Development of a secreting cell detection and collection system to analyze the moment of cell-cell interaction.

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20H04512
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 90110:Biomedical engineering-related
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Shirasaki Yoshitaka 東京大学, 大学院薬学系研究科(薬学部), 特任助教 (70469948)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 細胞分泌 / １細胞解析 / 時間分解遺伝子発現解析

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research porject, we aimed to create a novel methodology for analyzing Influential minority cells at the "beginning of activation" and "beginning of cell-cell interaction" by collecting only appropriate cell states using the "output (secretion) of cellular responses" as an indicator. As a result, we succeeded in tracking lymphocyte activation by secretion imaging and identifying transiently induced genes during the transition process of activation. Next, we focused on lymphocyte interaction-dependent secretion of IL-6 from synovial fibroblasts in rheumatoid arthritis and secretion of cytotoxic molecules by T cells in cancer immunity, and succeeded in visualizing these secretory events associated with cell-cell interactions by improving the throughput of single cell secretion imaging.

Free Research Field

生物物理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、ハイスループット１細胞シーケンサーがもたらしている集団網羅的な１細胞遺伝子発現解析に対して、細胞の活性化や細胞間の相互作用に伴う分泌機能の発現に時空間的にフォーカスした細胞状態の解析を可能とする基盤技術を開発した。この技術を発展させることで、統計的解析によって埋もれてしまう影響力のある希少な細胞状態を高感度に捉えることが可能となり、細胞の運命決定を左右する細胞内遺伝子発現の理解と制御に貢献すると期待される。