| Budget Amount *help |
¥18,980,000 (Direct Cost: ¥14,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥4,380,000)
Fiscal Year 2015: ¥3,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥900,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥4,030,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥930,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥11,050,000 (Direct Cost: ¥8,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥2,550,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Thrombocytes are regarded as the functional equivalent of anucleated mammalian platelets. Additional immune functions, including phagocytosis, have also been suggested, but no conclusive experimental evidence for their potential ingestion and clearance of infiltrating microbes has been provided till date. Here we demonstrate the active phagocytic ability of thrombocytes in lower vertebrates using teleost fishes and amphibian models. Carp thrombocytes were able to ingest live bacteria and kill them. We found that thrombocytes represented nearly half of the phagocyte population in the common carp total peripheral blood leukocyte pool. Phagocytosis efficiency was further enhanced by serum opsonization. Particle internalization led to phagolysosome fusion and killing of internalized bacteria, pointing to a robust ability for microbe elimination. We find that this potent phagocytic activity is shared across fish and frogs, implying its conservation throughout the lower vertebrate lineage.
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