The relationship between disorder of lipid metabolism via sex hormones and autoimmunity

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25670798
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Pathobiological dentistry/Dental radiology
• Research Institution: The University of Tokushima
• Principal Investigator: YAMADA Akiko 徳島大学, 大学院医歯薬学研究部(歯学系), 助教 (70452646)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: シェーグレン症候群 / 性ホルモン / アロマターゼ / 脂質代謝異常 / 肥満

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Several autoimmune diseases are known to develop in postmenopausal women. However, the mechanism by which estrogen deficiency influences autoimmunity is unknown. Aromatase is an enzyme that converts androgens to estrogens. Herein, we used female aromatase gene knockout (ArKO) mice as a model of estrogen deficiency to investigate the molecular mechanism that underlies the development of autoimmunity. Histological analyses showed that inflammatory lesions in the salivary glands (SG) of ArKO mice increased with age. An increased number of inflammatory M1 macrophages were observed in white adipose tissue of ArKO mice. A significantly increased MCP-1 mRNA expression of SG in ArKO was found together with adiposity. These results suggest that aromatase may play a key role in the pathogenesis of Sjogren's syndrome by controlling the target organ and adipose tissue-associated macrophage.

Free Research Field

病理学、免疫学