Early onset sepsis due to Group B streptococcus (GBS) leads to neonatal morbidity, increased mortality and long term neurological deficencies. Interaction between septicemic GBS and confluent monlayers of human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAEC) was analyzed by a genome wide expression profiling. Regulation of selected genes and proteins identified in the gene array analysis was confirmed by Real Time RT-PCR assay (Granulocyte chemotactic protein 2 (CXCL6)), ELISA (Urokinase, Cyclooxygenase 2 (COX2), Granulocyte chemotactic protein 1 (IL8)) and Western Blotting (Heme oxygenase1, BCL2 interacting protein (BIM)) at various time points between 4 and 24 hours. In total, 124 genes were differentially regulated (89 upregulated, 35 downregulated) based on a more than 3-fold difference to unstimulated HCAEC. Regulated genes are involved in apoptosis, hemostasis, oxidative stress response, infection and inflammation. We confirmed upregulation of urokinase (UPA), COX2, HMOX1 and BCL2 interacting protein and downregulation of CXCL6 and IL8. These results indicate that GBS infection might lead to impaired function of the innate immune system and might contribute to hemorrhagic and inflammatory complications during GBS sepsis.
Infection of human coronary artery endothelial cells by group B streptococcus contributes to dysregulation of apoptosis, hemostasis, and innate immune responses.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesConverting epithelial into mesenchymal cells through epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) requires massive changes in gene expression. How this is brought about is currently not clear. Here we examined the impact of the EMT master regulator SNAIL1 on the FOXA family of transcription factors which are distinguished by their particular competence to induce chromatin reorganization for the activation of transcriptional enhancer elements. We show that the expression of SNAIL1 and FOXA genes is anti-correlated in transcriptomes of colorectal tumors and cell lines. In two cellular EMT models, ectopically expressed Snail1 downregulates FOXA factors and directly represses FOXA1. To elucidate how FOXA factors contribute to the control of epithelial gene expression, we determined by ChIP-seq data analysis FOXA chromosomal distribution in relation to chromatin structural features characterizing distinct states of transcriptional activity. This revealed a preferential localization of FOXA1 and FOXA2 to transcriptional enhancers at signature genes that distinguish epithelial from mesenchymal colon tumors. To validate the significance of this association, we investigated the impact of FOXA factors on structure and function of transcriptional enhancers at the epithelial genes CDH1, CDX2 and EPHB3. Expression of dominant negative FOXA2 led to chromatin condensation at these enhancer elements. Site- directed mutagenesis of FOXA binding sites in reporter gene constructs and by genome- editing in situ impaired enhancer activity and completely abolished the active chromatin state of the EPHB3 enhancer. Conversely, expression of FOXA factors in cells with inactive CDX2 and EPHB3 enhancers led to chromatin opening and de novo deposition of the H3K4me1 and H3K27ac marks. These findings establish the pioneer function of FOXA factors at enhancer regions of epithelial genes and demonstrate their essential role in maintaining enhancer structure and function. Thus, by repressing FOXA family members, Snail1 targets transcription factors at strategically important positions in gene-regulatory hierarchies which may facilitate transcriptional reprogramming during EMT.
SNAIL1-mediated downregulation of FOXA proteins facilitates the inactivation of transcriptional enhancer elements at key epithelial genes in colorectal cancer cells.
Cell line, Treatment
View SamplesAcetaminophen (APAP), a widely used analgesic and antipyretic that is considered to be relatively safe at recommended doses, is the leading cause of drug-induced liver failure in the United States. 3-Hydroxyacetanilide (AMAP), a regioisomer of acetaminophen is useful as a comparative tool for studying APAP-induced toxicity since it is non-toxic relative to APAP. TGF-alpha transgenic mouse hepatocytes were treated with both isomers to investigate mitogen-activated protein kinase cascades in order to differentiate their toxicological outcomes. Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade expression and activation were measured using microarray and Bioplex technologies, respectively. APAP treatment led to c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) activation, whereas AMAP treatment led to the activation of extracellular-signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK). The microarray data suggested APAP treatment may upregulate gene expression at multiple levels of the JNK cascade including a JNK-related scaffold protein. Expression data was related to phosphoprotein levels using the Bioplex system. APAP treatment led to a significant activation of JNK compared to its regioisomer. In contrast, microarray analysis of AMAP showed a slight upregulation of ERK gene activity. Furthermore, Bioplex data showed AMAP treatment led to significant ERK phosphorylation compared to APAP. Cell viability assays confirmed that APAP-induced activation of JNK was related to higher rates of cell death, whereas activation of ERK by AMAP may be cytoprotective.
Differential regulation of mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways by acetaminophen and its nonhepatotoxic regioisomer 3'-hydroxyacetanilide in TAMH cells.
Cell line
View SamplesCritically ill preterm infants experience multiple stressors while hospitalized. Morphine is commonly prescribed to ameliorate their pain and stress. We hypothesized that neonatal stress will have a dose-dependent effect on hippocampal gene expression, and these effects will be altered by morphine treatment. Male C57BL/6 mice were exposed to 5 treatment conditions between postnatal day 5 and 9: 1) Control, 2) mild stress + saline, 3) mild stress + morphine, 4) severe stress + saline and 5) severe stress + morphine. Hippocampal RNA was extracted and analyzed using Affymetrix Mouse Gene 1.0 ST Arrays. Single gene analysis and gene set analysis were used to compare groups with validation by qPCR. Stress resulted in enrichment of genes sets related to fear response, oxygen carrying capacity and NMDA receptor synthesis. Morphine downregulated gene sets related to immune function. Stress plus morphine resulted in enrichment of mitochondrial electron transport gene sets, and down-regulation of gene sets related to brain development and growth. We conclude that neonatal stress alone influences hippocampal gene expression, morphine alters a subset of stress-related changes in gene expression and influences other gene sets. Stress plus morphine show interaction effects not present with either stimulus alone. These changes may alter neurodevelopment.
Effects of neonatal stress and morphine on murine hippocampal gene expression.
Sex, Specimen part, Treatment
View SamplesComparison of rosette leaves of two different RAP2.2 overexpressing lines with wild type leaves. The AP2/EREBP transcription factor RAP2.2 was shown to bind to a cis-acting motif within the phytoene synthase promoter from Arabidopsis. To investigate effects of increased RAP2.2 levels, two RAP2.2 overexpressing Arabidopsis thaliana (ecotype Wassilewskija) lines were generated: one line, nosr2, carried the nos promoter and showed a two-fold increase in RAP2.2 transcript level, the second line, cmr-5, carried four copies of the CaMV-35S enhancer and showed a 12-fold increase. However, neither weak nor strong increase in RAP2.2 transcript amounts had any effect on RAP2.2 protein levels as shown by Western blot analysis. The strong robustness of RAP2.2 protein levels towards transcriptional changes can be explained by specific protein degradation which includes SINAT2, an E3 ubiquitin ligase which was isolated using a two-hybrid approach. Accordingly, global gene expression analysis using both RAP2.2 overexpressing lines showed only minor transcriptional changes which are probably due to minor growth variation than to mechanisms involved in the down-regulation of RAP2.2 protein amounts.
Transcription factor RAP2.2 and its interacting partner SINAT2: stable elements in the carotenogenesis of Arabidopsis leaves.
Specimen part
View SamplesAim of the study was to characterize the transcriptional response of human primary renal proximal tubule epithelial cells (RPTEC) to low oxygen stress.
The histone demethylases JMJD1A and JMJD2B are transcriptional targets of hypoxia-inducible factor HIF.
Sex, Age, Specimen part, Disease, Disease stage
View SamplesmRNA expression levels in synovial fibroblasts in 6 rheumatoid arthritis patients versus 6 osteoarthritis patients.
Constitutive upregulation of the transforming growth factor-beta pathway in rheumatoid arthritis synovial fibroblasts.
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View SamplesPurpose: Nephron progenitor cells generate nephrons, the basic units of kidney. We developed methods to culture mouse and human NPCs in their self-renewal state in vitro with full nephrogenic potentials. The RNA-seq here is used to compare the global gene expression of long-term cultured mouse NPCs and their cognate freshly isolated primary NPCs Methods: mRNA profiles were generated by deep sequencing in duplicate from E11.5, E12.5, E13.5, E16.5 and P1 primary NPCs, and from long-term cultured NPCs derived from E11.5, E13.5, E16.5 and P1 (Passage 20 and Passage 80 for each cell line). To generate rpkm values from raw data, single-end 50bp reads were mapped to the UCSC mouse transcriptome (mm9) by STAR9, allowing for up to 10 mismatches (which is the default by STAR). Only the reads aligned uniquely to one genomic location were retained for subsequent analysis. And expression levels of all genes were estimated by Cufflink10 using only the reads with exact matches. Results: The gene expression levels of the "NPC-signature genes" were firstly transformed as logarithm scales. And then the program “prcomp”, a built-in program for principal component analysis in R packages, was employed with default parameters. We evaluated the variance percentage of each principal component, and found the top 3 components accounted for 84.1% of the total variance, where PC1 accounted for 46.42%, PC2 23.87% and PC3 13.81%. Those three PCs are therefore selected as candidate principal components in the further analysis. Another program “scatterplot3d” in the R packages was used to plot the 3D view of PCA, and “ggplot2” was used in 2D view of PCA. The PCA results indicate that cultured NPCs cluster together in PCA analysis while primary NPCs segregate into early (E11.5 to E13.5) and later (E16.5, P1) NPC groups. Interestingly, cultured NPCs are close to early NPCs in both PC1 and PC2 axes, suggesting that cultured NPCs are maintained in state close to early NPCs. The close cluster of P20 and P80 NPCs show the robustness of our culture condition in maintaining stable self-renewal state of NPCs. Conclusions: Our study represents the first analysis comparing the long-term cultured NPC lines we geneated with primary NPCs, with biologic replicates, generated by RNA-seq technology. The optimized data analysis workflows reported here should provide a framework for comparative investigations of expression profiles. Our results show that NGS offers a comprehensive and more accurate quantitative and qualitative evaluation of mRNA content within a cell or tissue. We conclude that RNA-seq based transcriptome characterization would expedite genetic network analyses and permit the dissection of complex biologic functions. Overall design: mRNA profiles were generated by deep sequencing in duplicate from E11.5, E12.5, E13.5, E16.5 and P1 primary NPCs, and from long-term cultured NPCs derived from E11.5, E13.5, E16.5 and P1 (Passage 20 and Passage 80 for each cell line)
3D Culture Supports Long-Term Expansion of Mouse and Human Nephrogenic Progenitors.
Specimen part, Cell line, Subject
View SamplesCraniosynostosis is a disease defined by premature fusion of one or more cranial sutures. The mechanistic pathology of isolated single-suture craniosynostosis is complex and while a number of genetic biomarkers and environmental predispositions have been identified, in many cases the causes remain controversial and inconclusive at best. After controlling for variables contributing to potential bias, FGF7, SFRP4, and VCAM1 emerged as potential genetic biomarkers for single-suture craniosynostosis due to their significantly large changes in gene expression compared to the control population. Furthermore, pathway analysis implicated focal adhesion and extracellular matrix (ECM)-receptor interaction as differentially regulated gene networks when comparing all cases of single-suture synostosis and controls. Lastly, overall gene expression was found to be highly conserved between coronal and metopic cases, as evidenced by the fact that WNT2 and IGFBP2 were the only differentially regulated genes identified in a direct comparison. These results not only confirm the roles of previously reported craniosynostosis-related targets but also introduce novel genetic biomarkers and pathways that may play critical roles in its pathogenesis.
Differential expression of extracellular matrix-mediated pathways in single-suture craniosynostosis.
Sex, Specimen part
View SamplesChlorpyrifos (CPF) is an organophosphorus (OP) insecticide that is still widely used despite statutory restrictions on home use. CPF is converted to chlorpyrifos oxon (CPO) by oxidative desulfuration in liver. Paraoxonase (PON1) polymorphisms affects the catalytic efficiency of the hydrolysis of OPs, including CPO. We used both wt (PON1+/+) and PON1 knockout (PON1-/-) mice and PON1-/- mice carrying transgenes encoding the human alloforms tgHuPON1Q192 and tgHuPON1R192 to gain insight into the mechanisms of neurotoxicity of CPO throughout postnatal development, and to ascertain the importance of the PON1Q192R polymorphism for protecting against developmental toxicity of CPO. Whole-genome microarrays were used to measure gene expression changes associated with chronic CPO exposure of developing (PND 4-21) PON1-/-, tgHuPON1Q192R transgenic and PON1+/+ mice.
Repeated developmental exposure of mice to chlorpyrifos oxon is associated with paraoxonase 1 (PON1)-modulated effects on cerebellar gene expression.
Specimen part
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