2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Functional studies based on the structure of brain water channel, aquaporin-4

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23570191
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Research Field	Biophysics
Research Institution	Nagoya University (2012-2013) Kyoto University (2011)
Principal Investigator	HIROAKI Yoko 名古屋大学, 細胞生理学研究センター, 特任准教授 (80378588)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2013
Keywords	膜蛋白質 / アクアポリン-４ / 電子線結晶構造解析
Research Abstract	AQP4 revealed in the brain at predominance is highly preserved between species. In order to understand the physiological function of AQP4 based on structural analysis, the astrocyte from mice including genetically engineered mice expressing AQP4 without adhesive function were comprehensively analyzed on mRNA as well as a protein level. The culture procedure was established that 90% of the cultured cells showed positive reaction to the astrocyte-markers, such as GFAP. Microarray analyses showed reduction of various kinases but increase of adhesion molecules in the genetically engineered mice compared with those in WT ones. A cytoskeleton related factors and integrin family proteins were found to be decreased by mass spectrometry. Because of devotion duty caused by my new affiliation, this project has to regrettably be stopped at the middle of the last fiscal year, while this project is interesting.