2022 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Novel Function Investigation of Coagulation Factors in Defense System Regarding Infection: From Medaka (Oryzias latipes) to Human (Homo sapiens)
| Project/Area Number |
21J22606
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Institution | Nagoya University |
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Principal Investigator |
MENG QI 名古屋大学, 創薬科学研究科, 特別研究員(DC1)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2021-04-28 – 2024-03-31
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| Keywords | メダカ / 血液凝固 / 免疫 / Extracellular traps |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
In my research, I use Japanese medaka, a popular model organism in research field, to study the relationship between the blood coagulation (blood clot formation) and immunity. Last year, I successfully established the fibrinogen gene-deficient medaka which cannot form normal blood clot. Meanwhile, I tried to induce the bacterial infection to medaka aim to study the immune system in medaka. During the infection study, I found in infected medaka blood sample, more string-like structures were observed, and these structures are considered as the extracellular traps (ETs) which is an innate immune response upon stimulant in human. The existence and mechanisms of ETs in medaka is still unclear. Therefore, investigation of medaka ETs is a new knowledge in medaka immune study and can also provide new viewpoint for related diseases’ treatment in human.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
In order to study the immunity of medaka, I tried to establish the infection study model which can be used to stimulate the immune response in medaka. However, in this part, the positive result cannot be obtained. In this infection study, I used two different bacteria to infect wildtype (WT) medaka, and the expression level of immune-related factors was tested by qPCR to check the immune response of infected. Unfortunately, after modifying several conditions, the positive result still cannot be obtained by comparing with control WT medaka. I considered this may because the incubation condition for medaka is not clean enough. Therefore, I’m incubating medaka under bacteria-free condition from the embryo stage to avoid possible bacterial infection during their growth. After they grow up, the infection study will be carried out.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
In my future research, I will continue to incubate the medaka, wildtype (WT) and several gene-deficient medaka (e.g., fibrinogen KO medaka, thrombin KO medaka), under bacteria-free condition. After they grow up, the infection study will be carried out again. During this period, since some infected medaka showed extracellular traps (ETs) structures post infection, I will investigate the mechanisms of medaka ETs formation by several experiments, e.g., ETs induction and immunostaining. In ETs research, I will clarify the mechanisms of ETs formation/degradation and find the relationship between the coagulation factors and ETs formation. As complementary methods, I will also use human cell culture (HL-60) and produce recombinant protein for target factors to study the ETs in both medaka and human.
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