Effects of mesenchymal stem cells on cognitive dysfunction of aging , Alzheimer's disease model rats

Research Project

Project/Area Number	15K17328
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Experimental psychology
Research Institution	Tokyo University of Social Welfare
Principal Investigator	Suenaga Toshiko 東京福祉大学, 心理学部, 講師 (80431667)
Project Period (FY)	2015-04-01 – 2019-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2018)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥900,000) Fiscal Year 2017: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000) Fiscal Year 2016: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000) Fiscal Year 2015: ¥2,340,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥540,000)
Keywords	アルツハイマー病 / 認知機能障害 / 間葉系幹細胞
Outline of Final Research Achievements	Rats injected neurotoxin into their hippocampus or nucleus basalis magnocellularis (NBM) were used as Alzheimer’s disease model rats. These rats showed spatial memory deficit. One month after implantation of mesenchymal stem cells for NBM rats, they showed a tendency to recover their memory deficit. The results give us an expectation that stem cells could recover cognitive dysfunction of Alzheimer’s disease patients. Hippocampal lesion rats showed neural cells loss and atrophy of their brain, and it might induce cognitive dysfunction. On the other hand, we could not find any obvious degeneration of the brains of NBM lesion rats. We intend to analyze the NBM rat’s brain in detail to elucidate the mechanisms induce cognitive dysfunction seen in these rats. We could not analyze the brains of rats that implanted stem cells to date, because of the trouble in electric system of laboratory. Thus, histological analysis is a forthcoming task; we intend to conduct the analysis in the future.
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	日本では急激な高齢化がすすんでおり、高齢者の認知機能の低下をいかに防ぐかが喫緊の課題として挙げられる。老化やアルツハイマー病に伴う認知機能の低下に対する有効な治療法は確立されていないが、脳の機能不全を幹細胞によって改善させる試みが行われ始めている。本研究ではアルツハイマー病モデル動物の認知機能低下に対する幹細胞移植の効果を検討した。これまでに認知機能に障害があるモデル動物に幹細胞を投与することで機能障害に回復傾向がみられることが明らかとなった。本研究で得られた基礎的データをもとに、老化やアルツハイマー病に起因する認知機能低下に対する有効なアプローチを提案することができると考えられる。