Analysis of cell differentiation stimulated by the macroscopic structure of cell culture substratum

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24657151
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Developmental biology
• Research Institution: Ochanomizu University
• Principal Investigator: KAKIUCHI Yasutaka お茶の水女子大学, サイエンス&エデュケーションセンター, 准教授 (90396268)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): OKAMURA Kouji 独立行政法人国立成育医療研究センター, システム発生・再生医学研究部組織工学研究室, 室長 (80456194)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 細胞 / 分化 / 三次元培養 / ヒトHL60細胞 / 血球分化 / 真正粘菌変形体 / フラグメント化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The physiological activities of the macroscopic structure of self-assembling peptide hydrogel, RADA16, were studied. RADA16 exhibited three distinct assembly patterns depending on its concentration, and one of these assemblies (formed with 0.01% RADA16) was capable of inducing differentiation of human leukemia HL-60 cells into monocytes/macrophages. This activity was reduced by destroying the 3D structure of the assembly, suggesting that the assembly intrinsically retained the ability to induce cell differentiation. When cultured in the RADA16 scaffold, HL-60 cells accumulated intracellular cholesterol about 10 times more than normally cultured cells. Both the RADA16 culture and cholesterol loading brought about similar gene expression profiles.
These results showed that HL-60 cells can sense the physical properties of the RADA16 scaffold through a mechanism that may involve intracellular pathways of cholesterol synthesis and/or transport.

Free Research Field

細胞生物学