アクティブボード・２０１１年　１月
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研究発表を行った学会；
・第３３回日本分子生物学会年会　
　２０１０年１２月７日〜１０日（神戸）

タイトル；The effects of amino acids on the differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells into hepatic lineage.
　
発表者；　白木　恭子　氏
　　　（熊本大学　発生医学研究所　多能性幹細胞分野）

Abstract；
Amino acids are essential in the maintenance of physiological homeostasis and cell functions such as energy sources, protein synthesis, cell growth and differentiation. Amino acids and other nutrients have been reported have a role in organ development and gene expressions during fetal development. Moreover, the difference of amino acid metabolism between trophoectoderm and inner cell mass in blastcysts is reportedly to influence on embryonic development after implantation, indicating that amino acids control the fetal development and growth. In our previous study, we showed that glycine, one of the non-essential amino acids, regulated the proliferation and differentiation of salivary-gland progenitor cells, which were of endodermal origin.
In this study, we investigated the effects of amino acids on hepatic differentiation of mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells. Using M15 system, we can induce definitive endoderm (DE), AFP-positive hepatoblasts and albumin-positive hepatic cells from ES cells, recapitulating the normal hepatic development (Shiraki N. et al, 2008). The effects of amino acids were assayed by quantitative RT-PCR, immunocytochemical analysis, and ELISA for the expression or secretion of albumin. As a result, several specific amino acids turned out to promote the hepatic differentiation from DE cells, and several amino acids showed inducing activities in hepatic maturation. These results indicate that amino acids have an important role on the differentiation and functional maturation of hepatic cells from mouse ES cells.