Elucidation of abnormal metabolic profile of endometrial cancer

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K09796
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 56040:Obstetrics and gynecology-related
• Research Institution: Chiba University
• Principal Investigator: Mitsuhashi Akira 千葉大学, 大学院医学研究院, 特任教授 (40302541)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 羽生 裕二 千葉大学, 医学部附属病院, 助教 (40816162) ; 安西 尚彦 千葉大学, 大学院医学研究院, 教授 (70276054)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 子宮体癌 / 肥満 / メトホルミン / インスリン抵抗性 / 癌代謝

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Metformin, which is a diabetes drug, has shown to inhibit the growth of endometrial cancer. Metformin was included to cultured endometrial cancer cell lines and examined the changes in gene expression using microarrays.　Microarray analysis revealed the increased expressions of GIF, FAM20A, CDRT15, and BACH2 and decreased expressions of SLC12A7, C8orf37-AS1, and ZCCHC1. Although no common cancer metabolism-related genetic alterations were observed, we obtained certain findings on the action of metformin.We examined the loss-of-function using genome editing and did not obtain any results. However, we will continue to examine cancer metabolism abnormalities as they may be involved in endometrial cancer carcinogenesis and proliferation.

Free Research Field

子宮体癌

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

肥満や糖尿病とも関連し子宮体癌が増加傾向にあるが、癌における糖代謝、アミノ酸代謝と増殖の関連性を解明することは子宮体癌の予防戦略に結びつく.
本研究では、残念ながら子宮体癌に関連する代謝異常に対し有意な見解を得ることはできなかったが、糖尿病治療薬メトホルミンの体癌に対する作用が推測された。