Background: Degenerative disc disease (DDD) is a primary contributor to low back pain, a leading cause of disability. Progression of DDD is aided by inflammatory cytokines in the intervertebral disc (IVD), particularly TNF-a and IL-1ß, but current treatments fail to effectively target this mechanism. The objective of this study was to explore the feasibility of CRISPR epigenome editing based therapy for DDD, by modulation of TNFR1/IL1R1 signaling in pathological human IVD cells. Methods: Human IVD cells from the nucleus pulposus of patients receiving surgery for back pain were obtained and the regulation of TNFR1/IL1R1 signaling by a lentiviral CRISPR epigenome editing system was tested. These cells were tested for successful lentiviral transduction/expression of dCas9-KRAB system and regulation of TNFR1/IL1R1 expression. TNFR1/IL1R1 signaling disruption was investigated via measurement of NF-?B activity, apoptosis, and anabolic/catabolic changes in gene expression post inflammatory challenge. Results: CRISPR epigenome editing systems were effectively introduced into pathological human IVD cells and significantly downregulated TNFR1 and IL1R1. This downregulation significantly attenuated deleterious TNFR1 signaling but not IL1R1 signaling. This is attributed to less robust IL1R1 expression downregulation, and IL-1ß driven reversal of IL1R1 expression downregulation in a portion of patient IVD cells. Additionally, RNAseq data indicated a novel transcription factor targets, IRF1 and TFAP2C, as being a primary regulators of inflammatory signaling in IVD cells. Discussion: These results demonstrate the feasibility of CRISPR epigenome editing of inflammatory receptors in pathological IVD cells, but highlight a limitation in epigenome targeting of IL1R1. This method has potential application as a novel gene therapy for DDD, to attenuate the deleterious effect of inflammatory cytokines present in the degenerative IVD. Overall design: Patient nucleus pulposus cells (TNFR1kd and nontargeting control) were analyzed by RNA-seq with and without TNF-a treatment.
Lentiviral CRISPR Epigenome Editing of Inflammatory Receptors as a Gene Therapy Strategy for Disc Degeneration.
Sex, Age, Specimen part, Treatment, Subject
View SamplesThe aim of this experiment was to identify the genes involved in the detoxification of the toxic pollutant and explosive compound 2,4,6-trinitrotolune (TNT). Fourteen-day-old, liquid culture grown, Arabidopsis seedlings, ecotype Col0 (NASC stock code N1093), were dosed with 60 uM TNT dissolved in 60 ul dimethyl formamide (DMF) solvent, or 60 ul DMF only. After six hours, RNA was extracted and used for the microarray analysis. Further details and characterisation of glucosyltransferases identified using this method are presented in citation below.
Detoxification of the explosive 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene in Arabidopsis: discovery of bifunctional O- and C-glucosyltransferases.
Specimen part, Treatment
View SamplesTo examine the transcriptome of early testicular somatic cells during gonadogenesis at 12.5dpc RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) was performed on murine primary testicular cell lineages isolated from the Sf1-eGFP line by FACS. The three main somatic cell lineages of the testis were isolated: the Sertoli cells which direct male development; the fetal Leydig cells (FLCs) that produce steroid hormones and virilise the XY individual and a heterogenous population of interstitial cells, some of which give rise to the adult Leydig cells (ALCs). This dataset provides a platform for exploring the biology of FLCs and understanding the role of these cells in testicular development and masculinization of the embryo, and a basis for targeted studies designed to identify causes of idiopathic XY DSD. Overall design: RNA-Seq of 3 enriched cell populations from 12.5dpc mouse gonad (Sertoli cells, Leydig cells and Interstitial cells isolated by FACS-sorting) on an Illumina HiSeq 1500, in triplicate.
Purification and Transcriptomic Analysis of Mouse Fetal Leydig Cells Reveals Candidate Genes for Specification of Gonadal Steroidogenic Cells.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesWhile the salutary effects of exercise training on conduit artery endothelial cells have been reported in animals and humans with cardiovascular risk factors or disease, whether a healthy endothelium is alterable with exercise training is less certain. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of exercise training on transcriptional profiles in normal endothelial cells using a genome-wide microarray analysis. Brachial and internal mammary endothelial gene expression was compared between a group of healthy pigs that exercise-trained for 16-20 weeks (n=8) and a group that remained sedentary (n=8). We found that a total of 130 genes were up regulated and 84 genes down regulated in brachial artery endothelial cells with exercise training. In contrast, a total of 113 genes were up regulated and 31 genes down regulated in internal mammary artery endothelial cells (>1.5-fold and false discovery rate<15%). Although there was an overlap of 66 genes (59 up regulated and 7 down regulated with exercise training) between the brachial and internal mammary arteries, the identified endothelial gene networks and biological processes influenced by exercise training were distinctly different between the brachial and internal mammary arteries. These data indicate that a healthy endothelium is indeed responsive to exercise training and support the concept that the influence of physical activity on endothelial gene expression is not homogenously distributed throughout the vasculature.
Impact of exercise training on endothelial transcriptional profiles in healthy swine: a genome-wide microarray analysis.
Specimen part, Treatment
View SamplesThe transcriptome of the three atino80 allelic mutants was compared to that of wild-type and 50B Arabidopsis plants (see Fritsch et al. 2004). Since the transcriptomes of 50B and wild-type plants were found to be identical, we compared expression in the mutant with 50B and with wild-type without distinction. Therefore, we had four replicates of the wild type condition (50B line, wild-type) and two replicates for each of the mutant alleles (atino80-1, atino80-2 and atino80-3), all ecotype Columbia. All lines were profiled in duplicate (grown independently at 2-week-intervals).
The INO80 protein controls homologous recombination in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Age, Specimen part
View SamplesOne of the most common smoking-related diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), results from a dysregulated, multi-tissue inflammatory response to cigarette smoke. We hypothesized that systemic inflammatory signals in genome-wide blood gene expression can identify clinically important COPD-related disease subtypes, and we leveraged pre-existing gene interaction networks to guide unsupervised clustering of blood microarray expression data. Using network-informed non-negative matrix factorization, we analyzed genome-wide blood gene expression from 229 former smokers in the ECLIPSE Study, and we identified novel, clinically relevant molecular subtypes of COPD. These network-informed clusters were more stable and more strongly associated with measures of lung structure and function than clusters derived from a network-nave approach, and they were associated with subtype-specific enrichment for inflammatory and protein catabolic pathways. These clusters were successfully reproduced in an independent sample of 135 smokers from the COPDGene Study.
COPD subtypes identified by network-based clustering of blood gene expression.
Sex, Age
View SamplesGrowing evidence implicates the importance of glia, particularly astrocytes, in neurological and psychiatric diseases. Here, we describe a rapid and robust method for the differentiation of highly pure populations of astrocytes from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), via a neural progenitor cell (NPC) intermediate. Using this method, we generated hiPSC-derived astrocyte populations (hiPSC-astrocytes) from 42 NPC lines (derived from 30 individuals) with an average of ~90% S100ß-positive cells. Transcriptomic analysis demonstrated that the hiPSC-astrocytes are highly similar to primary human fetal astrocytes and characteristic of a non-reactive state. hiPSC-astrocytes respond to inflammatory stimulants, display phagocytic capacity and enhance microglial phagocytosis. hiPSC-astrocytes also possess spontaneous calcium transient activity. Our novel protocol is a reproducible, straightforward (single media) and rapid (<30 days) method to generate homogenous populations of hiPSC-astrocytes that can be used for neuron-astrocyte and microglia-astrocyte co-cultures for the study of neuropsychiatric disorders. Overall design: 6 hiPSC-derived astrocyte lines were generated. Total RNA were extracted from these hiPSC-astrocytes as well as 2 primary astrocyte lines and analyzed by RNA sequencing.
An Efficient Platform for Astrocyte Differentiation from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.
Sex, Specimen part, Subject
View SamplesChronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, is primarily caused by prolonged exposures to cigarette smoke (CS) and the disease may persist or progress even after smoking cessation. To provide novel insight the mechanisms of COPD development we investigated temporal patterns of lung transcriptome expression in response to chronic CS exposure that also persist following CS cessation, using next generation sequencing techniques. Whole lung RNA-seq data was analyzed from C57Bl/6 mice exposed to CS for 1 day, 7 days, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months as well as for 6 months followed by 3 months of cessation. Age-matched littermate mice exposed to ambient air were used as control (AC). Differential gene expression and pathway analyses revealed consistent upregulation of genes involved in glutathione metabolism, a pathway previously implicated in lung responses to chronic CS and in COPD, that was reversible upon cessation. In addition, novel patterns in mouse-model pathways such as pyrimidine metabolism and phosphatidylinositol signaling system and have been recognized. Genes in these pathways encoding for enzymes controlling metabolic functions were significantly altered by CS exposures and were associated with congruent abnormalities in contemporaneous plasma metabolomic profiles. The bioinformatics integration of lung tissue genomics and plasma metabolomics uncovered that changes in lung gene expression induced by CS exposures are translated in systemic metabolic signatures, with potential implication in the development of COPD. Overall design: Whole transcriptome profiling of air control vs cigarette smoke-exposed mice at each of 6 timepoints from 1 day to 9 months of exposure, including a stop smoking group exposed to 6 months of CS followed by 3 months of ambient air recovery. Each treatment-by-time experimental group contains 5 biological replicates. 3 samples were discarded for quality reasons.
Gene and metabolite time-course response to cigarette smoking in mouse lung and plasma.
Specimen part, Cell line, Treatment, Subject, Time
View SamplesExpression data were generated on 136 subjects from the COPDGene study using Affymetrix microarrays. Multiple linear regression with adjustment for covariates (gender, age, body mass index, family history, smoking status, pack years) was used to identify candidate genes and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis was used to identify candidate pathways.
Peripheral blood mononuclear cell gene expression in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Sex, Specimen part
View SamplesRigosertib treatment of head and neck squamous cell cancer
The dual pathway inhibitor rigosertib is effective in direct patient tumor xenografts of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas.
Specimen part, Cell line
View Samples