2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Analysis of the epigenetic regulation of insulin signaling molecules in pancreatic beta cells.

Research Project

Project/Area Number	24790925
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Metabolomics
Research Institution	Kobe University
Principal Investigator	HASHIMOTO Naoko 神戸大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 研究員 (40559845)
Project Period (FY)	2012-04-01 – 2014-03-31
Keywords	2型糖尿病 / インスリンシグナル / エピジェネティクス
Research Abstract	We generated a mouse model of low birth weight induced by starvation stress. Specifically, pregnant C57BL/6J mice were subject to a 70% dietary restriction from late pregnancy (10.5 dpc) until delivery. After that, pups of two groups (the mice of food restriction group: RG , and the mice of control group: CG) were fostered to female ICR mice. The body weight of RG offspring was significantly lower than that of CG offspring at birth. As RG mice exhibited a catch-up growth, the body weight of them became equivalent to that of CG mice about 7 days after birth, and thereafter exceeded that of CG mice. Pancreatic beta cell mass at birth was decreased by approximately 30% in RG offspring as compared to that in CG offspring. A high-fat diet significantly increased the pancreatic beta cell mass in RG mice as compared to that in CG mice at 12 weeks of age. However, RG mice fed on high-fat diets tended to exhibit a decrease in the pancreatic beta cell mass at approximately 20 weeks of age.