The
Sonoyama
Lab
Laboratory of Gut
Physiology, Graduate School of Life Science
Laboratory of Food
Biochemistry, Faculty of Agriculture
Contact
Webmaster
Our
research subject is the mutually beneficial relationships between gut
microbes and host. In particular, we are interested in the immune
response, inflammatory reaction, and energy/lipid metabolism in
response to changes in gut microbial structure. In terms of applied
science, we investigate whether pre/probiotics prevent and/or treat
some diseases including allergy, obesity, and metabolic syndrome.
Furthermore, we are also interested in the mutualism between gut
microbiota and hibernating mammals. Hibernation essentially involves
periods of fasting that is known to affect the gut microbiota in
nonhibernating mammals such as mice. Given that the gut microbiota
plays important roles in mammalian tissue development and homeostasis,
it is of interest to investigate the changes in the gut microbiota and
gut epithelial structure and function that may take place during
hibernation.
To address these issues, we employ animal and cell
culture experiments and a variety of analytical methods based on
histology, cell biology, biochemistry, and molecular biology. To
analyze gut microbial structure, we employ cultivation-independent
molecular biological methods based on bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences
including denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of
PCR-amplified 16S rRNA fragments.
Key words
Gut
microbiota Gut mucosal
barrier
Gut mucosal immunology
Allergy
Obesity
Metabolic syndrome
Dietary
fiber Non-digestible
oligosaccharide Prebiotics@@@Probiotics
Hibernation Candida
albicans
Contact address
Laboratory of Food Biochemistry
Graduate School of Agriculture,
Hokkaido University
Kita-9, Nishi-9, Kita-ku, Sapporo
060-8589 Japan
FAX +81-11-706-2496
