Analysis of the protective effect of S100a1 against joint degeneration to develop a new treatment for osteoarthritis

• Project/Area Number: 15H06169
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Orthopaedic surgery
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Mori Yoshifumi 東京大学, 医学部附属病院, 登録研究員 (60757954)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-08-28 – 2017-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2016)
• Budget Amount: ¥2,990,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥690,000); Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000); Fiscal Year 2015: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
• Keywords: 変形性関節症 / S100

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In our previous study, we found that S100a1 knockout (KO) mice showed greater progression of osteoarthritis than wild-type (WT) mice. In this study, we performed a global gene expression analysis of articular cartilages from S100a1 KO and WT mice, which revealed that the expression of anabolic factors was downregulated in the articular cartilages of the S100a1 KO mice. In subsequent in vitro experiments, we found that S100a1 positively regulated the anabolism of chondrocytes. S100 family proteins have two functions, namely extracellular and intracellular functions. The results of this study suggest that the pro-anabolic effect of S100a1 might be mediated by the latter.