Functional analysis of miR-301a in aging, metabolic syndrome and carcinogenesis

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K09242
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: General internal medicine(including psychosomatic medicine)
• Research Institution: Kagawa University
• Principal Investigator: Fujita Koji 香川大学, 医学部附属病院, 病院助教 (50749421)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 正木 勉 香川大学, 医学部, 教授 (30335848) ; 森下 朝洋 香川大学, 医学部附属病院, 助教 (60423430)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: microRNA / Transgenic mouse

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We constructed a transgenic mouse by introducing a precursor of microRNA-301a in to a wild type mouse. MicroRNA expression analysis in three pair of 48-week old mice revealed that transgene positive mice strongly expressed miR-301a with statistical significance in their small intestines than transgene negative mice. The transgenic mouse presented potential to be a model in functional analysis of miR-301a in aging. However, further investigation using the transgenic mouse was halted because of shortness of research funding. In addition to the current study, we worked for in vitro and in vivo studies to prove whether suppression of tumor growths was correlated to miR-301a expression. As a result, we published three papers on journals.

Free Research Field

肝臓内科

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究においては，加齢・メタボリック症候群・発がんに関連するmicroRNA-301aの遺伝子を導入したマウスを作出した．このマウスが48週齢に達したとき，遺伝子を導入していないマウスに比べて，小腸におけるmicroRNA-301aの発現が高いことが確認された．このマウスが加齢におけるmicroRNA-301aの機能を解析する上でのモデル動物となる可能性が示されたと考えられる．しかし予算の制約があり，これ以上の解析は困難と判断し，遺伝子組み換えマウスを用いた研究を終了した．本研究計画と並行して，市販されているがん細胞株及びマウスでの研究を進め，成果を三題の論文として発表済みである．