Some neuropsychiatric disease, including schizophrenia, may originate during prenatal development, following periods of gestational hypoxia and placental oxidative stress. Here we investigated if gestational hypoxia promotes damaging secretions from the placenta that affect fetal development and whether a mitochondria-targeted antioxidant MitoQ might prevent this. Gestational hypoxia caused low birth-weight and changes in young adult offspring brain, mimicking those in human neuropsychiatric disease. Exposure of cultured neurons to fetal plasma or to secretions from the placenta or from model trophoblast barriers that had been exposed to altered oxygenation caused similar morphological changes. The secretions and plasma contained altered microRNAs whose targets were linked with changes in gene expression in the fetal brain and with human schizophrenia loci. Molecular and morphological changes in vivo and in vitro were prevented by a single dose of MitoQ bound to nanoparticles, which were shown to localise and prevent oxidative stress in the placenta but not in the fetus. We suggest the possibility of developing preventative treatments that target the placenta and not the fetus to reduce risk of psychiatric disease in later life. Overall design: 16 samples (4 biological replicates per group) were analysed using RNA sequencing. The 4 groups were: Normoxia+Saline (control sample), Normoxia+MitoQ-NP, Hypoxia+Saline and Hypoxia+MitoQ-NPs. Pair-wise comparison between all groups was performed.
Treating the placenta to prevent adverse effects of gestational hypoxia on fetal brain development.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesAberrant DNA methylation, one of the major epigenetic alterations in cancer, has been reported to accumulate in a subset of colorectal cancer (CRC), so-called CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP), which was known to correlate with microsatellite instability (MSI)-high CRC. To select new methylation markers genome-widely and epigenotype CRC by DNA methylation comprehensively, we performed methylated DNA immunoprecipitation-on-chip analysis using MSI-high CRC cell line HCT116 and microsatellite-stable SW480, and re-expression array analysis by 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine/Trichostatin A. Methylation levels of 44 new markers selected and 16 previously reported markers were analyzed quantitatively in 149 clinical CRC samples using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. By unsupervised two-way hierarchical clustering, CRC was clustered into high-, intermediate-, and low-methylation epigenotypes. Methylation markers were clustered into two groups: Group-1 showing methylation in high-methylation epigenotype and including all the 11 CIMP-related markers except NEUROG1, and Group-2 showing methylation in high- and intermediate-methylation epigenotypes. Marker panel deciding methylation epigenotypes with the highest accuracy was developed: 1st-Panel consisting of Group-1 genes (CACNA1G, LOX, SLC30A10) to extract high-methylation epigenotype, and 2nd-Panel consisting of Group-2 genes (ELMO1, FBN2, THBD, HAND1) and SLC30A10 again to divide the remains into intermediate- and low-methylation epigenotypes. High-methylation epigenotype correlated significantly with BRAF mutation, MSI, proximal tumor location, and mucinous component, in concordance with reported CIMP. Intermediate- and low-methylation epigenotypes significantly correlated with KRAS-mutation(+) and KRAS-mutation(-), respectively. KRAS-mutation(+) intermediate-methylation epigenotype showed worse prognosis than KRAS-mutation(-) low-methylation epigenotype (p=0.030). These three epigenotypes with different genetic characteristics suggested different molecular CRC genesis, and the markers might be useful to predict prognosis.
Three DNA methylation epigenotypes in human colorectal cancer.
Specimen part, Cell line
View SamplesAge-dependent electrical and morphological remodeling of the Drosophila heart caused by hERG/seizure mutations
Age-dependent electrical and morphological remodeling of the Drosophila heart caused by hERG/seizure mutations.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesCellular differentiation is regulated through activation and repression of defined transcription factors. A hallmark of differentiation is a pronounced change in cell shape, which is determined by dynamics of the actin cytoskeleton. In de-differentiated fat (DFAT) cells and 3T3-L1 cells, we showed that treatment with the ROCK inhibitor Y-27632, by inducing remodeling of the actin cytoskelton, causes adipocyte differentiation. In addition, we found that depletion of MKL1, an actin binding transcriptional coactivator, elicits adipogenesis.
Regulation of MKL1 via actin cytoskeleton dynamics drives adipocyte differentiation.
Specimen part
View SamplesProliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) is a vision-threatening disorder characterized by the formation of cicatricial fibrovascular membranes leading to traction retinal detachment. Despite the recent advance in the treatment of PDR such as vitreoretinal surgery with use of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drug as an adjunct, it still remains vision-threatening disease.
Microarray analysis of gene expression in fibrovascular membranes excised from patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy.
Specimen part, Disease, Disease stage
View SamplesBRCA1, a well-known breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility gene with multiple interacting partners, is predicted to have diverse biological functions. However, to date its only well-established role is in the repair of damaged DNA and cell cycle regulation. In this regard, the etiopathological study of low penetrant variants of BRCA1 provides an opportunity to uncover its other physiologically important functions. Using this rationale, we studied the R1699Q variant of BRCA1, a potentially moderate risk variant, and found that it does not impair DNA damage repair but abrogates the repression of miR-155, a bona fide oncomir. We further show that in the absence of functional BRCA1, miR-155 is up-regulated in BRCA1-deficient mouse mammary epithelial cells, human and mouse BRCA1-deficienct breast tumor cell lines as well as tumors. Mechanistically, we found that BRCA1 represses miR-155 expression via its association with HDAC2, which deacetylates H2A and H3 on the miR-155 promoter. Finally, we show that over-expression of miR-155 accelerates whereas the knockdown of miR-155 attenuates the growth of tumor cell lines in vivo. Taken together, our findings demonstrate a new mode of tumor suppression by BRCA1 and reveal miR-155 as a potential therapeutic target for BRCA1-deficient tumors.
Tumor suppressor BRCA1 epigenetically controls oncogenic microRNA-155.
Specimen part
View SamplesWe examined the functional significance of the R1699Q variant of human BRCA1 gene using a mouse ES cell-based assay.
Tumor suppressor BRCA1 epigenetically controls oncogenic microRNA-155.
Specimen part
View SamplesThis SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below.
PU.1 is a potent tumor suppressor in classical Hodgkin lymphoma cells.
Cell line, Time
View SamplesPU.1 is an Ets family transcription factor that is essential for the differentiation of both myeloid and lymphoid cells. PU.1 is down-regulated in classical Hodgkin lymphoma cells via methylation of the PU.1 promoter. To evaluate whether down-regulation of PU.1 is essential for the growth of cHL cells, we generated KM-H2 derived cell lines conditionally express PU.1 by tet-off system (designated KM-H2tetPU.1). Conditonally expressed PU.1 by tetracycline removal induced complete growth arrest and apoptosis in KM-H2 cells. To elucidate the mechanisms underlying cell cycle arrest and apoptosis induced by PU.1, we compared gene expression profiles of KM-H2tetPU.1 cells 0, 1 and 3 days after PU.1 induction, by DNA microarray.
PU.1 is a potent tumor suppressor in classical Hodgkin lymphoma cells.
Cell line, Time
View SamplesDiscrimination between self vs. non-self and adequate response to infection and tissue damage are fundamental functions of the immune system. The rapid and global spread of known and emerging viruses is a testament that the timely detection of viral pathogens that reproduce within host cells, presents a formidable challenge to the immune system. To gain access to a proper reproductive niche, many pathogens travel via the host vasculature and therefore become exposed to humoral factors of the innate immune system. Although a cascade of coagulation factors plays a fundamental role in host defense for living fossils such as horseshoe crabs (Xiphosurida spp), the role of the coagulation system in activation of innate responses to pathogens in higher organisms remains unclear. When human type C adenovirus (HAdv) enters the circulation, 240 copies of coagulation factor X (FX) bind to the virus particle with picomolar affinity. Here, using molecular dynamics flexible fitting (MDFF) and high resolution cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), we defined the interface between the HAdv5 hexon protein and FX at pseudo-atomic level. Based on this structural data, we introduced a single amino acid substitution, T424A, in the hexon that completely abrogated FX interaction with the virus. In vivo genome-wide transcriptional profiling revealed that FX-binding-ablated virus failed to activate a distinct network of the early response genes, whose expression depends on transcription factor NFKB1. Deconvolution of the signaling network responsible for early gene activation showed that the FX-HAdv complex triggers MyD88/TRIF/TRAF6 signaling upon activation of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) that serves as a principal sensor of FX-virus complex in vivo. Our study implicates host factor decoration of the virus as a mechanism to trigger innate immune sensor that respond to a misplacement of coagulation FX from the blood into intracellular macrophage compartments upon virus entry into the cell. Our results further the mounting evidence of evolutionary conservation between the coagulation system and innate immunity.
Coagulation factor X activates innate immunity to human species C adenovirus.
Specimen part, Treatment
View Samples