Establishment of blood marker molecules for early detection of abuse

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K19663
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 58:Society medicine, nursing, and related fields
• Research Institution: Wakayama Medical University
• Principal Investigator: Komori Tadasuke 和歌山県立医科大学, 医学部, 准教授 (90433359)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-07-09 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 虐待 / 胸腺 / ストレス / FGF23

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Child abuse has become a serious social problem, and the development of methods for its early detection is much needed. We focused on the fact that the thymus gland atrophies in abused children and aimed to discover abuse-specific stress response molecules in the atrophied thymus gland. The results of this study revealed that FGF23, a type of fibroblast growth factor, is a molecule that does not increase with minor stress but only increases during more severe stress, such as abuse, and that it is a molecule that can track past stress for a long time. This suggested that FGF23 may be a specific marker for abuse and a marker that may help prevent concealment of abuse. The atrophic thymus also yielded the fibroblast growth factor family and adipokines as candidate molecules that are secreted into the blood.

Free Research Field

代謝学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

厚生労働省では児童虐待に対して、発生予防、発生時の迅速・的確な対応、被虐待者の自立支援の三点を軸に対策を進めているが、重篤な虐待が後を絶たないのが現状であり、その早期発見へと繋がる特異的的なマーカー分子の発見は社会的に喫緊の課題である。また、胸腺は、T細胞の分化・成熟の場として知られているが、それ以外の機能は不明である。小児期における生体の危機的状況を知らせるアラートシグナルを発する新規の内分泌臓器という、胸腺の新たな役割の発見にも繋がると考えられる。