2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

The role of inflammatory cells in the process of fibrosis

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21790951
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	膠原病・アレルギー・感染症内科学
Research Institution	Keio University
Principal Investigator	YASUOKA Hidekata Keio University -> 慶應義塾大学, 医学部, 助教 (60365260)
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2010
Keywords	線維化 / 炎症 / 単球
Research Abstract	The aim of this study is to clarify the role of inflammatory cells in the process of fibrosis. We focused on monocytes, then we first examined the phenotype of circulating monocytes in systemic sclerosis (SSc), which is a prototype of fibrotic disease. In SSc monocytes, expression of versican, one of extracellular matrix components was upregulated. Versican was bound to MCP-1, and the versican-MCP-1 complex induced migration of monocytes effectively. Thus, versican serves as a reservoir of chemokine such as MCP-1 and migration of monocyte is induced via concentration gradient of MCP-1. Thus, migrated monocyte may be involved in the process of fibrosis. We then examined the role of monocytes infiltrated into the tissue, using a mouse model which induced massive migration of monocytes into tissues. We found that this mouse could induce deposition of extracellular matices especially surrounding of infiltrating monocytes. These results suggest that monocytes play and important role in the process of fibrosis.

(2 results)