2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

The functional roles of collagen fibrillogenesis in tendons and ligaments during establishment of the musculoskeletal system

Research Project

Project/Area Number	24791540
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Orthopaedic surgery
Research Institution	Kyoto University
Principal Investigator	TAKIMOTO Aki 京都大学, 健康長寿社会の総合医療開発ユニット, 特定助教 (00378902)
Project Period (FY)	2012-04-01 – 2014-03-31
Keywords	腱・靭帯 / コラーゲン線維
Research Abstract	Establishment of the musculoskeletal connections is critical for the formation of functional locomotive system. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the formation of entheses or musculo-tendinous junctions remains largely unknown. In this study, we generated mice lacking Hsp47, a collagen-specific molecular chaperon, and investigated how collagen fibrillogenesis in tendons affects the formation of the musculoskeletal connections. The tendon-specific Hsp47 conditional knockout mice exhibited drastic reduction of collagen fibers in tendons, while the cells expressing tendon-specific markers were still observed at the connection sites. Our results suggest that intercellular connections between tendon cells formed prior to the collagen fibrillogenesis play a crucial role in the establishment of musculoskeletal system during embryogenesis.