Comparing global gene expression of neonatal and adult natural killer cells to determine if differences in gene expression suggest that different developmental pathways during hematopoiesis are followed in the fetal and adult mouse to produce mature natural killer cells.
Expression of rearranged TCRgamma genes in natural killer cells suggests a minor thymus-dependent pathway of lineage commitment.
Age, Specimen part
View SamplesDefective Hippo/YAP signaling in the liver results in tissue overgrowth and development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here, we uncover mechanisms of YAP-mediated hepatocyte reprogramming and HCC pathogenesis. We show that YAP functions as a rheostat maintaining metabolic specialization, differentiation and quiescence within the hepatocyte compartment. Importantly, treatment with siRNA-lipid nanoparticles (siRNA-LNPs) targeting YAP restores hepatocyte differentiation and causes pronounced tumor regression in a genetically engineered mouse HCC model (mice with liver-specific Mst1/Mst2 double knockout). Furthermore, YAP targets are enriched in an aggressive human HCC subtype characterized by a proliferative signature and absence of CTNNB1 mutations. Thus, our work reveals Hippo signaling as a key regulator of positional identity of hepatocytes, supports targeting YAP using siRNA-LNPs as a paradigm of differentiation-based therapy, and identifies an HCC subtype potentially responsive to this approach. Overall design: Mice with liver-specific Mst1/Mst2 double-knockout (Adeno-Cre injected Mst1-/-; Mst2Flox/Flox mice) were monitored for the formation of HCC by ultrasound imaging. Animals were then randomized to be treated by intravenous injection of either siYap-LNPs or siLuciferase-LNPs for a period of 9 days.
YAP Inhibition Restores Hepatocyte Differentiation in Advanced HCC, Leading to Tumor Regression.
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View SamplesGene expression of mouse hepatoblasts (HBs) expressing IDH1 WT, IDH1 R132C, IDH2 WT, R172K and empty vector controls (N=2 cultures for each condition) grown on collagen-coated plates and IDH1 R132C and empty vector controls on uncoated plates were evaluated using Affymetrix Mouse 430Av2 DNA microarrays that were processed at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute core facility (http://macf-web.dfci.harvard.edu/) using their standard protocol.
Mutant IDH inhibits HNF-4α to block hepatocyte differentiation and promote biliary cancer.
Specimen part
View SamplesIdentification of intrathymic Eomes+ natural Th1 cells creates a novel idea that there is more than one way for the generation of innate CD4 T cells. To more deeply characterize this type of innate T cells, we compared the gene expression profile between nTh1 cells generated in CIITAtg mice and classic Th1 cells differentiated from naive CD4 T cells in Th1-polarizing condition.
Thymic low affinity/avidity interaction selects natural Th1 cells.
Age, Specimen part
View SamplesIt is unknown if gene expression profiles from primary RCC tumors differ from patient-matched metastatic tumors. Thus, we sought to identify differentially expressed genes between patient-matched primary and metastatic RCC tumors in order to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the development of RCC metastases.
Differential gene expression profiling of matched primary renal cell carcinoma and metastases reveals upregulation of extracellular matrix genes.
Specimen part, Subject
View SamplesTerahertz (THz) technology has emerged for biomedical applications such as scanning, molecular spectroscopy, and medical imaging. However, the biological effect of THz radiation is not fully understood. Non-thermal effects of THz radiation were investigated by applying a femtosecond-terahertz (fs-THz) pulse to mouse skin. Analysis of the genome-wide expression profile in fs-THz-irradiated skin indicated that wound responses were predominantly through NFB1- and Smad3/4-mediated transcriptional activation. Repeated fs-THz radiation delayed the closure of mouse skin punch wounds due to up-regulation of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-). These findings suggest that fs-THz radiation provokes a wound-like signal in skin with increased expression of TGF- and activation of its downstream target genes, which perturbs the wound healing process in vivo.
High-power femtosecond-terahertz pulse induces a wound response in mouse skin.
Sex, Specimen part
View SamplesWe report the ability of the Drosha null/conditional-null mouse model to enable the identification of pri-miRNA transcripts. The conditional-null allele of Drosha phenocopies the null allele both in mESC and in mice, upon conversion to the null state with Cre. Overall design: Examination of the effects of Drosha deficiency in mouse embryonic stem cells.
microTSS: accurate microRNA transcription start site identification reveals a significant number of divergent pri-miRNAs.
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View SamplesThe overall goal of this project is to investigate the role of Erk2-mediated signaling in regulating the cellular metabolism of cranial neural crest (CNC) cells during palate development. Here, we conducted gene expression profiling of palate tissue from wild type mice as well as those with a neural crest specific conditional inactivation of the Erk2 gene. The latter mice exhibit micrognathia, tongue defects and cleft palate, which is among the most common congenital birth defects and observed in many syndromic conditions.
Disruption of the ERK/MAPK pathway in neural crest cells as a potential cause of Pierre Robin sequence.
Sex, Specimen part
View SamplesWe discovered induction of circular RNA in human fetal tissues, including the heart. In this study, we were able to recapitulate this induction by in vitro directed differentiation of hESCs to cardiomyocytes, paving the way for future studies into circular RNA regulation. Overall design: We harvested hESCs at sequential stages of differentiation: undifferentiated (day 0), mesoderm (day 2), cardiac progenitor (day 5) and definitive cardiomyocyte (day 14). We performed RNA sequencing in biological triplicate, with 3-8 technical replicates each.
Statistically based splicing detection reveals neural enrichment and tissue-specific induction of circular RNA during human fetal development.
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View SamplesThe pervasive expression of circular RNA from protein coding loci is a recently discovered feature of many eukaryotic gene expression programs. Computational methods to discover and quantify circular RNA are essential to the study of the mechanisms of circular RNA biogenesis and potential functional roles they may play. In this paper, we present a new statistical algorithm that increases the sensitivity and specificity of circular RNA detection.by discovering and quantifying circular and linear RNA splicing events at both annotated exon boundaries and in un-annotated regions of the genome Unlike previous approaches which rely on heuristics like read count and homology between exons predicted to be circularized to determine confidence in prediction of circular RNA expression, our algorithm is a statistical approach. We have used this algorithm to discover general induction of circular RNAs in many tissues during human fetal development. We find that some regions of the brain show marked enrichment for genes where circular RNA is the dominant isoform. Beyond this global trend, specific circular RNAs are tissue specifically induced during fetal development, including a circular isoform of NCX1 in the developing fetal heart that, by 20 weeks, is more highly expressed than the linear isoform as well as beta-actin. In addition, while the vast majority of circular RNA production occurs at canonical U2 (major spliceosome) splice sites, we find the first examples of developmentally induced circular RNAs processed by the U12 (minor) spliceosome, and an enriched propensity of U12 donors to splice into circular RNA at un-annotated, rather than annotated, exons. Together, our algorithm and its results suggest a potentially significant role for circular RNA in human development. Overall design: 35 human fetal samples from 6 tissues (3 - 7 replicates per tissue) collected between 10 and 20 weeks gestational time were sequenced using Illumina TruSeq Stranded Total RNA with Ribo-Zero Gold sample prep kit.
Statistically based splicing detection reveals neural enrichment and tissue-specific induction of circular RNA during human fetal development.
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