2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Does Chemotaxis direct lung NE cell migration in developing lung?

Research Project

PDF

Project/Area Number	19K17655
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Review Section	Basic Section 53030:Respiratory medicine-related
Research Institution	Osaka University (2020) Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (2019)
Principal Investigator	Furukawa Kana 大阪大学, 基礎工学研究科, 特別研究員(PD) (70807461)
Project Period (FY)	2019-04-01 – 2021-03-31
Keywords	肺NE細胞 / Neuroendocrine cell / 神経内分泌細胞 / NEB / lung / 感覚器
Outline of Final Research Achievements	In this study, I succeeded in picking up several genes that are specifically expressed at E14.5, the migration stage of lung NE cells, from single-cell RNA sequencing analysis using E14.5 and E18.5 fetal lungs. The analysis of Slit3 knockout mice also suggested that the Slit-Robo pathway may be involved in the regulation of unidirectional migration of lung NE cells in developing lung. In addition, the analysis of EphrinB2 knockout mice also suggested that the Eph-Ephrin pathway may regulate the differentiation of lung epithelial cells in the terminal bronchial area and suppress lung NE cells to an appropriate number. In the future, I would like to clarify the regulatory mechanism of unidirectional migration of lung NE cells by further analyzing the results obtained in this study and the knockout mice I have created.
Free Research Field	発生生物学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	器官が持つ感覚器は器官の生理機能を発揮するためになくてはならないものだが、肺に限らずその研究は進んでいない。感覚器の研究は、再生医療分野において生理機能を持つ人工臓器を形成させるために必須である。本研究では、肺の感覚器であるNEBに着目し、NEBの形成メカニズムの詳細解析に挑んだ。NEBの外環境応答能力に着目し、肺NE細胞が何等かの液性因子による外部刺激によって一方向性の遊走制御が行われていると仮説を立て研究を遂行した。本研究の成果は、将来的に適切な場所にNEB形成を誘導させ、適切な生理機能を発揮できる人工肺誘導の実現へ向けた第一歩となったと考えている。