Yau-Sheng Tsai – 國立成功大學-臨床醫學研究所

The long term research goal in our laboratory is to study the pathogenesis of complex human diseases with an emphasis on solving the “cause or consequence” puzzle using mouse genetics, cell system, and human samples as tools. We initiated research work on dissecting the contribution of inflammation to insulin resistance. In addition, we also tried to dissect how obesity and its related inflammation affect vascular aging and arterial stiffness. The role of inflammation and mitochondrial dysfunction in the chronic kidney disease also draws our attentions. We believe a combined basic and translational approach is worth of such an investment in time and effort to better understand the human disease.

2005.9~2006.8 Postdoctoral Research Associate /Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, US
2006.8~2011.7 Assistant Professor /Institute of Clinical Medicine, NCKU
2011.8~2016.7 Associate Professor /Institute of Clinical Medicine, NCKU
2016.8~Present Professor /Institute of Clinical Medicine, NCKU
2016.8~Present Adjunct Professor /Department of Physiology, NCKU
2017.8~2020.7 Director /Laboratory Animal Center, NCKU
2021.9~2022.8 Visiting Scholar /Department of Cancer Biology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, US

(2011~present; selected)

1. LH Kuo, PJ Tsai, MJ Jiang, YL Chuang, L Yu, KT Lai, and YS Tsai*. Toll-like receptor 2 deficiency improves insulin sensitivity and hepatic insulin signalling in the mouse. Diabetologia. 54, 168~179, 2011.

2. HF Jheng, PJ Tsai, SM Guo, LH Kuo, CS Chang, IJ Su, and YS Tsai*. Mitochondrial fission contributes to mitochondrial dysfunction and insulin resistance in skeletal muscle. Mol Cell Biol. 32, 309-319, 2012.

3. YP Hung, NY Lee, HC Chang, CJ Wu, CM Chang, PL Chen, HJ Lin, YH Wu, PJ Tsai, SH Lin, YS Tsai*, and WC Ko*. Effects of PPARγ and RBP4 gene variants on metabolic syndrome in HIV-infected patients with anti-retroviral therapy. PLoS ONE 7, e49102, 2012.

4. JY Chen, PJ Tsai, HC Tai, RL Tsai, YT Chang, MC Wang, YW Chiou, ML Yeh, MJ Tang, YH Li, WC Tsai, LJ Lin, HL Wu, and YS Tsai*. Increased Aortic Stiffness and Attenuated Lysyl Oxidase Activity in Obesity. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 33, 839-846, 2013.

5. CS Chang, PJ Tsai, JM Sung, JY Chen, LC Ho, K Pandya, N Maeda, and YS Tsai*. Diuretics Prevent Thiazolidinedione-induced Cardiac Hypertrophy without Compromising Insulin-sensitizing Effects in Mice. Am J Pathol. 184, 442-453, 2014.

6. Cheong MW, Kuo LH, Cheng YN, Tsai PJ, Ho LC, Tai HC, Chiu WT, Chen SH, Lu PJ, Shan YS, Chuang LM, and Tsai YS*. Loss of Egr-1 Sensitizes Pancreatic β-cells to Palmitate-induced ER Stress and Apoptosis. J Mol Med. 93, 807~818, 2015.

7. HF Jheng, SH Huang, HM Kuo, MW Hughes, and YS Tsai*. Molecular insight and pharmacological approaches targeting mitochondrial dynamics in skeletal muscle during obesity. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1350, 82~94, 2015.

8. HF Jheng, PJ Tsai, YL Chuang, YT Sheng, TA Tai, WC Chen, CK Chou, LC Ho, MJ Tang, KT Lai, JM Sung*, and YS Tsai*. Albumin Stimulates Renal Tubular Inflammation through a HSP70-TLR4 Axis in Early Diabetic Nephropathy. Dis Model Mech. 8, 1311~1321, 2015.

9. LC Ho, JM Sung, YT Shen, HF Jheng, SH Chen, PJ Tsai, and YS Tsai*. Egr-1 deficiency protects from renal inflammation and fibrosis. J Mol Med. 94, 933~942, 2016.

10. HC Tai, PJ Tsai, JY Chen, CH Lai, KC Wang, SH Teng, SC Lin, A Chang, MJ Jiang, YH Li, HL Wu, N Maeda, and YS Tsai*. PPARγ level contributes to structural integrity and component production of elastic fibers in the aorta. Hypertension. 67, 1298-1308, 2016.

11. YH Liu, YS Tsai*, SC Lin, NS Liao, MS Jan, CT Liang, SW Hsu, N Maeda, and PJ Tsai*. Quantitative PPARγ expression affects the balance between tolerance and immunity. Sci Rep. 6, 26646, 2016.

12. CS Chang, YJ Lu, HH Chang, SH Hsu, PH Kuo, CC Shieh, WJ Yao, MC Hsu, KC Young, WY Lin, KC Huang, CH Wu*, and YS Tsai*. Role of Adiponectin Gene Variants, Adipokines and Hydrometry-based Percent Body Fat in Metabolically Healthy and Abnormal Obesity. Obes Res Clin Pract. 2018 Jan – Feb;12(1S1):49-61.

13. SY Leu, LH Kuo, WT Weng, IC Lien, CC Yang, TT Hsieh, YN Cheng, PH Chien, LC Ho, SH Chen, YS Shan, YW Chen, PC Chen, PJ Tsai, JM Sung, and YS Tsai*. Loss of EGR-1 uncouples the compensatory responses of pancreatic beta-cells. Theranostics. 10(9): 4233~4249, 2020.

14. CC Yang, DC Lin, YN Chang, CH Wu, CS Chang, KT Lee, PJ Tsai, and YS Tsai*. Inhibitory effect of PPARγ on NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Theranostics. 2021; 11(5): 2424-2441.

15. JY Chen, YP Wu, CY Li, HF Jheng, LZ Kao, IC Lien, WT Weng, HC Tai, YW Chiou, MJ Tang, PJ Tsai, YS Tsai*. PPARγ activation improves the microenvironment of perivascular adipose tissue and attenuates aortic stiffening in obesity. J Biomed Sci. 2021 Mar 29;28(1):22.

16. A Huang, YS Lin, LZ Kao, YW Chiou, HH Lin, CH Wu, CS Chang, KT Lee, YY Hsueh, PJ Tsai, MJ Tang, YS Tsai*. Inflammation-induced macrophage LOX exacerbates adipose tissue stiffening and metabolic dysfunction in obesity. Clinical and Translational Medicine. 2021 Sep;11(9):e543.

17. CC Hsu#, YS Tsai#, HK Lin. UHRF1: a novel metabolic guardian restricting AMPK activity. Cell Research. 2022 Jan;32(1):3-4. (# equal contribution)

18. YS Chang, SY Hou, SS Yu, SY Tsai, YY Chen, LJ Hsu, PJ Tsai, HK Lin, CH Lin*, and YS Tsai*. Postnatal dexamethasone therapy impairs brown adipose tissue thermogenesis and autophagy flux in neonatal rat pups. Theranostics. 2022 Jul 25;12(13):5803-5819.

19. Tsai PJ#, Lai YH#, Manne RK#, Tsai YS#, Sarbassov D, and Lin HK. Akt: a key transducer in cancer. J Biomed Sci. 2022 Oct 1;29(1):76. (# equal contribution)

20. Lai YH, Wu TC, Tsai BY, Hung YP, Lin HJ, Tsai YS*, Ko WC*, Tsai PJ*. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ as the gatekeeper of tight junction in Clostridioides difficile infection. Front Microbiol. 2022 Nov 11;13:986457.

21. Chang CS, Yu SS, Ho LC, Chao SH, Chou TY, Shao AN, Kao LZ, Chang CY, Chen YH, Wu MS, Tsai PJ, Maeda N, and Tsai YS*. Inguinal Fat Compensates Whole Body Metabolic Functionality in Partially Lipodystrophic Mice with Reduced PPARγ Expression. Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Feb 15;24(4):3904.

22. Leu SY, Tsang YL, Ho LC, Yang CC, Shao AN, Chang CY, Lin HK, Tsai PJ, Sung JM, and Tsai YS*. NLRP3 inflammasome activation, metabolic danger signals, and protein binding partners. J Endocrinol. 2023 Feb 1:JOE-22-0184.

23. Chen T, Xu ZG, Luo J, Manne RK, Wang Z, Hsu CC, Pan BS, Cai Z, Tsai PJ, Tsai YS, Chen ZZ, Li HY, and Lin HK. NSUN2 is a glucose sensor suppressing cGAS/STING to maintain tumorigenesis and immunotherapy resistance. Cell Metab. 2023 Oct 3;35(10):1782-1798.e8.

24. Ho LC, Chen YH, Wu TY, Kao LZ, Hung SY, Liou HH, Chen PC, Tsai PJ, Lin HK, Lee YC, Wang HH, and Tsai YS*. Phosphate burden induces vascular calcification through a NLRP3-caspase-1-mediated pyroptotic pathway. Life Sci. 2023 Nov 1;332:122123.

25. Liu KH, Chang WH, Lai EC, Tsai PC, Hsu B, Yang YH, Lin WR, Huang TS, Su FY, Chiang JH, Li CY, Tsai YS*, and Sung JM*. Ambient temperature and the occurrence of intradialytic hypotension in patients receiving hemodialysis. Clin Kidney J. 2023 Dec 21;17(1):sfad304

(* corresponding author)