Research_English of System Physiology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo

We center our research on the biomechanics, the phenomena of mechanical forces in organisms, and specialize in the study of cell response mechanisms or cell behavior when mechanical pressures are applied. Our main research theme is the relationship between shear stress, the mechanical pressure existing in the blood vessels, and vascular endothelial cells. This type of research not only serves to clarify the understanding of the regulation of blood flow systems in general, it also helps to clarify the cause and effect relationships between blood flow dependency and the generation, growth and remodeling of blood vessels. At an even more crucial, clinical level, our research helps to solve the problems behind atheroscleroses and aneurisms. Our research is conducted via methods of bioengineering; we create shear stress through a rheologically designed apparatus which we apply to cultivated endothelial cells and observe their effects.

• １．Shear-stress sensing and mechanotransduction
• ２．Shear-stress-induced cell differentiation
• ３．Shear-stress-mediated regulation of gene expressions