2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Identification of microRNAs that regulate differentiation of human lung progenitor cells

Research Project

Project/Area Number	24890016
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Respiratory organ internal medicine
Research Institution	Tohoku University
Principal Investigator	FUJINO Naoya 東北大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 非常勤講師 (10633670)
Project Period (FY)	2012-08-31 – 2014-03-31
Keywords	組織幹細胞 / 自己複製 / 分化 / 肺上皮前駆細胞 / マイクロRNA / 上皮間葉移行
Research Abstract	Tissue-specific stem/progenitor cells have the ability to self-renew and the potential to differentiate into multiple cell-types and have a role in homeostasis and repair. The aim of this study was to identify microRNA (miRNA) that regulate function of human lung progenitor cells. We found that expression of miR-200c was inhibited in human lung progenitor cells compared with human mature alveolar epithelial cells. Transfection of a synthetic RNA, which mimics miR-200c, suppressed proliferation in human lung progenitor cells. This suggests that the genes targeted by miR-200c regulate growth of human lung progenitor cells.