Inhibin knockout (Inha-/-) female mice develop sex cord-stromal ovarian cancer with complete penetrance and previous studies demonstrate that the pituitary gonadotropins [follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH)] are influential modifiers of granulosa cell tumor development and progression in inhibin-deficient females. Recent studies have demonstrated that Inha-/- ovarian follicles develop precociously to the early antral stage in prepubertal mice without any increase in serum FSH and these studies suggested that in the absence of inhibins, granulosa cells differentiate abnormally, and thus at sexual maturity may undergo an abnormal response to gonadotropin signaling. To test this hypothesis, we stimulated immature WT and Inha-/- female mice prior to gross tumor formation with gonadotropin analogs, and subsequently examined post-gonadotropin induced ovarian follicle development, as well as preovulatory and hCG-induced gene expression changes in granulosa cells. We find that at three weeks of age, inhibin-deficient ovaries do not show further antral development nor undergo cumulus expansion. Widespread alterations in the transcriptome of gonadotropin-treated Inha-/- granulosa cells suggest that gonadotropins initiate an improper program of cell differentiation in Inha-/- cells. Overall, our experiments reveal that inhibins are essential for the normal gonadotropin-dependent response of granulosa cells.
Defective gonadotropin-dependent ovarian folliculogenesis and granulosa cell gene expression in inhibin-deficient mice.
Specimen part, Treatment
View SamplesMouse oocytes control cumulus cell metabolic processes that are deficient in the oocytes themselves and this delegation is necessary for oocyte development. Oocyte-derived bone morphogenetic factor 15 (BMP15) and growth differentiation factor 9 (GDF9) appear to be key regulators of follicular development. The effect of these factors on cumulus cell function before the preovulatory surge of luteinizing hormone (LH) was assessed by analysis of the transcriptomes of cumulus cells from wildtype (WT), Bmp15-/-, and Bmp15-/- Gdf9+/- double mutant (DM) mice using microarray analysis. The biological themes associated with the most highly-affected transcripts were identified using bioinformatic approaches, IPA and GenMAPP/MAPPFinder. There were 5,332, 7,640, and 2,651 transcripts identified to be significantly changed in the comparisons of Bmp15-/- vs. WT, DM vs. WT, and DM vs. Bmp15-/- respectively by the criteria of FC (fold change) p <0.01. Among theses changed transcripts, 744 were commonly changed in all three pair-wise comparisons, and hence were considered to be the most highly affected transcripts by mutation of Bmp15 and Gdf9. IPA Analyses revealed that metabolism was the major theme associated with the most highly-changed transcripts: glycolysis and sterol biosynthesis were the two most significantly affected pathways. Most of the transcripts encoding enzymes for sterol biosynthesis were down-regulated in both mutant cumulus cells and in WT cumulus cell after oocytectomy. Similarly, there was a reduction of de novo-synthesized cholesterol in these cumulus cells. This suggests that oocytes regulate cumulus cell metabolism, particularly sterol biosynthesis, by promoting the expression of corresponding transcripts. Furthermore, in WT-mice, Mvk, Pmvk, Fdps, Sqle, Cyp51, Sc4mol, and Ebp, which encode enzymes in the sterol biosynthetic pathway, were found to be expressed robustly in cumulus cells, but expression was barely detectable in oocytes. Levels of de novo-synthesized cholesterol were significantly higher in cumulusenclosed oocytes than denuded oocytes. These results indicate that mouse oocytes are deficient in their ability to synthesize cholesterol and require cumulus cells to provide them with products of the sterol biosynthetic pathway. Oocyte-derived BMP15 and GDF9 may promote this metabolic pathway in cumulus cells as compensation for their own deficiencies.
Oocyte regulation of metabolic cooperativity between mouse cumulus cells and oocytes: BMP15 and GDF9 control cholesterol biosynthesis in cumulus cells.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesCompares activin deficient granulosa cells (Inhba flox/-; Inhbb-/-; Amhr2cre/+) to wild type granulosa cells
Intraovarian activins are required for female fertility.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesThe Forkhead Box, FOXO1 and FOXO3, transcription factors regulate multiple functions in mammalian cells. Selective inactivation of the Foxo1 and Foxo3 genes in murine ovarian granulosa cells severely impairs follicular development and apoptosis causing infertility, and as shown herein, granulosa cell tumor (GCT) formation. Coordinate depletion of the tumor suppressor Pten gene in the Foxo1/3 strain enhanced the penetrance and onset of GCT formation
FOXO1/3 and PTEN Depletion in Granulosa Cells Promotes Ovarian Granulosa Cell Tumor Development.
Specimen part
View SamplesThe objective of this study was to understand the gene expression changes during granulosa cell tumor development in Smad1/5/8 mutant ovaries.
Conditional deletion of Smad1 and Smad5 in somatic cells of male and female gonads leads to metastatic tumor development in mice.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesImplantation of an embryo in the uterus is a multistep process tightly controlled by an intricate regulatory network of interconnected ovarian, uterine, and embryonic factors. Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) ligands and receptors are expressed in the pregnant uterus, and BMP2 has been shown to be a key regulator of implantation. In this study, we investigated the roles of the BMP type 1 receptor, activin-like kinase 2 (ALK2), during mouse pregnancy by producing uterine-specific Alk2 conditional knockout (cKO) mice. In the absence of ALK2, embryos can invade the uterine epithelium and stroma, but stromal cells cannot undergo uterine decidualization, resulting in sterility. Mechanistically, microarray analysis revealed that CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein (Cebpb) expression is suppressed during decidualization in Alk2 cKO females. These findings and the similar phenotypes of Cebpb cKO and Alk2 cKO mice lead to the hypothesis that BMPs act upstream of C/EBP to regulate decidualization. To test this hypothesis, we knocked down ALK2 in human uterine stromal cells (HESC) and discovered that ablation of ALK2 alters HESC decidualization and suppresses CEBPB mRNA and protein levels. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) analysis of decidualizing HESC confirmed that BMP signaling protein, SMAD1, directly regulates expression of CEBPB by binding a distinct regulatory sequence in the CEBPB promoter; C/EBP, in turn, regulates the expression of progesterone receptor (PGR). Our work clarifies the conserved mechanisms through which BMPs regulate embryo implantation in rodents and primates and, for the first time, uncovers a linear pathwayof BMP signaling through ALK2 to regulate CEBPB and, subsequently, PGR during decidualization.
Activin-like kinase 2 functions in peri-implantation uterine signaling in mice and humans.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesRecent advances in high density oligonucleotides microarray technology have brought solutions for molecular profiling of human samples at an unprecedented resolution. We mapped whole blood RNA from healthy volunteers and CD34+ from cytapheresis to Human Exon ST 1.0 microarrays. We compared mature blood cells samples with immature CD34+ samples and each of these compartiement with a broad panel of solid tissues. By scanning the expression of over one million known or predicted exons, transcripts such as INPP4B, NEDD9 CD74 and VAV3 were identified as alternatively transcribed between haematopoietic system and solid tissues. The very large combinatorial complexity conveyed by alternative splicing contributes to the specific functional properties of blood cells and haematopoietic stem cells. The gene expression profiles are freely accessible through a dynamic web atlas, providing to the medical and scientific community a simple mean to interrogate and visualize this reference dataset. Finally, the relevance and the precision provided by this exon expression map suggest that exon arrays may be a powerful tool to link specific peripheral whole blood exon signatures modifications to many diseases such as cancer or auto-immune disorders.
Expression map of the human exome in CD34+ cells and blood cells: increased alternative splicing in cell motility and immune response genes.
Specimen part
View SamplesThis SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below.
Neural stem/progenitor cell properties of glial cells in the adult mouse auditory nerve.
Age, Specimen part, Treatment
View SamplesTumor infiltrating neutrophils (TAN) have been shown to exert both pro- and anti-tumoral activities and their recruitment and polarization are triggered by tumor-derived signals. Resident mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) could contribute to tumor-supportive cell niche and have been shown to display tumor-specific transcriptomic, phenotypic, and functional features compared to normal tissue. In our study, we investigate whether these two cell subsets establish a bidirectional crosstalk in the context of B-cell lymphoma.
Neutrophils trigger a NF-κB dependent polarization of tumor-supportive stromal cells in germinal center B-cell lymphomas.
Treatment
View SamplesSpiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) and the associated components of the auditory nerve are primary carriers of auditory information from hair cells to the brain. Loss of SGNs occurs with many pathological conditions, resulting in permanent sensorineural hearing loss. Neural stem/progenitors (NSPs) have been well-characterized in several locations of adult brain and retina. However, it is unclear whether NSPs are present in the adult auditory nerve. Here we examined the self-renewal potential of the adult auditory nerve using ouabain application as a well-established mouse model of acute SGN injury. The observed increase in cell proliferation, alteration in enchromatin/heterochromatin ratio and down-regulation of histone deacetylase expression in glial cells suggest that the quiescent glial cells convert to an activated state after SGN degeneration. This was further confirmed by global gene expression analysis of injured auditory nerves, which showed up-regulation of numerous neurogenesis- and/or development-associated genes shortly after ouabain exposure. These genes include molecular markers commonly used for the identification of NSPs. Under a strict culture regimen, auditory nerve-derived cells of adult mouse ears gave rise to neurospheres, suggesting that multipotent NSPs are present in adult cochlear nerve. Neurosphere assays on Sox2 transgenic mice revealed that Sox2+ glial cells are the source for NSPs. Our data also showed that acute injury or hypoxia enhances neurosphere formation. Taken together, our study revealed that glial cells of adult cochlea exhibit several NSP characteristics, and hence these mature non-neuronal cells may be important targets for promoting self-repair of degenerative auditory nerves.
Neural stem/progenitor cell properties of glial cells in the adult mouse auditory nerve.
Specimen part
View Samples