Yasuki Higaki, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor , Preventive Medicine at Saga University.

 

Yasuki Higaki is an exercise physiologist, educated at Gunma University and Tsukuba University. He moved to Fukuoka in 1990 as research assistant of the Department of Exercise Physiology at Fukuoka University, and then moved to Saga in 1993.  His current research is focused on the regulation of glucose transport in skeletal muscle and the role of physical activity in promoting health and preventing chronic disease. He also is concerned with issues relating to the genetic factors on the effect of physical activity.

 

Oxidative stress-stimulated glucose transport in skeletal muscle

Oxidative stress occurs during and after exercise in skeletal muscle.  Mitochondria continually produce free radicals (FR) via the reaction involving a component of complex I and III of the respiratory chain during the condition that increases oxygen uptake, such as exercise.  Xanthine oxidase (XO) exists in blood vessels in skeletal muscle and produces FR in the presence of oxygen and hypoxanthine or xanthine, which are ATP degradation products during high intensity exercise. In the current study we demonstrate the effects of oxidative stress on glucose transport in skeletal muscle.