2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Development of new restoration method for coral reefs focusing on analogy between bone and coral skeleton

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	19K22936
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Review Section	Medium-sized Section 64:Environmental conservation measure and related fields
Research Institution	Kansai University
Principal Investigator	UEDA Masato 関西大学, 化学生命工学部, 教授 (40362660)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	高橋智幸関西大学, 社会安全学部, 教授 (40261599) 鶴田浩章関西大学, 環境都市工学部, 教授 (90253484) 徳重英信秋田大学, 理工学研究科, 教授 (80291269)
Project Period (FY)	2019-06-28 – 2021-03-31
Keywords	生体材料 / 酸化チタン / チタン / 骨形成
Outline of Final Research Achievements	Polyps which are soft tissue of corals expanded vigorously on the surface of titanium and titanium oxide. This behaviour is quite similar to that in soft tissues of vertebrates. In addition, asexual reproduction of polyps tended to be more active on the titanium than on the titanium oxide. It might be due to adhesion strength of polyps to the substrates; polyps adhere more firmly to titanium oxide than to titanium. The changes in resonance frequency and resonance resistance were measured by using the quartz crystal microbalance system (QCM) in order to investigate the interfacial reaction. The adhesion behaviour was also observed with an optical microscope. Protein adsorption and polyp adhesion could be detected from these two perspectives. It was also experimentally shown that this method can be used to analyse the several reactions at the interface between the substrates and soft tissues of corals with millimetre order.
Free Research Field	材料物性
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	脊椎動物とサンゴにおける軟組織密着性や骨格形成には類似点が多く，これまでに蓄積してきた再生医療，バイオマテリアル研究の知見や技術は，サンゴ礁の早期再生に役立つことを実験的に示すことができた。サンゴの成長は非常に遅く，再生に関する基礎的なデータを取得するには，長時間を要する。基礎的なデータ・知見を地道に収集する正攻法では歯が立たない可能性が高く，本研究はこれまでの延長線上にない革新的な切り口を提案できたと考えている。また，サンゴの骨格は炭酸カルシウムであり，その成長は二酸化炭素の固定化にも繋がる。最近注目を集めているカーボンニュートラルを実現する有力な候補にもなると考えている。