The significance of primary cilia in pancreatic cancer

• Project/Area Number: 26860246
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Human pathology
• Research Institution: Keio University
• Principal Investigator: Emoto Katsura 慶應義塾大学, 医学部(信濃町), 助教 (40570859)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 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 2016: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000); Fiscal Year 2015: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000); Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
• Keywords: primary cilia / 膵癌 / 悪性度 / 腫瘍形成能 / 細胞株 / RNAi / 癌細胞株 / 膵がん / Primary cilia / 病理学 / 人体病理学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The study focuses on primary cilia, which is one of the cellular organelles and can be formed in pancreatic cancer cells. Pancreatic cancer with primary cilia is recently recognized as a high-grade one, however, the mechanism is unclear. In this study, we clarify that IFT88 and KIF3A, which are necessary to form primary cilia, are related to colony formation in vitro and tumor formation in vivo.
These results reflect the character of pancreatic cancer with primary cilia; relatively well-differentiated morphology and the high ability of lymph node metastases. Our results are expected to contribute to analysis of the aggressiveness and the exploitation of novel therapeutic targets for pancreatic cancer.

Research Products

• [Journal Article] Upregulated SMAD3 promotes epithelial-mesenchymal transition and predicts poor prognosis in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (2014)
  • Author(s): Yamazaki K, Masugi Y, Effendi K, Tsujikawa H, Hiraoka N, Kitago M, Shinoda M, Itano O, Tanabe M, Kitagawa Y, Sakamoto M
  • Journal Title: Laboratory investigation Volume: 印刷中 Issue: 4 Pages: 817-25
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.humpath.2013.11.017
  • Peer Reviewed / Open Access
• [Presentation] 膵がん細胞に形成されるPrimary ciliaの臨床的意義と膵がん細胞株を用いたin vitro/in vivoでの解析 (2016)
  • Author(s): 江本 桂
  • Organizer: 第75回日本癌学会学術総会
  • Place of Presentation: パシフィコ横浜(神奈川県横浜市)
  • Year and Date: 2016-10-06
• [Presentation] Presence of primary cilia in cancer cells correlates with prognosis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (2014)
  • Author(s): Katsura Emoto, Yohei Masugi, Ken Yamazaki, Kathryn Effendi, Hanako Tsujikawa, Minoru Kitago, Osamu Itano, Yuko Kitagawa, and Michiie Sakamoto
  • Organizer: AACR Annual Meeting 2014
  • Place of Presentation: San Diego, CA, USA
  • Year and Date: 2014-04-05 – 2014-04-09