The vascular lining cells in the human spleens include littoral cells (LCs) and other splenic vascular endothelial cells (SVECs). LCs that comprise about 30 percent of the splenic red pulp are specialzed endothelial cells distinct from SVECs. They line the splenic sinusoids and function as the filters and scavengers for senescent or altered red blood cells. Patients with advanced forms of myelofibrosis (MF) often develope extramedullary hematopoiesis in the spleen.Vascular lining cells within MF spleens are thought to serve as a supportive microenvironment for MF hematopoietic cells. In this study we isolated MF and normal LCs and SVECs from human spleens using immunostaining and flow cytometric sorting and used microarrays to analyze the underling mechanism of LCs' unique functions that distinguish them from SVECs, and the properties of MF LCs and SVECs and their contributions to the microenvironment of MF spleens.
The characteristics of vessel lining cells in normal spleens and their role in the pathobiology of myelofibrosis.
Specimen part, Disease stage
View SamplesGlucocorticoids are part of the therapeutic armamentarium of chronic lymphocytic leukemia where it has been suggested that cells with unmutated IGHV genes exhibit higher sensitivity. The mechanisms by which glucorticoids are active in CLL are not well elucidated.
Differential gene expression profile associated to apoptosis induced by dexamethasone in CLL cells according to IGHV/ZAP-70 status.
Specimen part
View SamplesIn the hematopoietic microenvironment, endothelial cells (ECs) play an important role in the regulation of hematopoietic cell proliferation and trafficking. We previously demonstrated that EC stimulated with tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-) induce the generation of dendritic cells from CD34(+) stem cells, whereas in contrast, interleukins were capable of inducing the proliferation of hematopoietic and myeloid progenitors.
Transcriptional profiling of the hematopoietic support of interleukin-stimulated human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs).
Specimen part, Treatment
View SamplesFollistatin is a folliculogenesis regulating protein that has been found in relatively high concentration in the female ovarian tissues. Follistatin acts as an antagonist to the function of Activin, which is often found elevated in ovarian carcinogenesis and thus presents a possibility for therapeutic intervention in controlling ovarian cancer. Most of the ovarian cancer occurs in its ovarian surface epithelium (OSE) cells. Although breast cancer susceptibility gene 1 (BRCA1) is a known tumor suppressor for breast cancer but its role in ovarian cancer is beginning to unfold. We have shown that in ovarian carcinoma cells (SKOV3), stable overexpression of BRCA1 stimulates Follistatin secretion and simultaneously downregulates Activin expression. Moreover, knock down of BRCA1 in immortalized OSE (IOSE) cells from human ovarian tissue demonstrates downregulation of Follistatin secretion with simultaneous up regulation of Activin expression. IOSE cells generated from an ovarian cancer patient with BRCA1 mutation failed to secrete Follistatin in the medium. Our results indicate a novel function for BRCA1 in the form of regulation of the expression of Follistatin in the ovarian cells.
BRCA1 regulates follistatin function in ovarian cancer and human ovarian surface epithelial cells.
Specimen part, Cell line
View SamplesComplete identification of the bone marrow niche remains one of the most progressing fields. Attempts to identify soluble factors involved in stem cell renewal have been less successful. We have previously shown that endothelial cells (EC) can induce the long-term proliferation of hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC), especially when they had been subjected to an inflammatory stimulus like interleukins (IL) 1.
Interleukin 32 promotes hematopoietic progenitor expansion and attenuates bone marrow cytotoxicity.
Specimen part, Treatment, Time
View SamplesCellular function is strongly dependent on surrounding cells and environmental factors. Current technologies are limited in characterizing the spatial location and unique gene-programs of cells in less structured and dynamic niches. Here we developed a method (NICHE-seq) that combines photoactivatable fluorescent reporters, two-photon microscopy and single-cell RNA-seq to infer the cellular and molecular composition of niches. We applied NICHE-seq to examine the high-order assembly of immune cell networks. NICHE-seq is highly reproducible in spatial tissue reconstruction, enabling identification of rare niche-specific immune subpopulations and unique gene-programs, including natural killer cells within infected B cell follicles and distinct myeloid states in the marginal zone. This study establishes NICHE-seq as a broadly applicable method for elucidating high-order spatial organization of cell types and their molecular pathways. Overall design: Transcriptional profiling of single cells from the specific immune niches in the lymph node and spleen, generated from deep sequencing of tens of thousands of cells, sequenced in several batches on illumina Nextseq500
Spatial reconstruction of immune niches by combining photoactivatable reporters and scRNA-seq.
Specimen part, Cell line, Treatment, Subject
View SamplesRecurrent somatic hotspot mutations of DICER1 appear to be clustered around each of four critical metal binding residues in the RNase IIIB domain of DICER1. This domain is responsible for cleavage of the 3 end of the 5p-miRNA strand of a pre-mRNA hairpin. To investigate the effects of these cancer-associated hotspot mutations we engineered mouse Dicer1-deficient ES cells to express wild-type and an allelic series of the mutant human DICER1 variants. Global miRNA and mRNA profiles from cells carrying the metal binding site mutations were compared to each other and wild-type human DICER1. The miRNA and mRNA profiles generated through the expression of the hotspot mutations were virtually identical, and the DICER1 hotspot mutation carrying cells were distinct from both wild-type and Dicer1-deficient cells. Further, miRNA profiles showed mutant DICER1 results in a dramatic loss in processing of mature 5p-miRNA strands but were still able to create 3p-strand miRNAs. Messenger-RNA profile changes were consistent with the loss of 5p-strand miRNAs and showed enriched expression for predicted targets of the lost 5p derived miRNAs. We therefore conclude that cancer-associated somatic hotspot mutations of DICER1, affecting any one of four metal binding residues in the RNase IIIB domain, are functionally equivalent with respect to miRNA-processing and are hypomorphic alleles, yielding a global loss in processing of mature 5p-strand miRNA. We further propose that this resulting 3p-strand bias in mature miRNA expression likely underpins the oncogenic potential of these hotspot mutations.
Cancer-associated somatic DICER1 hotspot mutations cause defective miRNA processing and reverse-strand expression bias to predominantly mature 3p strands through loss of 5p strand cleavage.
Specimen part
View SamplesIn multicellular organisms, dedicated regulatory circuits control cell-type diversity and response. The crosstalk and redundancies within these circuits and substantial cellular heterogeneity pose a major research challenge. We present CRISP-seq, an integrated method for massively parallel single-cell RNA-seq and CRISPR pooled screens. We show that profiling the perturbation and transcriptome in the same cell, enables to elucidate, the function of multiple factors and their interactions. In this benchmarking study, we applied this technology to probe regulatory circuits of innate immunity. By sampling tens of thousands of perturbed cells in vitro and in mice, we identified interactions and redundancies between developmental and signaling-dependent factors controlling the commitment toward different cell lineages or the inflammatory and antiviral pathways. CRISP-seq thereby emerges as a broadly applicable, comprehensive, and unbiased approach for elucidating mammalian regulatory circuits. Overall design: Transcriptional and CRISPR profiles from single myeloid cells, infected with lentiviral vectors carrying different gRNAs, were generated by deep sequencing of tens of thousands of single cells, sequenced in several batches in an Illumina Nextseq 500. Experiment was paired-end, but read2 was used to read cell and molecule barcodes only. Additional details about experimental design (associating each single cell with its amplification batch and index sorting readout) available as Series supplementary file.
Dissecting Immune Circuits by Linking CRISPR-Pooled Screens with Single-Cell RNA-Seq.
Specimen part, Cell line, Treatment, Subject
View SamplesDevelopment is a complex and well-defined process characterized by rapid cell proliferation and apoptosis. At this stage in life, a developmentally young organism is more sensitive to toxicants and other stressors when compared to an adult. In response to pro-oxidant exposure, members of the Cap’n’Collar (CNC) basic leucine zipper (b-ZIP) transcription factor family (including the Nfe2-related factors, Nrfs) activate the expression of genes that contribute to reduced toxicity. Here, we studied the role of the Nrf protein, Nfe2, in the developmental response to pro-oxidant exposure in the zebrafish. Following acute waterborne exposures to diquat or tert-buytlhydroperoxide (tBOOH) at three developmental stages, wildtype (WT) and nfe2 knockout (KO) embryos and larvae were morphologically scored and their transcriptomes sequenced. Overall design: Wildtype animals were on the AB background and an additional germline nfe2 knockout strain were created by disruption of the nfe2 reading frame. Waterborne exposures to either diquat or tBOOH were carried out at three different developmental stages: 2 hours post fertilization (hpf), 48hpf, and 96hpf in 3 pools of 30 embryos per condition. Animals were exposed to no treatment, 20µM diquat or 1mM tBOOH for a 4-hour dosing period. Total RNA was isolated from pooled animals and 50 bp, paired end, libraries were sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform, with approximately 25 million reads per sample. Reads were then aligned to the Ensembl GRCz10 zebrafish reference genome using Tophat2 and raw counts data normalized using DESeq2. Gene annotation was from Ensemble for GRCz10.
The transcription factor, Nuclear factor, erythroid 2 (Nfe2), is a regulator of the oxidative stress response during Danio rerio development.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesWe analyzed expression changes between JAK2V617F positive bone marrow cells and JAK2V617F negative cells
Autocrine Tnf signaling favors malignant cells in myelofibrosis in a Tnfr2-dependent fashion.
Specimen part, Treatment
View Samples