Role of the sympathetic nervous system in metastasis

Research Project

Project/Area Number	16K15417
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	General internal medicine(including psychosomatic medicine)
Research Institution	Tokyo Women's Medical University
Principal Investigator	Ieguchi Katsuaki 東京女子医科大学, 医学部, 助教 (90586348)
Project Period (FY)	2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,510,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥810,000) Fiscal Year 2017: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000) Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,820,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥420,000)
Keywords	交感神経 / 転移 / 炎症性サイトカイン / 転移前微小環境 / がん / 交感神経β受容体遮断薬 / βブロッカー / 自律神経
Outline of Final Research Achievements	The researcher investigated the functional relationship between the sympathetic nervous system and metastasis. The researcher found that the sympathetic nervous system partially contributed to angiogenesis, cell proliferation, and establishment of pre-metastatic niche in lungs. Moreover, tyrosine hydroxylase-positive neurons physically interacted with immunocompetent cells, and beta adrenergic agonists induced gene expression of inflammatory cytokines.