Immunometabolic regulation of macropahges in chronic inflammation

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K21594
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 53:Organ-based internal medicine and related fields
• Research Institution: Chiba University
• Principal Investigator: Manabe Ichiro 千葉大学, 大学院医学研究院, 教授 (70359628)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-07-30 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: マクロファージ / 免疫代謝 / 慢性炎症

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Chronic inflammation is a common underlying pathology of both cardiometabolic disease and cancer. Dysregulation of macrophage function is thought to be one of the important mechanisms that lead to chronic inflammation. We analyzed the relationship between cell metabolism and function of macrophages and found that changes in the metabolic environment surrounding macrophages significantly alter macrophage function. We also identified a new non-coding RNA, lncFAO, that acts as a immunometabolic regulator of macrophages.

Free Research Field

循環器内科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

マクロファージは炎症の慢性化や、慢性炎症による臓器障害で重要な役割を果たすことから、マクロファージの機能制御機構の解明は、新たな診断・治療標的の同定につながる可能性が高い。本研究では組織における代謝環境、マクロファージの細胞代謝、遺伝子発現制御とが密接に連関していることを見いだした。この成果は、糖尿病や肥満といった代謝疾患における心血管疾患やがんの発症機序の解明に発展することが期待できる。