Constitutive activation of the Wnt pathway leads to adenoma formation, an obligatory step towards intestinal cancer. In view of the established role of Wnt in regulating stemness, we attempted the isolation of cancer stem cells (CSCs) from Apc- and Apc/KRAS-mutant intestinal tumours. Whereas CSCs are present in malignant Apc/KRASmutant carcinomas, they appear to be very rare (<10-6) in the benign Apcmutant adenomas. In contrast, the Lin-CD24hiCD29+ subpopulation of adenocarcinoma cells appear to be enriched in CSCs with increased levels of active -catenin. Expression profiling analysis of the CSC-enriched subpopulation confirmed their enhanced Wnt activity and revealed additional differential expression of other signalling pathways, growth factor binding proteins, and extracellular matrix components. As expected, genes characteristic of the Paneth cell lineage (e.g. defensins) are co-expressed together with stem cell genes (e.g. Lgr5) within the CSC-enriched subpopulation. This is of interest as it may indicate a cancer stem cell niche role for tumor-derived Paneth-like cells, similar to their role in supporting Lgr5+ stem cells in the normal intestinal crypt. Overall, our results indicate that oncogenic KRAS activation in Apc-driven tumours results in the expansion of the CSCs compartment by increasing b-catenin intracellular stabilization.
Cancer stemness in Apc- vs. Apc/KRAS-driven intestinal tumorigenesis.
Specimen part
View SamplesFull title: Expression data from human primary subcutaneous preadipocytes treated with glucocorticoids prior to the initiation of differentiation.
Insulin sensitization of human preadipocytes through glucocorticoid hormone induction of forkhead transcription factors.
Specimen part
View SamplesThe mechanisms underlying enhancer activation and the extent to which enhancer-promoter rewiring contributes to spatiotemporal gene expression are not well understood. Using integrative and time resolved analyses we show that the extensive transcriptome and epigenome resetting during the conversion between 'serum-' and '2i'-states of mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) takes place with minimal enhancer-promoter rewiring that becomes more evident in primed-state pluripotency. Instead, differential gene expression is strongly linked to enhancer activation via H3K27ac. Conditional depletion of TFs and allele-specific enhancer analysis reveals an essential role for Esrrb in H3K27-acetylation and activation of 2i-specific enhancers. Restoration of a polymorphic ESRRB motif using CRISPR/Cas9 in a hybrid ESC-line, restores ESRRB binding and enhancer H3K27ac in an allele-specific manner but has no effect on chromatin interactions. Our study shows that enhancer activation in serum- and 2i-ESCs is largely driven by TF-binding and epigenetic marking in a hardwired network of chromatin interactions. Overall design: Time course analysis of mouse ESCs during transition between serum and 2i-cultured ESCs followed by integrative analysis of transcriptome by RNA-seq.
Epigenetic modulation of a hardwired 3D chromatin landscape in two naive states of pluripotency.
Specimen part, Treatment, Subject
View SamplesGene Expression Classifiers for Minimal Residual Disease and Relapse Free Survival Improve Outcome Prediction and Risk Classification in Children with High Risk Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: A Children's Oncology Group Study
Gene expression classifiers for relapse-free survival and minimal residual disease improve risk classification and outcome prediction in pediatric B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Specimen part, Disease, Disease stage
View SamplesPAPER 1:"Identification of novel subgroups of high-risk pediatric precursor B acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) by unsupervised microarray analysis: clinical correlates and therapeutic implications. A Children's Oncology Group (COG) study."
Gene expression classifiers for relapse-free survival and minimal residual disease improve risk classification and outcome prediction in pediatric B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Sex, Specimen part, Race
View SamplesEffects of the pan-anti-apoptotic BCL-2 family small molecule inhibitor, obatoclax mesylate (GeminX Pharmaceuticals), on gene expression were evaluated by microarray analysis in order to gain insights into the killing mechanism by this compound in two human MLL-AF4 cell lines. The results of the gene expression profiling substantiated other lines of evidence derived from genetic and chemical cell death pathway inhibition, Western blot analysis, flow cytometric apoptosis assays, and electron microscopic analyses, showing triple apoptosis, autophagy, and necroptosis death pathway activation by this agent. The results also demonstrated modulation of a number of novel targets of obatoclax encoding various cell death factors at the gene expression level.
Potent obatoclax cytotoxicity and activation of triple death mode killing across infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Cell line
View SamplesGene expression profiling was performed on 97 cases of infant ALL from Children's Oncology Group Trial P9407. Statistical modeling of an outcome predictor revealed 3 genes highly predictive of event-free survival (EFS), beyond age and MLL status: FLT3, IRX2, and TACC2. Low FLT3 expression was found in a group of infants with excellent outcome (n = 11; 5-year EFS of 100%), whereas differential expression of IRX2 and TACC2 partitioned the remaining infants into 2 groups with significantly different survivals (5-year EFS of 16% vs 64%; P < .001). When infants with MLL-AFF1 were analyzed separately, a 7-gene classifier was developed that split them into 2 distinct groups with significantly different outcomes (5-year EFS of 20% vs 65%; P < .001). In this classifier, elevated expression of NEGR1 was associated with better EFS, whereas IRX2, EPS8, and TPD52 expression were correlated with worse outcome. This classifier also predicted EFS in an independent infant ALL cohort from the Interfant-99 trial. When evaluating expression profiles as a continuous variable relative to patient age, we further identified striking differences in profiles in infants less than or equal to 90 days of age and those more than 90 days of age. These age-related patterns suggest different mechanisms of leukemogenesis and may underlie the differential outcomes historically seen in these age groups.
Gene expression profiles predictive of outcome and age in infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a Children's Oncology Group study.
Sex, Age, Specimen part, Treatment, Race
View SamplesThe short-lived turquoise killifish Nothobranchius furzeri (Nfu) is a valid model for aging studies. Here, we investigated its age-associated cardiac function. We observed oxidative stress accumulation and an engagement of microRNAs (miRNAs) in the aging heart. MiRNA-sequencing of 5 week (young), 12-21 week (adult) and 28-40 week (old) Nfu hearts revealed 23 up-regulated and 18 down-regulated miRNAs with age. MiR-29 family turned out as one of the most up-regulated miRNAs during aging. MiR-29 family increase induces a decrease of known targets like collagens and DNA methyl transferases (DNMTs) paralleled by 5´methyl-cytosine (5mC) level decrease. To further investigate miR-29 family role in the fish heart we generated a transgenic zebrafish model where miR-29 was knocked-down. In this model we found significant morphological and functional cardiac alterations and an impairment of oxygen dependent pathways by transcriptome analysis leading to hypoxic marker up-regulation. To get insights the possible hypoxic regulation of miR-29 family, we exposed human cardiac fibroblasts to 1% O2 levels. In hypoxic condition we found miR-29 down-modulation responsible for the accumulation of collagens and 5mC. Overall, our data suggest that miR-29 family up-regulation might represent an endogenous mechanism aimed at ameliorating the age-dependent cardiac damage leading to hypertrophy and fibrosis. Overall design: RNA was isolated from zebrafish heart samples (3 wt and 3 miR-29-sponge) and sequenced.
Age-dependent increase of oxidative stress regulates microRNA-29 family preserving cardiac health.
Specimen part, Subject
View SamplesBackground: Here, the role of a-ketoglutarate (aKG) in the epi-metabolic control of DNA demethylation has been investigated in therapeutically relevant cardiac mesenchymal cells (CMSCs) isolated from controls and type 2 diabetes donors. Methods & results: Quantitative global analysis, methylated and hydroxymethylated DNA sequencing and gene specific GC methylation detection revealed an accumulation of 5mC, 5hmC and 5fC in the genomic DNA of human CMSCs isolated from diabetic (D) donors (D-CMSCs). Whole heart genomic DNA analysis revealed iterative oxidative cytosine modification accumulation in mice exposed to high fat diet (HFD), injected with streptozotocin (STZ) or both in combination (STZ-HFD). In this context, untargeted and targeted metabolomics indicated an intracellular reduction of aKG synthesis in D-CMSCs and in the whole heart of HFD mice. This observation was paralleled by a compromised thymine DNA glycosylase (TDG) and ten eleven translocation protein 1 (TET1) association and function with TET1 relocating out of the nucleus. Molecular dynamics and mutational analyses showed that aKG binds TDG on Arg275 providing an enzymatic allosteric activation. As a consequence, the enzyme significantly increased its capacity to remove G/T nucleotide mismatched or 5fC. Accordingly, an exogenous source of aKG restored the DNA demethylation cycle by promoting TDG function, TET1 nuclear localization and TET/TDG association. TDG inactivation by CRISPR/Cas9 knockout or TET/TDG siRNA knockdown induced 5fC accumulation thus partially mimicking the diabetic epigenetic landscape in cells of non- diabetic origin. The novel compound (S)-2-[(2,6-dichlorobenzoyl)amino]succinic acid (AA6), identified as an inhibitor of aKG-dehydrogenase, increased the aKG level in D- CMSCs and in the heart of HFD mice eliciting DNA demethylation, glucose uptake and insulin response. Conclusions: In this report we established that diabetes may epigenetically modify and compromise function of therapeutically relevant cardiac mesenchymal cells. Restoring the epi-metabolic control of DNA demethylation cycle promises beneficial effects on cells compromised by environmental metabolic changes. Overall design: Human primary cardiac mesenchymal cells (CMSC) from 7 diabetic (D) and 7 non-diabetic (ND) donors were analyzed after few rounds of ex vivo expansion. RNA was isolated and sequenced.
Stable Oxidative Cytosine Modifications Accumulate in Cardiac Mesenchymal Cells From Type2 Diabetes Patients: Rescue by α-Ketoglutarate and TET-TDG Functional Reactivation.
Specimen part, Subject
View Samples