Epigenetic mechanism under chronic starvation stress

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24590888
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: General internal medicine (including Psychosomatic medicine)
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: SHU Takakura 九州大学, 大学病院, 助教 (40532859)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KAWAI Keisuke (80325521)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: マイクロRNA / 長期飢餓ストレス / 神経性食欲不振症 / エピジェネティック

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Using mice, sufficient decrease of body weight was observed under 40% food restriction and mortality rate was almost 0 %. Also we made usual chronic stress mice using 10-days water avoidance stress test. We found several miRNAs whose expressions were altered under chronic starvation stress using miRNA microarray. We found chronic starvation stress specific miRNAs by realtime RT-PCR compared with RNAs from usual chronic stress mouse hippocampus. The target of the specific miRNA might be a protein which is important for the neurological development. We could estimate one end of mechanisms of miRNAs altered by epigenetical regulation. Those important findings were obtained from the point of view that the elucidation of the pathophysiological mechanisms under chronic starvation stress condition such as anorexia nervosa and the development of the biomarkers of such condition.

Free Research Field

心身医学