| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥1,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥1,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,900,000)
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| Research Abstract |
The epidermis on the surface of the body is responsible for defense of the body. Many biologists have clarified the mechanisms involved in the growth and differentiation of the skin. The pathways of Ras, Wnt, and Notch signaling, the transcription factors such as Oct family NF-kappaB signaling, retinoid receptors, keratin, catenin, and the integrin families are both important for growth and differentiation of the skin. GPI-anchored proteins are also essential for skin differentiation. Nevertheless, identification of the factors involved in differentiation of the skin remains insufficient, and the search for factors that control the stem cells of the skin has just begun, so that many of these factors remain unknown. We cultured human keratinocytes, promoted their differentiation by adding calcium and extracted the RNA. We then analyzed the genes in order to determine the difference between differentiation and normal condition of the keratinocytes. We found that the expressions of the integrin beta3, RafD, Gp130 transcript variant1, the elastase 3A, IL6 receptor transcript variant 1, and the Ras homolog gene family member 1, PIK3AP1 are reduced when calcium levels are high. These genes are related to Ras signaling and integrin family. On the other hand, we found that the expressions of the hypothetical protein FLJ23168, arrestin 3, the uncharacterized bone marrow protein BM045, TGF bata1 induced transcript 1, cellular retionic acid binding protein 2, the hypothetical protein FLJ14624, and plexin C1 are increased when calcium levels are high.
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