scm logo

SCM Lifescience Inc.’s Research & Business Innovative Development Division Managing Director Seok-jo Kim published a research paper on the fibrous mesenchymal differentiation mechanism, which is the main cause of systemic sclerosis, in the international academic journal ‘iScience’.; Paper title ‘Gut microbe-derived metabolite trimethylamine N-oxide activates PERK to drive fibrogenic mesenchymal differentiation’.

This study was conducted in collaboration with various organizations as part of the National Institutes of Health's Research Innovations for Scientific Knowledge (R61-RISK) project. 

(Research Institution : SCM Lifescience Inc. Research & Business Innovative Development Division Managing Director Seok-jo Kim, who is concurrently at the University of Michigan School of Medicine / Department of Rheumatology, University of Michigan / Northwestern Surgery / Cleveland Clinic Cardiovascular Research Institute)

Due to the pandemic situation, it was difficult to screen participating patients when conducting clinical trial studies. To overcome this, the research team utilized the existing clinical data for each disease and gene through Transcriptomic-RNA sequencing of the US National Institutes of Health for patient research. This effort was noted in that it secured efficient research and clinical data in a limited clinical research context.

Systemic sclerosis is a fibrotic disease with early inflammatory imbalance, vascular damage, and fibrosis that affects most organs simultaneously. Although dysbiosis and the effects of metabolites in the gut caused by an increase in a western diet have been pointed out as new causes of systemic sclerosis, it is a rare disease that still lacks biomarkers and fundamental treatment methods.

According to the paper, when trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) is produced by intestinal microbial metabolism after a western diet. Then TMAO is reprogrammed into fibroblastic mesenchymal cells of fibroblasts, vascular endothelial cells, and adipocyte-derived stem cells responsible for systemic sclerosis through endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK), a TMAO receptor protein.

Based on the research, the mechanism of human cell reprogramming due to intestinal microbiome imbalance was confirmed through the ‘meta-organism pathway’, a study between microorganisms and the human body, and presented a new target for the fundamental treatment of vascular remodeling and fibrosis.

Director Seok-Jo Kim of the Research & Business Innovative Development Division said, “We found that the fibrotic reprogramming and loss of various stromal cells, including mesenchymal stem cells, are the key to the onset of systemic neuropathy. So, stem cells’ ability to relieve inflammation and regulate immunity is expected to exert a fundamental therapeutic effect on various sclerosis including systemic sclerosis.”

He also emphasized, “Through this study, systemic sclerosis, a rare disease, could be considered as our new pipeline development, and a global network foundation was laid for this.”

Through this research, SCM Lifesciences Inc.’s Research & Business Innovative Development Division discovered the possibility of research and development of sclerosis stem cell treatment with global competitiveness. In the future, we will do our best to develop new pipelines and secure a diverse global network.