Methods: CaMKIIa-creERT2 (Erdmann et al., 2007) and Dicer1f/f (Harfe et al., 2005) were crossed to produce inducible forebrain-restricted Dicer1 knockout mice (Dicer-ifKO) mice. Hippocampal mRNA profiles of 3-month-old wild-type (WT) and (Dicer-ifKO) mice were generated by deep sequencing, in triplicate, using Illumina HiSeq 2500. Each sample included total RNA isolated from the hippocampus of 3 mice. In total, 12 mice per genotype were used. The sequence reads that passed quality filters were mapped to reference genome (GRCm38/mm10) using Bowtie 2 (2.0.5) and TopHat (2.0.6). SAM/BAM files were further processed with Samtools (0.1.18). Read count quantitations were obtained using Seqmonk (0.26.0). Normalization of read counts and differential expression analysis between genotypes was carried out using DESeq2 R package from Bioconductor (Release 2.13). qRT–PCR validation was performed using SYBR Green assays. Results: We mapped about 13-14 million sequence reads per sample to the mouse genome (build GRCm38/mm10) and quantified 76,938 annotated transcripts. DESeq2 R package was used to normalize the counts and perform the differential expression. Differential analysis output was filtered by FDR threshold (padj < 0.1). This approach led us to identify 641 gene isoforms, corresponding to 314 genes that were differentially regulated in the mouse hippocampus upon Dicer ablation. Conclusions: We extend here the characterization of inducible forebrain-restricted Dicer1 mutants confirming the initial memory improvement. Moreover, we describe several novel phenotypes associated with early Dicer loss in the mature brain including an exacerbated response to seizures, increased CA1 neuron excitability, a pronounced weight gain and enhanced induction of immediate early genes (IEGs) in relevant neuronal nuclei. To identify candidate genes that could explain these phenotypes, we conducted two complementary genomic screens for the miRNAs primarily affected and their targets. Overall, our results explain both the initial and late consequences of Dicer loss in excitatory neurons and indicate that Dicer and the miRNA system play a critical role regulating neuronal homeostasis and responsiveness. Overall design: Hippocampal mRNA profiles of 3-month-old wild-type (WT) and Dicer-ifKO (3 weeks upon tamoxifen administration) male mice were generated by deep sequencing, in triplicate, using Illumina HiSeq 2500. Each sample included total RNA isolated from the hippocampus of 3 mice. In total, 12 mice per genotype were used.
Blocking miRNA Biogenesis in Adult Forebrain Neurons Enhances Seizure Susceptibility, Fear Memory, and Food Intake by Increasing Neuronal Responsiveness.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesRetinoic acid receptors (RARs) , , and heterodimerize with Retinoid X receptors (RXR) , , and and bind the cis-acting response elements known as RAREs to execute the biological functions of retinoic acid during mammalian development. RAR mediates the anti-proliferative and apoptotic effects of retinoids in certain tissues and cancer cells, such as melanoma and neuroblastoma cells. Furthermore, ablation of RAR enhanced the tumor incidence of Ras transformed keratinocytes and was associated with resistance to retinoid mediated growth arrest and apoptosis.
RARγ is essential for retinoic acid induced chromatin remodeling and transcriptional activation in embryonic stem cells.
Specimen part, Treatment, Time
View SamplesInactivation of the von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor gene, VHL, is an archetypical tumor-initiating event in clear cell renal carcinoma (ccRCC) that leads to the activation of hypoxia-inducible transcription factors (HIFs). However, VHL mutation status in ccRCC is not correlated with clinical outcome. Here we show that during ccRCC progression, cancer cells exploit diverse epigenetic alterations to empower a branch of the VHL-HIF pathway for metastasis, and the strength of this activation is associated with poor clinical outcome. By analyzing metastatic subpopulations of VHL-deficient ccRCC cells, we discovered an epigenetically altered VHL-HIF response that is specific to metastatic ccRCC. Focusing on the two most prominent pro-metastatic VHL-HIF target genes, we show that loss of polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2)-dependent histone H3 Lys27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) activates HIF-driven chemokine (C-X-C motif) receptor 4 (CXCR4) expression in support of chemotactic cell invasion, whereas loss of DNA methylation enables HIF-driven cytohesin 1 interacting protein (CYTIP) expression to protect cancer cells from death cytokine signals. Thus, metastasis in ccRCC is based on an epigenetically expanded output of the tumor-initiating pathway.
Epigenetic expansion of VHL-HIF signal output drives multiorgan metastasis in renal cancer.
Cell line
View SamplesTransplanting vascular endothelial cells (ECs) to support metabolism and express regenerative paracrine factors is a strategy to treat vasculopathies and to promote tissue regeneration. However, transplantation strategies have been challenging to develop because ECs are difficult to culture and little is known about how to sustain their vascular identity and direct them to form long-lasting new vessels or engraft into existing ones. We found that multiple non-vascular cell types transiently expressed EC markers after enforced expression of the transcription factors, Etv2, Erg, and Fli1. However, only mid-gestational amniotic cells could be converted to cells that maintained EC gene expression and proliferated in culture to yield billions of vascular cells. Even so, these converted cells performed sub-optimally in assays of EC function. We used constitutive Akt signaling to mimic the shear forces of the vascular environment and promote EC survival in an effort to correct the deficiencies of the converted cells. Akt signaling increased gene expression of EC morphogenesis genes, including Sox17, shifted the genomic targeting of Fli1 to favor nearby Sox consensus sites, and enhanced the in vivo vascular function of EC-like converted cells. Enforced expression of Sox17 was dispensable for broad EC gene activation, but indispensable for vascular engraftment and reperfusion of ischemic tissue. Our results identify a transcription factor network comprised of Ets and Sox17 factors that specifies and sustains endothelial cell fate and function. This work shows that the commonly used criterion of transcriptional similarity for cell conversion can fail to predict in vivo vascular function. Our approach shows that stringent functional testing in vitro and in vivo is necessary to validate engineered endothelial cell grafts. Overall design: Transcriptome sequencing of endothelial cells and amniotic cells
Sox17 drives functional engraftment of endothelium converted from non-vascular cells.
Specimen part, Subject
View SamplesInactivation of the von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor gene, VHL, is an archetypical tumor-initiating event in clear cell renal carcinoma (ccRCC) that leads to the activation of hypoxia-inducible transcription factors (HIFs). However, VHL mutation status in ccRCC is not correlated with clinical outcome. Here we show that during ccRCC progression, cancer cells exploit diverse epigenetic alterations to empower a branch of the VHL-HIF pathway for metastasis, and the strength of this activation is associated with poor clinical outcome. By analyzing metastatic subpopulations of VHL-deficient ccRCC cells, we discovered an epigenetically altered VHL-HIF response that is specific to metastatic ccRCC. Focusing on the two most prominent pro-metastatic VHL-HIF target genes, we show that loss of polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2)-dependent histone H3 Lys27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) activates HIF-driven chemokine (C-X-C motif) receptor 4 (CXCR4) expression in support of chemotactic cell invasion, whereas loss of DNA methylation enables HIF-driven cytohesin 1 interacting protein (CYTIP) expression to protect cancer cells from death cytokine signals. Thus, metastasis in ccRCC is based on an epigenetically expanded output of the tumor-initiating pathway.
Epigenetic expansion of VHL-HIF signal output drives multiorgan metastasis in renal cancer.
Cell line
View SamplesInactivation of the von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor gene, VHL, is an archetypical tumor-initiating event in clear cell renal carcinoma (ccRCC) that leads to the activation of hypoxia-inducible transcription factors (HIFs). However, VHL mutation status in ccRCC is not correlated with clinical outcome. Here we show that during ccRCC progression, cancer cells exploit diverse epigenetic alterations to empower a branch of the VHL-HIF pathway for metastasis, and the strength of this activation is associated with poor clinical outcome. By analyzing metastatic subpopulations of VHL-deficient ccRCC cells, we discovered an epigenetically altered VHL-HIF response that is specific to metastatic ccRCC. Focusing on the two most prominent pro-metastatic VHL-HIF target genes, we show that loss of polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2)-dependent histone H3 Lys27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) activates HIF-driven chemokine (C-X-C motif) receptor 4 (CXCR4) expression in support of chemotactic cell invasion, whereas loss of DNA methylation enables HIF-driven cytohesin 1 interacting protein (CYTIP) expression to protect cancer cells from death cytokine signals. Thus, metastasis in ccRCC is based on an epigenetically expanded output of the tumor-initiating pathway.
Epigenetic expansion of VHL-HIF signal output drives multiorgan metastasis in renal cancer.
Cell line
View SamplesInactivation of the von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor gene, VHL, is an archetypical tumor-initiating event in clear cell renal carcinoma (ccRCC) that leads to the activation of hypoxia-inducible transcription factors (HIFs). However, VHL mutation status in ccRCC is not correlated with clinical outcome. Here we show that during ccRCC progression, cancer cells exploit diverse epigenetic alterations to empower a branch of the VHL-HIF pathway for metastasis, and the strength of this activation is associated with poor clinical outcome. By analyzing metastatic subpopulations of VHL-deficient ccRCC cells, we discovered an epigenetically altered VHL-HIF response that is specific to metastatic ccRCC. Focusing on the two most prominent pro-metastatic VHL-HIF target genes, we show that loss of polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2)-dependent histone H3 Lys27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) activates HIF-driven chemokine (C-X-C motif) receptor 4 (CXCR4) expression in support of chemotactic cell invasion, whereas loss of DNA methylation enables HIF-driven cytohesin 1 interacting protein (CYTIP) expression to protect cancer cells from death cytokine signals. Thus, metastasis in ccRCC is based on an epigenetically expanded output of the tumor-initiating pathway.
Epigenetic expansion of VHL-HIF signal output drives multiorgan metastasis in renal cancer.
Cell line
View SamplesInactivation of the von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor gene, VHL, is an archetypical tumor-initiating event in clear cell renal carcinoma (ccRCC) that leads to the activation of hypoxia-inducible transcription factors (HIFs). However, VHL mutation status in ccRCC is not correlated with clinical outcome. Here we show that during ccRCC progression, cancer cells exploit diverse epigenetic alterations to empower a branch of the VHL-HIF pathway for metastasis, and the strength of this activation is associated with poor clinical outcome. By analyzing metastatic subpopulations of VHL-deficient ccRCC cells, we discovered an epigenetically altered VHL-HIF response that is specific to metastatic ccRCC. Focusing on the two most prominent pro-metastatic VHL-HIF target genes, we show that loss of polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2)-dependent histone H3 Lys27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) activates HIF-driven chemokine (C-X-C motif) receptor 4 (CXCR4) expression in support of chemotactic cell invasion, whereas loss of DNA methylation enables HIF-driven cytohesin 1 interacting protein (CYTIP) expression to protect cancer cells from death cytokine signals. Thus, metastasis in ccRCC is based on an epigenetically expanded output of the tumor-initiating pathway.
Epigenetic expansion of VHL-HIF signal output drives multiorgan metastasis in renal cancer.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesB7x (B7-H4 or B7S1) is the seventh member of the B7 family and the in vivo function remains largely unknown. Despite new genetic data linking the B7x gene with autoimmune diseases, how exactly it contributes to peripheral tolerance and autoimmunity is unclear. Here we showed that B7x protein was not detected on antigen-presenting cells or T cells in both human and mice, which is unique in the B7 family. As B7x protein is expressed in some peripheral cells such as pancreatic b cells, we utilized a CD8 T cell-mediated diabetes model (AI4ab) in which CD8 T cells recognize an endogenous self-antigen, and found that mice lacking B7x developed more severe diabetes than control AI4ab mice. Conversely, mice overexpressing B7x in the b cells (Rip-B7xAI4ab) were diabetes free. Furthermore, adoptive transfer of effector AI4ab CD8 T cells induced diabetes in control mice, but not in Rip-B7xAI4ab mice. Mechanistic studies revealed that pathogenic effector CD8 T cells were capable of migrating to the pancreas but failed to robustly destroy tissue when encountering local B7x in Rip-B7xAI4ab mice. Although AI4ab CD8 T cells in Rip-B7xAI4ab mice and AI4ab mice showed similar cytotoxic function, cell death, and global gene expression profiles, these cells had greater proliferation in AI4ab mice than in RIP-B7xAI4ab mice. These results suggest that B7x in nonlymphoid organs prevents peripheral autoimmunity partially through inhibiting proliferation of tissue-specific CD8 T cells and that local overexpression of B7x on pancreatic b cells is sufficient to abolish CD8 T cell-induced diabetes.
B7x in the periphery abrogates pancreas-specific damage mediated by self-reactive CD8 T cells.
Specimen part, Disease
View SamplesMouse lymphoma cells were co-cultured with endothelial cells in serum/cytokine-free condition. To identify specific genetic changes, we compared lymphoma cells cultured in medium containing 10% fetal bovine serum with lymphoma cells co-cultured with endothelial cells.
Angiocrine factors deployed by tumor vascular niche induce B cell lymphoma invasiveness and chemoresistance.
Specimen part
View Samples