A study on the functional significance of autophagy in leukemic stem cells.

• Project/Area Number: 15K09466
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Hematology
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Watadani Kumi 東京大学, 医学部附属病院, 助教 (70550432)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
• Budget Amount: ¥4,680,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,080,000); Fiscal Year 2017: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000); Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000); Fiscal Year 2015: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
• Keywords: autophagy / オートファジー / 急性骨髄性白血病

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Autophagy is a mechanism responsible for decomposition of intracellular proteins and organelles, and it has been found that various solid tumors show autophagy-dependent proliferation. On the other hand, the role of autophagy in the pathology of acute myeloid leukemia, in particular the function of leukemia stem cells considered to be the major cause of recurrence has not been elucidated.
Autophagy was found to be essential for development of leukemia and maintenance of stem cells by a mouse model. Regarding the human leukemia cells as well, we examined the relationship between cell proliferation and autophagy, and investigated whether there is a change in gene expression in leukemic stem cell fraction and other leukemic cell fractions on expression of genes considered to be related to autophagy.