The Pharmaceutical
Society of Japan, established in 1880, is one of Japan’s oldest and most
distinguished academic societies. The Society currently has around 15,000
members. It publishes three monthly scientific journals. Chemical and
Pharmaceutical Bulletin (Chem. Pharm. Bull.) began publication
in 1953 as Pharmaceutical Bulletin. It covers chemistry fields in
the pharmaceutical and health sciences. Biological and Pharmaceutical
Bulletin (Biol. Pharm. Bull.) began publication in 1978 as the Journal
of Pharmacobio-Dynamics. It covers various biological topics in the
pharmaceutical and health sciences. A fourth Society journal, the Journal of
Health Science, was merged with Biol. Pharm. Bull. in 2012. Yakugaku
Zasshi (Japanese for “Pharmaceutical Science Journal”) has the longest
history, with publication beginning in 1881. Yakugaku Zasshi is
published mostly in Japanese, except for some articles related to clinical
pharmacy and pharmaceutical education, which are published in English.
The main aim of the Society’s journals is to advance the pharmaceutical
sciences with research reports, information exchange, and high-quality
discussion. The average review time for articles submitted to the journals is
around one month for first decision. The complete texts of all of the Society’s
journals can be freely accessed through J-STAGE. The Society’s editorial
committee hopes that the content of its journals will be useful to your
research, and also invites you to submit your own work to the journals. Chairman of Committee Sumio Ohtsuki Faculty of Life Sciences, Kumamoto University
Cellular aging is one of the most extraordinary phenomena that mammalian cells undergo in vivo and in vitro. We have been observing their behavior for approximately 4 decades and here would like to summarize some of our salient findings. Normal cells such as human diploid cells exhibit finite growth potential in vitro as well as a set of senescent cell phenotypes. Those changes appear probabilistic and irreversible. In the search of the factor(s) to evoke the features we have observed that cellular glycosaminoglycan molecules plays significant roles in the cell physiology. Besides, CCAAT-box binding transcription factor NF-Y relates to the aging-coupled changes in gene expression, and aging of gastric mucosal cells may relate to a decrease in cytoprotection. As to the intracellular signaling, we have confirmed that the breakdown of phosphatidylinositol bisphosphate is critical for mitogenesis by using micro-injection of its antibody. Subsequently, we have discovered a novel, pivotal adaptor protein Grb2/Ash, a missing link between the receptor tyrosine kinases and their downstream target Ras. The limiting factors for the cellular life span have been considered as telomere shortening and accumulation of cellular and genomic damages. We have observed that telomerase-expressing cells exhibit expanded division potential; yet oxidative stress similarly induces senescent cell phenotypes. Herein we have demonstrated that the treatment of senescent cells with nicotinamide or related reagents elicits unique cellular responses, which might indicate the capability of the cells to recover from the aging.
This review describes aging studies
employing in vitro animal cell cultures, on which the author has been
working for more than 40 years after pharmacist education and then cell biology
researches. The author started observation and comparison as the cell undergoes
aging, proceeded to analysis of cell surface components, and discovered novel
adaptor proteins and intracellular signaling for the control of senescence. The
presentation here would be appropriate introduction to the cellular aging for
researchers with pharmaceutical or biological interest.