難治性呼吸器疾患の分子病態解明と新規治療法の開発

Respiratory diseases include several intractable diseases such as lung cancer and pulmonary fibrosis. Particularly, lung cancer is a leading cause of death among various cancers. The reason why lung cancer shows poor prognosis could be due to early and multi-organ metastasis. We have performed the research to explore the mechanisms involved in the metastasis using multi-organ metastasis model in SCID mice, which enable us to study the organ-specific mechanism of metastasis. On the other hand, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) also shows the prognosis similar to lung cancer. The molecular pathogenesis in IPF is still unclear. Recent findings show the several origins of lung fibroblasts. Fibroblasts derived from circulating fibrocytes or epithelial-mesenchymal transition are thought to play a role in the fibrogenesis in the lungs. To analyze how these cells contribute to pulmonary fibrosis might lead to develop the novel therapy. Since many clinical trials are now going on worldwide for IPF, the forward and reverse translational research seems to be crucial to rapidly produce the outcome for patients.