Analysis of osteoprotegerin gene expression in regard to cardiac sudden death

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24790640
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Legal medicine
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: Takeshi Kondo 神戸大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 講師 (20335441)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: OPG

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Osteoblasts/stromal cells secrete osteoprotegerin (OPG), which is a soluble member of the TNF receptor superfamily. OPG acts as a decoy receptor for RANKL, thereby preventing its interaction with the cognate receptor RANK. OPG is known to be expressed not only in bone tissue but also in many other tissue types, including myocardium. Recently, OPG has been reported to be associated with various cardiac diseases. The present study analyzed the serum OPG concentration in forensic autopsy cases (including those of cardiac sudden death). In particular, the expression of OPG and its receptor RANK were evaluated by immunohistochemistry of the myocardium. The results of this study will be presented in the 100th Congress of the Japanese Society of Legal Medicine (Tokyo, 2016). In addition, a collaborative study regarding mouse OPG gene expression and the sFRP gene has been published in PLOS ONE (Mori et al. 2014).

Free Research Field

法医病理学