Role of apoptosis inhibitor of macrophage (AIM) in the pathogenesis of intractable lung diseases

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25670398
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Respiratory organ internal medicine
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: NISHIMURA Masaharu 北海道大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (00208224)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): SUZUKI Masaru 北海道大学, 北海道大学病院, 助教 (10374290)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 肺線維症 / 慢性閉塞性肺疾患 / 動物モデル

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In the bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis model, AIM-KO mice had significantly less lung fibrosis than wild-type mice on day 14 after bleomycin administration. Furthermore, in the cigarette smoke-induced emphysema model, AIM-KO mice had significantly less emphysematous change than wild-type mice after 16 weeks of cigarette smoke exposure, and had lower inflammatory gene expression levels after short-term cigarette smoke exposure. These results suggests that AIM plays a role as an aggravating factor in the pathogenesis of inflammatory lung diseases, and that AIM may be one of the potential therapeutic targets or biomarkers for lung diseases.

Free Research Field

呼吸器内科学