New strategies for periodontal regenerative research by using ribosome profiling

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K19056
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 57040:Regenerative dentistry and dental engineering-related
• Research Institution: Kyushu Dental College
• Principal Investigator: Onizuka Satoru 九州歯科大学, 歯学部, 助教 (10779317)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 歯根膜由来間葉系幹細胞 / RNA-sequencing

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The periodontal ligament contains multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) -like cells, known as periodontal ligament-derived MSCs (PDL-MSCs), which play important roles in the maintenance of homeostasis in periodontal tissues and in the repair of damaged periodontal tissue. To investigate the specific factor which contribute to periodontal tissue regeneration, we performed omics analysis such as RNA-sequencing and ribosome profiling. In these analysis, we identified several genes which were strongly upregulated by osteoblastic differentiation. To confirm the functional roles of these genes during osteoblastic
differentiation, we performed siRNA knockdown experiments. ALP activity, which is specific osteoblastic marker, was significantly decreased after each gene was knocked down by siRNA. These results suggested that the genes revealed in this study may be important genes in undifferentiated cells responsible for periodontal tissue regeneration of hPDL-MSCs.

Free Research Field

再生医療

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

再生医療を目的としたMSCsの研究は、細胞移植の効果を検討した研究については古くから実施されているが、分化メカニズムや移植による細胞の動態等、未だ不明な点は数多く見受けられる。またこれまでに歯周組織再生療法に関する研究は数多く報告されているが、既存療法では多くの進行性の歯周炎を改善することは困難であり、新規治療法の開発が必要とされている。国民の半数以上が歯周病に罹患している現代社会において、進行性の歯周炎に対する治療法が確立されることは歯学研究において最も重要であり、本研究はその足掛かりとなり得る研究であり、学術的・社会的意義は高いと考える。