2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Understanding of the relationship between skeletal muscle and cancer for regulating muscle invasion of oral squamous cell carcinoma

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	21H03144
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Review Section	Basic Section 57060:Surgical dentistry-related
Research Institution	Kyushu Dental College
Principal Investigator	Kokabu Shoichiro 九州歯科大学, 歯学部, 教授 (30448899)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	土生学九州歯科大学, 歯学部, 講師 (00360058) Addison William 九州歯科大学, 歯学部, 講師 (40845046) 佐藤毅九州歯科大学, 歯学部, 教授 (60406494) 矢田直美九州歯科大学, 歯学部, 准教授 (60468022) 細見周平大阪公立大学, 大学院医学研究科, 講師 (60554938) 永野健一長崎大学, 医歯薬学総合研究科(歯学系), 助教 (60834348) 中平光彦埼玉医科大学, 医学部, 教授 (10253353)
Project Period (FY)	2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
Keywords	舌筋 / 舌がん / 口腔扁平上皮がん / リンパ節転移 / 筋再生
Outline of Final Research Achievements	Since invasion to tongue muscle layer of cancer cells worsens the prognosis, it is important to elucidate and control this process. Therefore, we focused on the fact that the tongue muscle breaks, and the regeneration occurs during cancer cell invasion. To understand the process of tongue muscle regeneration, we firstly established a method to isolate highly pure tongue muscle stem cells. We also compared the regeneration process of tongue muscle induced by CTX injection with that of tibialis anterior muscle and found differences in the expression pattern of homeobox genes. In addition, we are currently comparing the regeneration process of the tongue muscle in young and aged mice by single-cell RNA-seq and histological analysis. Studies using clinical specimens from patients with tongue squamous cell carcinoma suggest that DKK1 and CKAP4 expression may be predictors of lymph node metastasis.
Free Research Field	口腔外科学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	宿主側の要因はがん治療に対する反応性や予後に確実に関連するにもかかわらず，現状では宿主要因に着目したエビデンスのレベルの高い研究は少なかった．今回われわれは舌扁平上皮がんにおいて，がんの浸潤する際に，宿主側の舌筋が破壊し，舌筋の再生機転に入ることを突き止めた．さらに，今後の研究から，舌扁平上皮がん組織におけるDKK1タンパク質とCKAP4タンパク質のダブルポジティブが，リンパ節転移の予測因子となることが決定できれば，口腔がん医療に対する貢献は計り知れない．