Neonatal autophagy assessment as a new indicator of initial nutrition plan

• Project/Area Number: 25860914
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Embryonic/Neonatal medicine
• Research Institution: Oita University
• Principal Investigator: Sekiguchi Kazuhito 大分大学, 医学部, 助教 (40437926)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2016)
• Budget Amount: ¥3,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥900,000); Fiscal Year 2015: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000); Fiscal Year 2014: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000); Fiscal Year 2013: ¥2,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥600,000)
• Keywords: オートファジー / 新生児 / 臍帯 / LC3

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Autophagy is thought to be a mechanism of starvation response immediately after birth. The aim of this study was to establish the method of evaluation for autophagy indicator (LC3-Ⅱ) from frozen specimens of newborn umbilical cord immediately after birth and to correlate them with clinical background.
With Western blotting method, It became possible to semiquantitate LC3-Ⅱ expression level from human frozen umbilical cord. The expression level of LC3-Ⅱ tended to positive correlate with neonatal blood glucose and total protein on admission. Further studies are needed on whether autophagy is involved in nutritional production or embryonic development in neonates.