin using spot site-accelerating genes as an indicator thereof and method of screening inhibitors of spot formation on the skin

The invention features methods of promoting hair growth in a subject. The methods include inducing or mimicking the effects of Wnt promoted signal transduction, e.g., by increasing the level of Wnt protein or administering an agent which mimics an effect of Wnt promoted signal transduction, e.g., by administering lithium chloride. Methods of inhibiting hair growth are also provided.

Methods of culturing dermal papilla cells

The present invention provides a method for preparing a hair dermal papilla cell preparation comprising preparing a cell suspension by removing epidermal tissue from skin tissue and subjecting the resulting dermal tissue fraction to collagenase treatment, and cyropreserving the cell suspension to kill the follicular epidermal cells. The present invention also provides a composition for regenerating hair follicles comprising hair dermal papilla cell and epidermal cells, wherein the ratio of the number of hair dermal papilla cell to the number of epidermal cells is from 1:10 to 10:1.

Preparation method of a hair dermal papilla cell preparation, composition and method for regenerating hair follicles, and animal having regenerated hair follicles

Methods of modulating hair growth

The invention describes versican activation and modulation of hair growth, e.g., versican expressing dermal papilla cells exhibit hair induction ability.

Versican and epithelial-mesenchymal interaction

The invention provides methods of evaluating a treatment for its effect on skin. The invention also provides non-human transgenic animals, e.g., mice, having a reporter gene coupled to a skin-metabolism promoter.

Method for evaluating a compound for its effect on skin

A purified enzyme-I is obtained that participates in C-terminal amidation by acting on a peptide C-terminal glycine adduct to form a peptide C-terminal .alpha.-hydroxyglycine adduct. The enzyme has an optimum pH of about 5 to 7, an optimum temperature of 25 to 40.degree. C. and a molecular weight of about 25 kDa or about 36 kDa, and metal ions and ascorbic acid act as a cofactor. A purified enzyme-II is obtained that participates in C-terminal amidation by acting on the peptide C-terminal .alpha.-hydroxyglycine adduct to produce a C-terminal amidated compound. The enzyme has an optimum pH of about 5 to 6, an optimum temperature of 15 to 35.degree. C. and a molecular weight of about 40 kDa or about 43 kDa. Enzyme-I does not act on the peptide C-terminal .alpha.-hydroxyglycine adduct and enzyme-II does not act on the peptide C-terminal glycine adduct. The enzymes may be purified from a biological material such as horse serum by affinity chromatography using a peptide C-terminal glycine adduct as a ligand. The enzymes may also be obtained from host cells transformed with a plasmid containing a cDNA coding for the enzymes. Assay of activity of the enzymes is carried out by measuring the C-terminal .alpha.-hydroxyglycine adduct or the C-terminal amidated compound that has been isolated such as by high performance liquid chromatography with the use of an acetonitrile-containing buffer.

Method of preparing an enzyme participating in C-terminal amidation

Escherichia coli characterized in that a capability thereof of forming acetate is at most one fifth that of wild type Escherichia coli, and a process for producing a useful substance by cultivating the Escherichia coli to a high density and recovering the substance

Microorganism having low acetate forming capability, and process for

A DNA sequence of high biotin operon-expression system usable for breeding a bacterium having excellent biotin productivity is provided. A DNA sequence of biotin operon characterized in the fact that at least one base pair of either a nucleotide sequence of the regulatory region of the biotin operon of Escherichia coli or a nucleotide sequence in the vicinity of the bioB initiating codon is mutated in comparison with that of the one in its wild type strain is provided. Escherichia coli transformed with a recombinant plasmid carrying such a DNA sequence has high biotin-productivity.

Biotin operon

Purified enzymes participating in C-terminal amidation

A mutant strain having a glucose consumption rate is at most 1/4 that of wild type strains is provided. The mutant strain belongs to Escherichia, Bacillus, Pseudomonas, or Serratia; has a glucose consumption rate of at most one fourth that of the corresponding wild type strain, and the feedback repression by biotin is removed. Further, a process for producing biotins using this mutant strain is provided.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Jiro Kishimoto