Phase states and dynamics of two dimensional cell ensembles: Exploration of methodology to quantify local order structures

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20H01870
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 13040:Biophysics, chemical physics and soft matter physics-related
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Yamamoto Akihisa 京都大学, 高等研究院, 特定助教 (90706805)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 上野 盛夫 京都府立医科大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 講師 (40426531)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 細胞集団 / 自発構造秩序 / 位相的データ解析 / 医学物理 / 上皮組織

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research, we shed light on both of the in vitro cultured human corneal endothelial cells and the regenerated corneal endothelial tissues in vivo, and proposed a novel methodology to quantify the degree of local collective order of cellular arrangement based on the persistent homology analysis. We found that the corneal endothelial tissues regenerated with the higher proportions of mature cell subpopulation display the local structures composed of tens of cells that exhibit high degree of collective order locally (Yamamoto et al, in preparation).
Moreover, we evaluated the long-term prognosis of regenerated human corneal endothelial tissues by the cell injection therapy, and demonstrated that patients treated with higher proportion of mature cell subpopulations sustained the higher collective order compared to those with lower proportion of mature cell subpopulations (Ueno, ... Yamamoto, et al. (2022)).

Free Research Field

ソフトマター物理

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究課題では、これまで研究代表者・山本、研究分担者・上野らが取り組んできた「再生医療における細胞品質と細胞配列構造秩序の関係」の理解を更に深め、細胞集団における局所的な配列秩序と相状態を定量評価する方法論を新たに提唱した。実際に高品質細胞群によって再生した角膜内皮組織では、配列秩序のより高い領域が局所的に形成されていることを明らかにした。更にこれまでの成果に加え、再生組織の長期予後を評価する物理的バイオマーカーとしても細胞配列秩序が重要な定量指標となることも実証した。