Analysis of the effect of inseparable association of AIM with IgM on obesity-related diseases

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17H06624
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Pathological medical chemistry
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: SUGISAWA Ryoichi 東京大学, 大学院医学系研究科(医学部), 特任助教 (70803568)
• Research Collaborator: MIYAZAKI Toru ; ARAI Satoko
• Project Period (FY): 2017-08-25 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 肥満 / 脂肪肝 / 肝癌 / AIM / ネコ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Apoptosis inhibitor of macrophage (AIM) has been shown to have suppressive functions in a broad range of diseases including obesity, liver steatosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and acute kidney injury (AKI). AIM is a circulating protein, associate with IgM pentamers under health states in the blood, and during AKI, AIM dissociates from IgM and gains disease repair activity. On the other hand, due to its extremely high binding affinity for IgM, feline AIM rarely dissociates from IgM and AIM-felinized mice (mice which mouse AIM was replaced with feline AIM) exhibited deficient AKI repair as in cats. In this study, we investigated whether AIM activation via its release from IgM is required to ameliorate other diseases. When fed a high-fat diet (HFD), AIM-felinized mice exhibited resulting in more prominent obesity and fatty liver than in wild-type mice. Thus, blood AIM released from IgM contributes to suppression of obesity and fatty liver as in AKI.

Free Research Field

病態医科学