The elucidation of therapeutic effect on neural regeneration by neural cell transplantation

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K20681
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 90110:Biomedical engineering-related
• Research Institution: Kansai Medical University
• Principal Investigator: MURAYAMA Masanori 関西医科大学, 医学部, 講師 (60737675)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: アルツハイマー型認知症 / 疾患モデル / 神経細胞 / 再生医療 / 精神神経症状

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of neurodegenerative disorders. The degree of neural cell loss in hippocampus correlates with the severity of AD. Cognitive dysfunction and neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS), such as anxiety and depression, are typical features of AD.
We found that neural cell transplantation into dentate gyrus in hippocampus improved cognitive dysfunction and also NPS (anxiety and depression) in AD model mice. A correlation analysis revealed that the spatial learning function of AD model mice was correlated with their NPS scores both before and after neural cell transplantation in a similar manner. In contrast, in the AD model mice subjected to neural cell transplantation, spatial reference memory function was not correlated with NPS scores. These results suggested the neural cell transplantation in the AD model mice significantly improved NPS to the same degree as cognitive dysfunctions, possibly via distinct mechanisms, such as the cholinergic and GABAergic systems.

Free Research Field

実験動物学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

アルツハイマー型認知症は加齢と共に患者数が増加する神経変性疾患であり、超高齢化社会である日本では解決すべき課題であるが、根治療法は確立されていない。再生医療技術による治療が期待されるが、認知機能だけでなくBPSDに着目した報告はわずかである。本研究では神経細胞移植が認知機能に加えBPSDを改善することを明らかにしており、臨床応用への重要な知見となる。