| Budget Amount *help |
¥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: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
Fiscal Year 2015: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Exaggerated maternal immune responses must be strictly controlled to ensure a successful pregnancy. In this study, we demonstrated that Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) play a key role in the pathogenesis of sphingosine kinase (Sphk)-mediated pregnancy loss. Perturbing the sphingolipid pathway by disrupting Sphk genes during pregnancy led to excessive NET formation exclusively at the fetomaternal interface and early fetal death. Neutrophils that formed NETs were characterized by histone hypercitrullination and peptidylarginine deiminase 4 (PAD4) overexpression. Blocking NET formation with a PAD4 inhibitor protected Sphk -deficient mice from pregnancy loss. Moreover, NET formation was induced in human neutrophils stimulated with Sphk-deficient human decidual cells. Together, these findings indicate that targeting NETs might be a novel therapeutic strategy to treat idiopathic pregnancy loss in humans.
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