| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
SOGA Hiroyuki School of medicine, Tohoku Univ., Research Associate, 大学院・医学系研究科, 助手 (20282121)
YAGI Hideki School of medicine, Tohoku Univ., Research Associate, 大学院・医学系研究科, 助手 (40250740)
NAKAMURA Masanori School of medicine, Tohoku Univ., Associate Professor, 大学院・医学系研究科, 助教授 (50180394)
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| Research Abstract |
Most of programmed cell deaths during the developmental processes have been considered to be apoptosis accompanying DNA fragmentation. We have precisely examined thymocyte deaths and B cell deaths in the germinal centers, i.e., "cell deaths" in situ, and found that they are pyknosis with heavy nuclear condensation without DNA fragmentation ; they are totally distinct from typical apoptosis, which is characterized by DNA fragmentation and marginal chromatin condensation. We re-evaluated various cell deaths in vivo, and rectategorize those in situ cell deaths on the basis of the novel point of view, in order to analyze the mechanisms of the new type of cell deaths, pyknosis, and to delineate their biological significance.
We analyzed morphologically cell deaths in vivo during the development, especially the cell deaths observed in the interdigital tissues and found that the cell deaths in this tissue did not accompany DNA fragmentation, and accordingly, we concluded that they are not apoptosis. Massive cell deaths triggered by anti-CD3 antibody treatment have been found typical apoptosis, because they fragmented DNA at much earlier stages when morphological changes could be observed.
We have undertaken a project to develop a monoclonal antibody to detect the earliest sign of pyknosis, a surface antigen of dying thymocytes to be recognized by macrophages for ingestion. This project has been underway, and will be pursued until the development of the antigen.
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