Kazuhito Morioka, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
Orthopaedic Surgery
School of Medicine

After training of pre-clinical central nervous system trauma research at Dr. Martin E. Schwab’s Laboratory, University of Zurich, he conducted the funded projects on spinal cord injury (SCI) research focusing on disuse and spasticity at Japanese National Rehabilitation Center. His mentoring and grantsmanship skills were developed through these experiences.

As a postdoctoral fellow in the UCSF Brain and Spinal Injury Center (BASIC), Dr. Morioka performed research on synaptic plasticity after injury using a comprehensive approach to identify the mechanisms underlying the pathological alternations, which was supported by an Austrian research grant. Leveraging his broad background and expertise, he conducted the collaborative research on polytrauma (traumatic brain injury with concomitant bone fracture) with the UCSF Orthopaedic Trauma Institute (OTI), osteoarthritis with the UCSF Radiology & Biomedical Imaging, microgravity with the UCSD Clinical Physiology Laboratory, and translational SCI with the VA Gordon Mansfield SCI Consortium. These experiences formulated his scientific approach as well as strengthened his mentoring ability.

Dr. Morioka’s current research at the OTI focuses on endochondral fracture healing to study pathological mechanisms and therapeutic intervention for intractable bone fractures, such as delayed, mal, non-union in terms of the interaction between the musculoskeletal and nervous systems. His future research interests are shaped by all experiences toward the cross-interaction within both systems for further understanding of systematical mechanisms of orthopaedic disorders. He hopes that his works might improve patients' quality of life by addressing significant unmet clinical needs.

• Systemic and local cardiac inflammation after experimental long bone fracture, traumatic brain injury and combined trauma in mice.
  Journal of Orthopaedic Translation 2021 Ina Lackner, Birte Weber, Melanie Haffner-Luntzer, Simona Hristova, Florian Gebhard, Charles Lam, Kazuhito Morioka, Ralph S. Marcucio, Theodore Miclau, Miriam Kalbitz
• Blocking Kv1.3 potassium channels prevents postoperative neuroinflammation and cognitive decline without impairing wound healing in mice.
  British journal of anaesthesia 2020 Lai IK, Valdearcos M, Morioka K, Saxena S, Feng X, Li R, Uchida Y, Lijun A, Li W, Pan J, Koliwad S, Marcucio R, Wulff H, Maze M
• Differential fracture response to traumatic brain injury suggests dominance of neuroinflammatory response in polytrauma.
  Scientific reports 2019 Morioka K, Marmor Y, Sacramento JA, Lin A, Shao T, Miclau KR, Clark DR, Beattie MS, Marcucio RS, Miclau T, Ferguson AR, Bresnahan JC, Bahney CS
• Meaningful Experiences in Overseas Academia: Facing the Challenge of the Global Era
  Journal of Saitama Medical University. 2019 Morioka K
• Spine and spinal cord injuries: Evaluation and treatment
  The Journal of the Japan Medical Association 2018 Ishii K, Morioka K, Shindo M
• Collaboration is a friend in need?: Academic communication all over the world
  Experimental Medicine. 2018 Morioka K
• MRI and biomechanics multidimensional data analysis reveals R2 -R1ρ as an early predictor of cartilage lesion progression in knee osteoarthritis.
  Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI 2017 Pedoia V, Haefeli J, Morioka K, Teng HL, Nardo L, Souza RB, Ferguson AR, Majumdar S
• Topological Data Analysis to Predict Cartilage Lesion Progression in Knee Osteoarthritis.
  Osteoarthritis and Cartilage 2017 V. Pedoia, J. Haefeli, K. Morioka, H.-L. Teng, L. Nardo, R.B. Souza, A.R. Ferguson, S. Majumdar
• The swimming test is effective for evaluating spasticity after contusive spinal cord injury.
  PloS one 2017 Ryu Y, Ogata T, Nagao M, Kitamura T, Morioka K, Ichihara Y, Doi T, Sawada Y, Akai M, Nishimura R, Fujita N
• What Is Being Trained? How Divergent Forms of Plasticity Compete To Shape Locomotor Recovery after Spinal Cord Injury.
  Journal of neurotrauma 2017 Huie JR, Morioka K, Haefeli J, Ferguson AR
• Assessments of sensory plasticity after spinal cord injury across species.
  Neuroscience letters 2016 Haefeli J, Huie JR, Morioka K, Ferguson AR
• Complication, rehabilitation, and pharmacological therapy in the patient with acute spinal cord injury
  Orthopedic Surgery 2016 Ishii K, Morioka K
• The crucial role of Erk2 in demyelinating inflammation in the central nervous system.
  Journal of neuroinflammation 2016 Okazaki R, Doi T, Hayakawa K, Morioka K, Imamura O, Takishima K, Hamanoue M, Sawada Y, Nagao M, Tanaka S, Ogata T
• Changes in treatment strategies for cervical spinal cord injury
  Journal of Joint Surgery 2016 Ishii K, Morioka K
• Cell-permeable p38 MAP kinase promotes migration of adult neural stem/progenitor cells.
  Scientific reports 2016 Hamanoue M, Morioka K, Ohsawa I, Ohsawa K, Kobayashi M, Tsuburaya K, Akasaka Y, Mikami T, Ogata T, Takamatsu K
• Application of 3D Printing for Smart Objects with Embedded Electronic Sensors and Systems.
  Advanced Materials Technologies 2016 Hiroki Ota, Sam Emaminejad, Yuji Gao, Allan Zhao, Eric Wu, Samyuktha Challa, Kevin Chen, Hossain M. Fahad, Amit K. Jha, Daisuke Kiriya, Wei Gao, Hiroshi Shiraki, Kazuhito Morioka, Adam R. Ferguson, …
• Early hindlimb unloading produces chronic biomechanical, physiological and molecular signatures of maladaptive plasticity in SCI
  Journal of Neurotrauma 2015 Morioka K, Tazoe T, Huie JR, Guandique CF, Ma X, Sacramento JA, Tanaka S, Bresnahan JC, Beattie MS, Ogata T, Ferguson AR
• Lipopolysaccharide preconditioning facilitates M2 activation of resident microglia after spinal cord injury.
  Journal of neuroscience research 2014 Hayakawa K, Okazaki R, Morioka K, Nakamura K, Tanaka S, Ogata T
• Early hindlimb unloading produces maladaptive plasticity that limits functional recovery after spinal cord injury (SCI)
  Journal of Neurotrauma 2014 Morioka K, Tazoe T, Ma X, Guandique CF, VanCitters L, Huie JR, Bresnahan JC, Beattie MS, Tanaka S, Ferguson AR, Ogata T
• p38 MAP kinase enhances secretion of GDNF and VEGF from rat spinal cord microglia
  Journal of Neurochemistry 2012 Hamanoue M, Morioka K, Ogata T, Nakajima K, Takamatsu K
• Evaluating the Severity of Acute Spinal Cord Injuries using Blood Biomarkers
  The Japanese Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine 2012 Ogata T, Morioka K, Tobimatsu Y, Nakamura K, Akai M, Okazaki R, Hayakawa K, Ueno T
• Phosphorylated neurofilament subunit NF-H as a biomarker for evaluating the severity of spinal cord injury patients, a pilot study.
  Spinal cord 2012 Hayakawa K, Okazaki R, Ishii K, Ueno T, Izawa N, Tanaka Y, Toyooka S, Matsuoka N, Morioka K, Ohori Y, Nakamura K, Akai M, Tobimatsu Y, Hamabe Y, Ogata T
• Phosphorylated neurofilament subunit NF-H (pNF-H) as a biomarker for evaluating severity of acute spinal cord injury patients.
  Neuroscience Research 2011 Toru Ogata, Kentaro Hayakawa, Rentaro Okazaki, Kazuhito Morioka, Keisuke Ishii, Yoshiko Tobimatsu
• The pivotal role of load-related afferent input for the spontaneous recovery of locomotion after incomplete spinal cord injury
  Journal of Neurotrauma 2011 Morioka K, Tazoe T, Endoh T, Hayakawa K, Okazaki R, Kawaguchi H, Nakamura K, Ogata T
• Current status of central nervous system regeneration
  Journal of therapy 2011 Ogata T, Morioka K
• Hes1 functions downstream of growth factors to maintain oligodendrocyte lineage cells in the early progenitor stage.
  Neuroscience 2010 Ogata T, Ueno T, Hoshikawa S, Ito J, Okazaki R, Hayakawa K, Morioka K, Yamamoto S, Nakamura K, Tanaka S, Akai M
• Orphan receptor tyrosine kinase ROR2 as a potential therapeutic target for osteosarcoma.
  Cancer science 2009 Morioka K, Tanikawa C, Ochi K, Daigo Y, Katagiri T, Kawano H, Kawaguchi H, Myoui A, Yoshikawa H, Naka N, Araki N, Kudawara I, Ieguchi M, Nakamura K, Nakamura Y, Matsuda K
• Two cases of pulmonary embolism which occurred during conservative treatment after rupture of the Achilles tendon
  Orthop. Surg. Traumatol. 2003 Hodohara M, Asai J, Ando T, Hayashi H, Morioka K
• Transient osteoporosis of the hip complicated by femoral neck fracture: A case report
  Kanto Journal of Orthopedics and Traumatology. 2001 Morioka K, Takatori Y, Nagai I, Kuruta Y, Okazaki H, Goto T