Investigation of intractability of pancreatic cancer by using 3D culture of pancreatic stellate cells

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26293119
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Applied pharmacology
• Research Institution: Okayama University
• Principal Investigator: Mitsunobu Kano 岡山大学, 医歯薬学総合研究科, 教授 (80447383)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 正宗 淳 東北大学, 医学系研究科, 准教授 (90312579)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 線維化 / 膵臓がん / 三次元培養 / 腫瘍微小環境 / 間質 / 膵星細胞

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The 5-year survival rate of pancreatic cancer is approximately 10% and has not improved for 30 years. Especially in advanced pancreatic cancer, the prognosis is still less than 6 months. The fact suggests that the efficacy of the administered anti-tumor agents are not enough.
In this study, we investigated the role of drug delivery pathway: via 1) tumor blood vessel and 2) tumor fibrous tissue.
For the purpose we constructed a novel three dimensional culture system in this study using cells derived from human pancreatic cancer, especially pancreatic stellate cells (PSC) derived from human patients. We investigated the developed model from the viewpoint of molecular biology and behavior of nanomedicine. As a result, we were able to construct a method of three-dimensional culture / co-culture with reproducibility using PSC, and succeeded in using the model for the analysis of drug delivery.

Free Research Field

がん研究