Seishi Ogawa

Research Overview

Clonal expansion in aged normal tissues has been implicated in the development of cancer. However, the chronology and risk dependence of the expansion are poorly understood. Here we intensively sequence 682 micro-scale esophageal samples and show, in physiologically normal esophageal epithelia, the progressive age-related expansion of clones that carry mutations in driver genes (predominantly NOTCH1), which is substantially accelerated by alcohol consumption and by smoking. Driver-mutated clones emerge multifocally from early childhood and increase their number and size with ageing, and ultimately replace almost the entire esophageal epithelium in the extremely elderly. Compared with mutations in esophageal cancer, there is a marked overrepresentation of NOTCH1 and PPM1D mutations in physiologically normal esophageal epithelia; these mutations can be acquired before late adolescence (as early as early infancy) and significantly increase in number with heavy smoking and drinking. The remodeling of the esophageal epithelium by driver-mutated clones is an inevitable consequence of normal ageing, which – depending on lifestyle risks – may affect cancer development.

Figure 1: Evolution of a representative clones observed in physiologically normal samples from a 70-year-old man. Phylogenetic trees of clones (middle) are projected onto the positions of samples, as indicated by images of biopsy specimens (top). The estimated age of branching is also shown.

Publications

1.Yokoyama A, Kakiuchi N, Yoshizato T, Nannya Y, Suzuki H, Takeuchi Y, Shiozawa Y, Sato Y, Aoki K, Kim SK, Fujii Y, Yoshida K, Kataoka K, Nakagawa MM, Inoue Y, Hirano T, Shiraishi Y, Chiba K, Tanaka H, Sanada M, Nishikawa Y, Amanuma Y, Ohashi S, Aoyama I, Horimatsu T, Miyamoto S, Tsunoda S, Sakai Y, Narahara M, Brown JB, Sato Y, Sawada G, Mimori K, Minamiguchi S, Haga H, Seno H, Miyano S, Makishima H, Muto M, Ogawa S. Age-related remodelling of oesophageal epithelia by mutated cancer drivers. Nature. 2019;565(7739):312-317.

2.Kataoka K, Shiraishi Y, Takeda Y, Sakata S, Matsumoto M, Nagano S, Maeda T, Nagata Y, Kitanaka A, Mizuno S, Tanaka H, Chiba K, Ito S, Watatani Y, Kakiuchi N, Suzuki H, Yoshizato T, Yoshida K, Sanada M, Itonaga H, Imaizumi Y, Totoki Y, Munakata W, Nakamura H, Hama N, Shide K, Kubuki Y, Hidaka T, Kameda T, Masuda K, Minato N, Kashiwase K, Izutsu K, Takaori-Kondo A, Miyazaki Y, Takahashi S, Shibata T, Kawamoto H, Akatsuka Y, Shimoda K, Takeuchi K, Seya T, Miyano S, Ogawa S. Aberrant PD-L1 expression through 3′-UTR disruption in multiple cancers. Nature. 2016;534(7607):402-406.

3. Yoshizato T, Dumitriu B, Hosokawa K, Makishima H, Yoshida K, Townsley D, Sato-Otsubo A, Sato Y, Liu D, Suzuki H, Wu CO, Shiraishi Y, Clemente MJ, Kataoka K, Shiozawa Y, Okuno Y, Chiba K, Tanaka H, Nagata Y, Katagiri T, Kon A, Sanada M, Scheinberg P, Miyano S, Maciejewski JP, Nakao S, Young NS, Ogawa S. Somatic Mutations and Clonal Hematopoiesis in Aplastic Anemia. N Engl J Med. 2015;373(1):35-47.

4. Suzuki H, Aoki K, Chiba K, Sato Y, Shiozawa Y, Shiraishi Y, Shimamura T, Niida A, Motomura K, Ohka F, Yamamoto T, Tanahashi K, Ranjit M, Wakabayashi T, Yoshizato T, Kataoka K, Yoshida K, Nagata Y, Sato-Otsubo A, Tanaka H, Sanada M, Kondo Y, Nakamura H, Mizoguchi M, Abe T, Muragaki Y, Watanabe R, Ito I, Miyano S, Natsume A, Ogawa S. Mutational landscape and clonal architecture in grade II and III gliomas. Nat Genet. 2015;47(5):458-468.

5. Kataoka K, Nagata Y, Kitanaka A, Shiraishi Y, Shimamura T, Yasunaga J, Totoki Y, Chiba K, Sato-Otsubo A, Nagae G, Ishii R, Muto S, Kotani S, Watatani Y, Takeda J, Sanada M, Tanaka H, Suzuki H, Sato Y, Shiozawa Y, Yoshizato T, Yoshida K, Makishima H, Iwanaga M, Ma G, Nosaka K, Hishizawa M, Itonaga H, Imaizumi Y, Munakata W, Ogasawara H, Sato T, Sasai K, Muramoto K, Penova M, Kawaguchi T, Nakamura H, Hama N, Shide K, Kubuki Y, Hidaka T, Kameda T, Nakamaki T, Ishiyama K, Miyawaki S, Yoon SS, Tobinai K, Miyazaki Y, Takaori-Kondo A, Matsuda F, Takeuchi K, Nureki O, Aburatani H, Watanabe T, Shibata T, Matsuoka M, Miyano S, Shimoda K, Ogawa S. Integrated molecular analysis of adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma. Nat Genet. 2015;47(11):1304-1315.