Deciphering structural and functional basis of age-dependent hearing loss by using intracellular Ca2+ dynamics

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26430099
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Laboratory animal science
• Research Institution: Institute of Physical and Chemical Research
• Principal Investigator: Minowa Osamu 国立研究開発法人理化学研究所, バイオリソースセンター, 開発研究員 (00181967)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): IKEDA KATUHISA 順天堂大学, 医学部, 教授 (70159614) ; KAMIYA KAZUSAKU 順天堂大学, 医学部, 准教授 (10374159)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 加齢性難聴 / 老人性難聴 / モデルマウス / カルシウム

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To investigate the significance of mouse mutant as a model for age-related progressive deafness, analyzed were phenotypes of mutants causing calcium dynamics abnormality. These analyses showed a relation between rate of deafness progression and a location of mutation site within the molecule. Most of the development of the age-related hearing loss is consequence of hair cell loss, but the certain contribution of the functional decay was presumed. A correlation was suggested between the extent of this functional decay and the period until cell depletion onset.
To achieve the optimization of in vitro expression system for measuring kinetic data on all applicable mutants, we examined the conditions of the system. It is thought to be essential to find an explicit marker of the change leading to cellular aging caused by calcium dynamics alteration, by accumulating those in vitro kinetic data and in vivo comprehensive analysis results of the phenotypes, for understanding the whole process.

Free Research Field

分子遺伝学