2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Sex spectrum specified by sex steroids
| Project Area | Spectrum of the Sex: a continuity of phenotypes between female and male |
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| Project/Area Number |
17H06427
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Research in a proposed research area)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Review Section |
Biological Sciences
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| Research Institution | Kyushu University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
馬場 崇 九州大学, 医学研究院, 准教授 (40435524)
今井 祐記 愛媛大学, プロテオサイエンスセンター, 教授 (10423873)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2017-06-30 – 2022-03-31
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| Keywords | 性差 / 副腎皮質 / 糖質コルチコイド / Ad4BP |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Adrenal cortex of rodent displays female-biased size. In this study, we investigated the mechanism to develop the sexually different adrenal cortex. This study showed that most of gene expressions was higher in female by approximately 2-folds. Moreover, activities for energy metabolism and glucocorticoid production were increased in female. It has been known that glucocorticoid decreased skeletal muscle size though its catabolic activity. Then, we studied the effect of the sexually different adrenal cortex on the skeletal muscles, and found that the sex difference of the skeletal muscle is, at least in part, due to the adrenocortical sex difference. This study uncovered a new mechanism of sex differentiation in which androgen indirectly induces sex difference through establishing the female-biased adrenocortical functions.
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| Free Research Field |
性差生物学
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| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
我々の体を構築する全ての細胞は性を有している。そしてこの性差は性ホルモンと性染色体上の遺伝子によって作り出される。ところが骨格筋に見られるオスで大きいというサイズの性差は男性ホルモンによる直接的な制御の可能性が否定されていた。今回の研究では、男性ホルモンが副腎皮質の性差を誘導し、糖質コルチコイドの性差を介して骨格筋の性差を制御する新たなメカニズムが明らかにした。ヒトにおいても副腎皮質に性差があるか、否かは未だ明らかではないが、クッシングの発症は女性に多いなどの性差が知られており、今後の課題として興味深く、重要な点である。
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