Yasuko Nagasaka

Publications (4)16.15 Total impact

• Article: Nitric oxide regulates pulmonary vascular smooth muscle cell expression of the inducible cAMP early repressor gene.

  Andrea U Steinbicker, Heling Liu, Kim Jiramongkolchai, Rajeev Malhotra, Elizabeth Y Choe, Cornelius J Busch, Amanda R Graveline, Sonya M Kao, Yasuko Nagasaka, Fumito Ichinose, Emmanuel S Buys, Peter Brouckaert, Warren M Zapol, Kenneth D Bloch
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  ABSTRACT: Nitric oxide (NO) regulates vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) structure and function, in part by activating soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) to synthesize cGMP. The objective of this study was to further characterize the signaling mechanisms by which NO regulates VSMC gene expression using transcription profiling. DNA microarrays were hybridized with RNA extracted from rat pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (RPaSMC) exposed to the NO donor compound, S-nitroso-glutathione (GSNO). Many of the genes, whose expression was induced by GSNO, contain a cAMP-response element (CRE), of which one encoded the inducible cAMP early repressor (ICER). sGC and cAMP-dependent protein kinase, but not cGMP-dependent protein kinase, were required for NO-mediated phosphorylation of CRE-binding protein (CREB) and induction of ICER gene expression. Expression of a dominant-negative CREB in RPaSMC prevented the NO-mediated induction of CRE-dependent gene transcription and ICER gene expression. Pre-treatment of RPaSMC with the intracellular calcium (Ca(2+)) chelator, BAPTA-AM, blocked the induction of ICER gene expression by GSNO. The store-operated Ca(2+) channel inhibitors, 2-ABP, and SKF-96365, reduced the GSNO-mediated increase in ICER mRNA levels, while 2-ABP did not inhibit GSNO-induced CREB phosphorylation. Our results suggest that induction of ICER gene expression by NO requires both CREB phosphorylation and Ca(2+) signaling. Transcription profiling of RPaSMC exposed to GSNO revealed important roles for sGC, PKA, CREB, and Ca(2+) in the regulation of gene expression by NO. The induction of ICER in GSNO-treated RPaSMC highlights a novel cross-talk mechanism between cGMP and cAMP signaling pathways.
  Nitric Oxide 05/2011; 25(3):294-302. · 3.55 Impact Factor
• Article: Soluble guanylate cyclase-α1 is required for the cardioprotective effects of inhaled nitric oxide.

  Yasuko Nagasaka, Emmanuel S Buys, Ester Spagnolli, Andrea U Steinbicker, Sarah R Hayton, Kristen M Rauwerdink, Peter Brouckaert, Warren M Zapol, Kenneth D Bloch
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  ABSTRACT: Reperfusion injury limits the benefits of revascularization in the treatment of myocardial infarction (MI). Breathing nitric oxide (NO) reduces cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury in animal models; however, the signaling pathways by which inhaled NO confers cardioprotection remain uncertain. The objective of this study was to learn whether inhaled NO reduces cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury by activating the cGMP-generating enzyme, soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC), and to investigate whether bone marrow (BM)-derived cells participate in the sGC-mediated cardioprotective effects of inhaled NO. Wild-type (WT) mice and mice deficient in the sGC α(1)-subunit (sGCα(1)(-/-) mice) were subjected to cardiac ischemia for 1 h, followed by 24 h of reperfusion. During ischemia and for the first 10 min of reperfusion, mice were ventilated with oxygen or with oxygen supplemented with NO (80 parts per million). The ratio of MI size to area at risk (MI/AAR) did not differ in WT and sGCα(1)(-/-) mice that did not breathe NO. Breathing NO decreased MI/AAR in WT mice (41%, P = 0.002) but not in sGCα(1)(-/-) mice (7%, P = not significant). BM transplantation was performed to restore WT BM-derived cells to sGCα(1)(-/-) mice. Breathing NO decreased MI/AAR in sGCα(1)(-/-) mice carrying WT BM (39%, P = 0.031). In conclusion, these results demonstrate that a global deficiency of sGCα(1) does not alter the degree of cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury in mice. The cardioprotective effects of inhaled NO require the presence of sGCα(1). Moreover, our studies suggest that BM-derived cells are key mediators of the ability of NO to reduce cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury.
  AJP Heart and Circulatory Physiology 01/2011; 300(4):H1477-83. · 3.71 Impact Factor
• Article: Bone marrow MyD88 signaling modulates neutrophil function and ischemic myocardial injury.

  Yan Feng, Lin Zou, Rui Si, Yasuko Nagasaka, Wei Chao
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  ABSTRACT: Myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88), an adaptor critical for innate immune function, plays a role in neutrophil recruitment and myocardial injury after transient ischemia. However, how MyD88 signaling modulates neutrophil function and myocardial injury remains unclear. In an in vivo model of neutrophil migration and a chimeric model of MyD88 deletion, we demonstrated that Gr-1-positive (Gr-1(+)) neutrophil migration was significantly decreased by 68% in MyD88-deficient (Myd88(-/-)) mice and by 33% in knockout→wild-type (KO→WT; donor→recipient) chimeric mice, which lacked MyD88 in bone marrow cells but maintained normal MyD88 expression in the heart. This marked attenuation in neutrophil migration was associated with decreased peritoneal neutrophil CXCR2 expression and lower peritoneal KC, a neutrophil chemoattractant, in MyD88(-/-) mice. Moreover, in vitro, KC induces significantly more downregulation of CXCR2 expression in MyD88(-/-) than WT neutrophils. In an in vivo model of myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury, KO→WT chimeric mice had significantly smaller infarct sizes compared with the WT→WT mice. While there was a marked increase in proinflammatory cytokine/chemokine expression in the myocardium following I/R, there was no significant difference between WT→WT and KO→WT mice. In contrast, Gr-1(+) neutrophil recruitment in the myocardium was markedly attenuated in MyD88(-/-) mice. Deletion of Toll-interleukin-1 receptor (TIR)-domain-containing adaptor protein-inducing interferon-β-mediated transcription factor (Trif), another innate immune adaptor, had no effect on the KC-mediated CXCR2 downregulation or on myocardial neutrophil recruitment after I/R. Taken together, these findings suggest that MyD88 signaling is essential for maintaining neutrophil migratory function and chemokine receptor expression. MyD88 signaling in bone marrow-derived circulating cells may play a specific and critical role in the development of myocardial I/R-induced injury.
  AJP Cell Physiology 10/2010; 299(4):C760-9. · 3.54 Impact Factor
• Article: Brief periods of nitric oxide inhalation protect against myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury.

  Yasuko Nagasaka, Bernadette O Fernandez, Maria F Garcia-Saura, Bodil Petersen, Fumito Ichinose, Kenneth D Bloch, Martin Feelisch, Warren M Zapol
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  ABSTRACT: Prolonged breathing of nitric oxide reduces myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury, but the precise mechanisms responsible for the cardioprotective effects of inhaled nitric oxide are incompletely understood. The authors investigated the fate of inhaled nitric oxide (80 parts per million) in mice and quantified the formation of nitric oxide metabolites in blood and tissues. The authors tested whether the accumulation of nitric oxide metabolites correlated with the ability of inhaled nitric oxide to protect against cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury. Mice absorbed nitric oxide in a nearly linear fashion (0.19 +/- 0.02 micromol/g x h). Breathing nitric oxide rapidly increased a broad spectrum of nitric oxide metabolites. Levels of erythrocytic S-nitrosothiols, N-nitrosamines, and nitrosyl-hemes increased dramatically within 30 s of commencing nitric oxide inhalation. Marked increases of lung S-nitrosothiol and liver N-nitrosamine levels were measured, as well as elevated cardiac and brain nitric oxide metabolite levels. Breathing low oxygen concentrations potentiated the ability of inhaled nitric oxide to increase cardiac nitric oxide metabolite levels. Concentrations of each nitric oxide metabolite, except nitrate, rapidly reached a plateau and were similar after 5 and 60 min. In a murine cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury model, breathing nitric oxide for either 5 or 60 min before reperfusion decreased myocardial infarction size as a fraction of myocardial area at risk by 31% or 32%, respectively. Breathing nitric oxide leads to the rapid accumulation of a variety of nitric oxide metabolites in blood and tissues, contributing to the ability of brief periods of nitric oxide inhalation to provide cardioprotection against ischemia-reperfusion injury. The nitric oxide metabolite concentrations achieved in a target tissue may be more important than the absolute amounts of nitric oxide absorbed.
  Anesthesiology 11/2008; 109(4):675-82. · 5.36 Impact Factor