| Budget Amount *help |
¥2,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,900,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥1,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000)
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| Research Abstract |
Fractalkine is a chemokine that recruits monocytes or T lymphocytes to the site of inflammation. Since these are major types of cells seen in chronic inflammatory diseases, in this study, we investigated the distribution of fractalkine in two different types of chronic inflammatory diseases : atherosclerosis and periodontitis, and tried to elucidate its function during development of these lesions.
Fractalkine was not identified either normal aortic tissue or early stage of atherosclerotic lesion obtained from apo E knockout mice. Unexpectedly, fractalkine was not identified in endothelial layer of atheromatous lesion of aorta, either. However, it distributed in deeper layer of advanced atheromatous plaque of apo E knockout mice. CX_3CR1, a receptor for fractalkine, was also identified in advanced lesion, and its distribution was similar to that of fractalkine.
When human gingival tissue was investigated, fractalkine was identified in inflammatory gingiva. In addition, fractalkine was also expressed in gingiva without apparent periodontitis, although less strongly than that seen in periodontitis. Fractalkine distributed mostly in vascular endothelial layer of gingiva.
Thus, protein expression of fractalkine was confirmed in two different chronic inflammatory diseases. Together with its unexpected tissue distribution, the results suggest that fractalkine is involved not only in initiation but also in development of chronic inflammatory diseases.
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