Identification of lingual and esophageal epithelial stem cells and their hierarchy, and of target genes for cancer treatment

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15H02364
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Tumor biology
• Research Institution: Kansai Medical University
• Principal Investigator: UENO Hiroo 関西医科大学, 医学部, 教授 (60332368)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 厚海 奈穂 関西医科大学, 医学部, 助教 (90612151)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 幹細胞

Outline of Final Research Achievements

It has been proposed by Doupe et al (2012 Science) that the specific adult stem cells do not exist in the esophageal epithelial tissue. We by the multicolor cell lineage tracing method found that the gene A positive esophageal epithelial basal cells include esophageal epithelial stem cells. Also, by single cell RNAseq method of isolated esophageal epithelial tissue, and cell clustering based on the expressed genes, we identified a group of esophageal epithelial stem cells, and specific markers for them.

Free Research Field

幹細胞生物学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究により、これまでその存在さえ明らかでなかった食道上皮幹細胞の詳細が明らかとなった。また、化学発がんモデルを用いてがん化した組織より当該幹細胞に相当する細胞集団（がん幹細胞候補細胞）とのsingle cell RNAseqの比較検討を行い、その差異を解析を通じて、これまで決め手となる分子標的療法にかけていた食道がんの新規分子標的療法開発への基盤が形成できた。