Mast cells originate from the bone marrow and develop into c-kit+ FcRI+ cells. As both mast cell progenitors and mature mast cells express these cell surface markers, ways validated to distinguish between the two maturation forms with flow cytometry have been lacking.
Distinguishing Mast Cell Progenitors from Mature Mast Cells in Mice.
Specimen part, Disease
View SamplesNeo/null loss of Tfap2a in E10.5 mouse facial prominences
Tfap2a-dependent changes in mouse facial morphology result in clefting that can be ameliorated by a reduction in Fgf8 gene dosage.
Specimen part
View SamplesE2F1 has been shown to induce both proliferation and apoptosis.
An E2F1-dependent gene expression program that determines the balance between proliferation and cell death.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesGene expression profiling with microarrays was used to identify genes differentially expressed in the lungs of B6 and BALB CF mice compared to non-CF littermates
Strain-dependent pulmonary gene expression profiles of a cystic fibrosis mouse model.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesInfection with Chlamydia pneumoniae, a human respiratory pathogen, has been associated with various chronic diseases such as asthma, coronary heart disease and importantly atherosclerosis. Possibly because the pathogen can exist in a persistent form. TNF-a has been reported to induce chlamydial persitence in epithelial cell lines, however the mechanism of TNF-a-induced persistence has not been reported. Moreover, C. pneumoniae persistently infect human dendritic cells (DCs) and activate DCs to produce cytokines including TNF-a. Induction of chlamydial persistence by other cytokines such as IFN-g is known to be due to indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) activity. The present study therefore, investigated whether C. pneumoniae infection can induce IDO activity in dendritic cells, and whether the restriction of chlamydial growth in the DCs by TNF-a is IDO-dependent. Our data indicate that infection of DCs with C. pneumoniae resulted in the induction of IDO expression. Reporting on our use of anti-TNF-a antibody adalimumab and varying concentrations of TNF-a, we further demonstrate that IDO induction following infection of DCs with C. pneumoniae is TNF-a-dependent. The anti-chlamydial activity induced by TNF-a and the expression of chlamydial 16S rRNA gene, euo, groEL1, ftsk and tal genes was correlated with the induction of IDO. Addition of excess amounts of tryptophan to the DC cultures resulted in abrogation of the TNF-a-mediated chlamydial growth restriction. These findings suggest that infection of DCs by C. pneumoniae induces production of functional IDO, which subsequently causes depletion of tryptophan. This may represent a potential mechanism for DCs to restrict bacterial growth in chlamydial infections.
Restriction of Chlamydia pneumoniae replication in human dendritic cell by activation of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase.
Specimen part
View SamplesThis SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below.
Definition of the landscape of promoter DNA hypomethylation in liver cancer.
Specimen part, Cell line, Subject
View SamplesExtensive loss of DNA methylation is a hallmark of cancer. The role of hypomethylation in altering gene expression in cancer cells has been poorly understood. Hepatic cellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common human cancers. We use HCC as a model to investigate hypomethylation in cancer by a combination of methylated DNA immunoprecipitation and hybridization with comprehensive promoter arrays. We identify approximately 2,800 promoters that are hypomethylated in tumor samples. The hypomethylated promoters appear in clusters across the genome suggesting a high-level organization behind the epigenomic changes in cancer. The genes whose promoters are demethylated are mainly involved in cell growth, cell adhesion and communication, signal transduction, mobility and invasion; functions that are essential for cancer progression and metastasis. Previous studies suggested that MBD2 was involved in demethylation of uPA and MMP2 genes in human breast and prostate cancer cell lines. We extend these results here showing that whereas MBD2 depletion in normal liver cells has little or no effect, its depletion in the human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2 and the adenocarcinoma cell line SkHep1 results in suppression of cell growth, anchorage-independent growth and invasiveness, as well as an increase in promoter methylation and silencing of several of the genes that are hypomethylated in tumors. Our studies establish for the first time the rules governing hypomethylation of promoters in liver cancer and define the potential functional role of hypomethylation in cancer.
Definition of the landscape of promoter DNA hypomethylation in liver cancer.
Specimen part, Subject
View SamplesThe intestinal epithelium constitutes a crucial defense to the potentially life-threatening effects of gut microbiota. However, due to a complex underlying vasculature, hypoperfusion and resultant tissue ischemia pose a particular risk to function and integrity of the epithelium. The small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) conjugation pathway critically regulates adaptive responses to metabolic stress and is of particular significance in the gut, as inducible knockout of the SUMO-conjugating enzyme Ubc9 results in rapid intestinal epithelial disintegration. Here we analyzed the pattern of individual SUMO isoforms in intestinal epithelium and investigated their roles in intestinal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) damage. Immunostaining revealed that epithelial SUMO2/3 expression was almost exclusively limited to crypt epithelial nuclei in unchallenged mice. However, intestinal I/R or overexpression of Ubc9 caused a remarkable enhancement of epithelial SUMO2/3 staining along the crypt-villus axis. Unexpectedly, a similar pattern was found in SUMO1 knockout mice. Ubc9 transgenic mice, but also SUMO1 knockout mice were protected from I/R injury as evidenced by better preserved barrier function and blunted inflammatory responses. PCR array analysis of microdissected villus-tip epithelia revealed a specific epithelial contribution to reduced inflammatory responses in Ubc9 transgenic mice, as key chemotactic signaling molecules such as IL17A were significantly downregulated. Together, our data indicate a critical role particularly of the SUMO2/3 isoforms in modulating responses to I/R and provide the first evidence that SUMO1 deletion activates a compensatory process that protects from ischemic damage.
Ubc9 overexpression and SUMO1 deficiency blunt inflammation after intestinal ischemia/reperfusion.
Treatment
View SamplesAsthma is a heterogeneous disease. Exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) is a distinct syndrome that occurs in 30-50% of asthmatics and is characterized by high levels of pro-inflammatory eicosanoids. We identified genes differentially expressed in the airways of asthmatics with EIB relative to asthmatics without EIB. Genes related to epithelial repair and mast cell infiltration including beta-tryptase and carboxypeptidase A3 were upregulated by exercise challenge in the asthma group with EIB. We confirmed that two novel mediators trefoil factor 3 (TFF3) and transglutaminase 2 (TGM2) have increased expression in airways cells and secreted product in the airways. In vitro studies indicate that 1) TFF3 induces nitric oxide synthase in airway epithelial cells from asthmatics and 2) TGM2 augments the enzymatic activity of secreted phospholipase A2 (sPLA2) group X, an enzyme recently been implicated in asthma pathogenesis. Since PLA2 serves as the first rate-limiting step leading to eicosanoid generation, these results suggest that TGM2 may be a key initiator of the airway inflammatory cascade in asthma.
Transglutaminase 2, a novel regulator of eicosanoid production in asthma revealed by genome-wide expression profiling of distinct asthma phenotypes.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesWe compared the prognostic significance of ectodomain isoforms of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which lack the tyrosine kinase (TK) domain, with that of the full length receptor and its autophosphorylation status in cervical cancers treated with conventional chemoradiotherapy.
Membranous expression of ectodomain isoforms of the epidermal growth factor receptor predicts outcome after chemoradiotherapy of lymph node-negative cervical cancer.
Specimen part
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