Budget Amount *help |
¥5,330,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,230,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,820,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥420,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥1,820,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥420,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000)
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Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Stem cells have a specialized microenvironment for maintaining self-renewal and multipotent capacities. It is believed that a cornea epithelial stem cell niche exists in the limbus. We presented that aquaporin 1 positive (AQP1+) cells immediately beneath epithelial basement membrane may be mesenchymal niche cells that directly interact with N-cadherin positive (N-cad+) limbal basal epithelial cells. To establish a cultivation method the limbal epithelial stem cells niche in vitro, we performed spheroidal cultivation of Tiny cells from the human limbus using Matirgel. Keratin (K) 15 and p63 were expressed in the spheroid after 1-month cultivation, as well as in epithelial sheets engineered form a single spheroid. K15 and p63 were expressed in the edge of spheroids after 1-month cultivation under hypoxia. In addition, N-cadherin was expressed in epithelial spheroid under hypoxia.
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