Here we examine the regulation of cell death by hepatic leukemia factor (HLF), which is an output regulator of circadian rhythms and is aberrantly expressed in human cancers, using an ectopic expression strategy in JB6 mouse epidermal cells and human keratinocytes. Ectopic HLF expression inhibited cell death in both JB6 cells and human keratinocytes, as induced by serum-starvation, tumor necrosis factor alpha and ionizing radiation.
Hepatic leukemia factor promotes resistance to cell death: implications for therapeutics and chronotherapy.
Cell line
View SamplesT helper cell subsets have unique calcium (Ca2+) signals when activated with identical stimuli. The regulation of these Ca2+ signals and their correlation to the biological function of each T cell subset remains unclear. Trpm4 is a Ca2+-activated cation channel that we found is expressed at higher levels in Th2 cells compared to Th1 cells. Inhibition of Trpm4 expression increased Ca2+ influx and oscillatory levels in Th2 cells and decreased influx and oscillations in Th1 cells. This inhibition of Trpm4 expression also significantly altered T cell cytokine production and motility. Our experiments revealed that decreasing Trpm4 levels divergently regulates nuclear localization of NFAT. Consistent with this, gene profiling did not show Trpm4 dependent transcriptional regulation and T-bet and GATA-3 levels remain identical. Thus, Trpm4 is expressed at different levels on T helper cells and plays a distinctive role in T cell function by differentially regulating Ca2+ signaling and NFAT localization.
Trpm4 differentially regulates Th1 and Th2 function by altering calcium signaling and NFAT localization.
Specimen part, Treatment, Time
View SamplesTertiary lymphoid organs (TLOs) emerge in response to nonresolving inflammation but their roles in adaptive immunity remain unknown. Here, we explored artery TLOs (ATLOs) to delineate atherosclerosis T cell responses in apoe-/- mice during aging. Though the T cell repertoire showed systemic age-associated contractions in size and modifications in subtype composition and activation, wt and apoe-/- mice were equally affected. In contrast, ATLOs - but not wt aortae, apoe-/- aorta segments without ATLOs or atherosclerotic plaques - promoted T cell recruitment, altered characteristics of T cell motility, primed and imprinted T cells in situ, generated CD4+/FoxP3-, CD4+/FoxP3+, CD8+/FoxP3- effector and central memory cells, and converted nave CD4+/FoxP3- T cells into induced Treg cells. ATLOs also showed substantially increased antigen presentation capability by conventional dendritic cells (DCs) and monocyte-derived DCs but not by plasmacytoid DCs. Thus, the senescent immune system specifically employs ATLOs to control dichotomic atherosclerosis T cell immune responses. We assembled transcriptome maps of wt and apoe-/- aortae and aorta-draining RLNs and identified ATLOs as major sites of atherosclerosis-specific T cell responses during aging: Transcriptome atlases of wt and apoe-/- abdominal aortae and associated draining RLNs were constructed from laser capture microdissection (LCM)-based whole genome mRNA expression microarrays yielding 6 maps: wt adventitia (tissue-1); wt RLN (tissue-2); apoe-/- ATLOs (tissue-3); apoe-/- RLN (tissue-4); apoe-/- adventitia without adjacent plaques (tissue-5), and plaques (tissue-6). Several two-tissue comparisons within the transcriptome atlases are noteworthy: Unexpectedly, transcriptomes of wt and apoe-/- RLNs were virtually identical; additonal data revealed that transcriptomes of RLNs were strikingly similar to those of inguinal LNs which do not drain the aorta adventitia (as shown of India ink injection experiments of surgically exposed aortae); in sharp contrast, wt adventitia versus ATLOs revealed 1405 differentially expressed transcripts many of which encoded members of GO terms immune response and inflammatory response; the ATLO-plaque comparison also showed > 1000 differentially expressed transcripts; however, wt adventitia versus apoe-/- adventitia without plaque showed few genes (< 5 % of differentially expressed transcripts of the wt adventitia-ATLO comparison). Thus, the aorta transcriptome atlases support the conclusion that neither aorta-draining apoe-/- RLNs nor ILNs participate in atherosclerosis-specific T cell responses. In addition, they demonstrate that T cell responses in the diseased aorta are highly territorialized. Finally, these data show that the immune responses carried out in ATLOs differ significantly from those carried out in plaques. We next identified three major clusters within the transcriptome atlases through ANOVA analyses and application of strict filters: An adventitia cluster, a plaque/ATLO cluster, and a LN/plaque cluster. The total number of differentially expressed genes in each cluster were examined for GO terms immune response, inflammatory response, T cell activation, positive regulation of T cell response, and T cell proliferation. Within the adventitia cluster, similarities of transcriptomes of wt adventitia and apoe-/- adventitia without associated plaque versus ATLOs indicate that a robust number of immune response-regulating genes are selectively expressed in ATLOs which are located within a distance of few m of the adventitia without associated plaques indicating a very high degree of territoriality of the atherosclerosis T cell response. Furthermore, unlike the total number of differentially regulated transcripts, the majority of transcripts among GO terms immune response and inflammatory response, was up-regulated. Inspection of the plaque/ATLO cluster provided further information: The majority of immune response regulating genes where expressed at a higher level in ATLOs when compared to plaques though plaques also contained a significant number of immune response regulating genes; the reverse is true for genes regulating inflammation. Finally, the lymph node cluster revealed that though the majority of immune response regulating genes resides in both wt and apoe-/- RLNs (with little differences between them) ATLOs express a selected set of immune response regulating genes at a higher level when compared to LNs. In addition, the inflammatory component of ATLOs when compared to LNs is documented by the finding that many more genes regulating inflammation reside in ATLOs even when compared to those of plaques.
Generation of Aorta Transcript Atlases of Wild-Type and Apolipoprotein E-null Mice by Laser Capture Microdissection-Based mRNA Expression Microarrays.
Sex, Age, Specimen part
View SamplesStudies were undertaken to determine whether oscillatory behavior in the extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK) pathway results in unique gene regulation patterns. Microarray analysis was performed on three subcloned populations of human keratinocytes with distinct ERK signaling/oscillation phenotypes.
ERK oscillation-dependent gene expression patterns and deregulation by stress response.
Specimen part
View SamplesThe in-vitro analysis of the hypomethylation of the imprinting control region 1 (ICR1) within the IGF2/H19 locus is challenged by the mosaic distribution of the epimutation in tissues from children with Silver-Russell syndrome (SRS).
Decreased expression of cell proliferation-related genes in clonally derived skin fibroblasts from children with Silver-Russell syndrome is independent of the degree of 11p15 ICR1 hypomethylation.
Specimen part, Disease
View SamplesThe detachment of epithelial cells, but not cancer cells, causes anoikis due to reduced energy production. Invasive tumor cells generate three splice variants of the metastasis gene osteopontin. The cancer-specific form osteopontin-c supports anchorage-independence through inducing oxidoreductases and upregulating intermediates/enzymes in the hexose monophosphate shunt, glutathione cycle, glycolysis, glycerol phosphate shuttle, and mitochondrial respiratory chain. Osteopontin-c signaling upregulates glutathione (consistent with the induction of the enzyme GPX-4), glutamine and glutamate (which can feed into the tricarboxylic acid cycle). Consecutively, the cellular ATP levels are elevated. The elevated creatine may be synthesized from serine via glycine and also supports the energy metabolism by increasing the formation of ATP. Metabolic probing with N-acetyl-L-cysteine, L-glutamate, or glycerol identified differentially regulated pathway components, with mitochondrial activity being redox dependent and the creatine pathway depending on glutamine. The effects are consistent with a stimulation of the energy metabolism that supports anti-anoikis. Our findings imply a synergism in cancer cells between osteopontin-a, which increases the cellular glucose levels, and osteopontin-c, which utilizes this glucose to generate energy. Overall design: mRNA profiles of MCF-7 cells transfected with osteopontin-a, osteopontin-c and vector control were generated by RNA-Seq, in triplicate, by Illumina HiSeq.
Energy metabolism during anchorage-independence. Induction by osteopontin-c.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesSepsis is a clinical syndrome that can be caused by bacteria or fungi. Early knowledge on the nature of the causative agent is a prerequisite for targeted anti-microbial therapy. Besides currently used detection methods like blood culture and PCR-based assays, the analysis of the transcriptional response of the host to infecting organisms holds great promise. In this study, we aim to examine the transcriptional footprint of infections caused by the bacterial pathogens Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli and the fungal pathogens Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus in a human whole-blood model. Moreover, we use the expression information to build a random forest classifier to determine if the pathogen is bacterial, fungal or neither of the two. After normalizing the transcription intensities using stably expressed reference genes, we filtered the gene set for biomarkers of bacterial or fungal blood infections. This selection is based on differential expression and an additional gene relevance measure. In this way, we identified 38 biomarker genes, including IL6, SOCS3, and IRG1 which were already associated to sepsis by other studies. Using these genes, we trained the classifier and assessed its performance. It yielded a 96% accuracy (sensitivities >93%, specificities >97%) for a 10-fold stratified cross-validation and a 92% accuracy (sensitivities and specificities >83%) for an additional dataset comprising Cryptococcus neoformans infections. Furthermore, the noise-robustness of the classifier suggests high rates of correct class predictions on datasets of new species. In conclusion, this genome-wide approach demonstrates an effective feature selection process in combination with the construction of a well-performing classification model. Further analyses of genes with pathogen-dependent expression patterns can provide insights into the systemic host responses, which may lead to new anti-microbial therapeutic advances.
Biomarker-based classification of bacterial and fungal whole-blood infections in a genome-wide expression study.
Sex, Specimen part, Subject, Time
View SamplesWe measured gene expression across the whole genome in a panel of lines selected for a wing shape trait (angular offset). The lines were created in separate experiments, originating from two widely separated populations, and including multiple replicates of one population, but all were created using the same selection regime and trait. Here we evaluate the data with two objectives: 1) to identify candidate wing shape genes for future testing and validation, and 2) to assess variation among lines in the outcome of identical selection regimes
Microarray analysis of replicate populations selected against a wing-shape correlation in Drosophila melanogaster.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesThis SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below.
Mechanisms of epigenetic and cell-type specific regulation of Hey target genes in ES cells and cardiomyocytes.
Specimen part
View SamplesMouse embryonic fibroblasts deficient for p53 and expressing mutant RasV12 were infected with lentiviral constructs carrying short hairpin RNAs targeting ARF or a scrambled control. Four days post infection, cells were harvested for microarray analysis.
ARF and p53 coordinate tumor suppression of an oncogenic IFN-β-STAT1-ISG15 signaling axis.
No sample metadata fields
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