メンタルヘルスを支える新たなストレスバイオマーカー

Stress plays an important role in both mental and physical problems. Stressful life events initiate a coordinated physiological process that is produced by interactions between the hypothalamuspituitary- adrenal axis, sympathetic nervous system, and immune system. The response to psychological stress varies considerably and depends on a wide range of environmental and genetic factors. Establishment of a new biomental tool for objectively assessing stress response is required. We focus on high-throughput analysis of gene expression using microarray system to study the complex stress responses. Alternative splicing（AS）regulates the gene expression program in response to surrounding environment. However, acute psychological stress-initiated AS events have not been documented yet. Academic examinations are one of the brief naturalistic stressors and have been shown to change gene expression in peripheral leukocytes, which is postulated to be involved in the psychological response. Using the GeneChip human exon１．０ST array, AS events of ２７ genes with splicing indices ＞１．０could be detected immediately after the examination among healthy university students. Real-time reverse transcription PCR validated the stress-initiated skipping of exon ６３ of SMG -１ that encodes a phosphatidylinositol ３-kinase-related protein kinase crucial for activations of p ５３-dependent pathways and mRNA decay system. These results indicate that AS mediated regulation of gene expression in response to brief naturalistic stressors in peripheral leukocytes, and suggest the SMG -１ splice variant as a potential biomarker for acute psychological stress.

p.122 著者英語表記誤記あり(誤)Toshihiko Tanahashi →(正）Toshihito Tanahashi