Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represents the fifth most common form of cancer worldwide and carries a high mortality rate due to lack of effective treatment. Males are eight times more likely to develop HCC that females, an effect largely driven by sex hormones, albeit through still poorly understood mechanisms. We previously identified TRIM28, a scaffold protein capable of recruiting a number of chromatin modifiers, as a crucial mediator of sexual dimorphism in the liver, with Trim28hep-/- mice displaying sex-specific transcriptional deregulation of a wide range of bile and steroid metabolism genes and development of liver adenomas in males. We now demonstrate that obesity and ageing precipitate alterations of TRIM28-dependent transcriptional dynamics, leading to a metabolic infection state responsible for highly penetrant male-restricted hepatic carcinogenesis. Molecular analyses implicate aberrant androgen receptor stimulation, biliary acid disturbances and altered responses to gut microbiota in the pathogenesis of Trim28hep-/--associated HCC. Correspondingly, androgen deprivation markedly attenuates the frequency and severity of tumors, and raising animals under axenic conditions completely abrogates their abnormal phenotype, even upon high-fat diet challenge. This work underpins how discrete polyphenic traits in epigenetically unstable conditions can contribute to a cancer-prone state, and more broadly provides new evidence linking hormonal imbalances, metabolic disturbances, gut microbiota and cancer. Overall design: Transcriptome profiling of liver tissues from TgAlbCre or TgAlbCreKap1lox mice in HFD settings
Polyphenic trait promotes liver cancer in a model of epigenetic instability in mice.
Specimen part, Subject, Time
View SamplesIn this study we investigate the mechanism of drug addiction Overall design: Drug was withdrawn from wt / MAPK1 KO / JUNB KO double drug resistant mel888 (DR Mel888) cells, and gene expression profiling was performed upon drug withdrawal
Cancer drug addiction is relayed by an ERK2-dependent phenotype switch.
Cell line, Subject
View SamplesA panel of 29 melanoma cell lines were gene expression profiled by RNA-Seq. Overall design: mRNA profiles of 29 melanoma cell lines
Low MITF/AXL ratio predicts early resistance to multiple targeted drugs in melanoma.
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View SamplesIncreased MITF expression contributes to melanoma progression and resistance to BRAF pathway inhibition. We show that, unexpectedly, lack of MITF is associated with more severe resistance to a range of inhibitors. Indeed, the presence of endogenous MITF was essential for robust drug responses. Both in primary and acquired resistance, MITF levels inversely correlated with expression of several activated receptor tyrosine kinases, most commonly AXL. The MITF-low/AXL-high/drug resistance phenotype was seen in roughly half of BRAF mutant and the majority of NRAS mutant melanoma cell lines. The dichotomous behavior of MITF in drug response was corroborated in vemurafenib-resistant biopsies, including MITF high and low clones in a relapsed patient. Drug cocktails containing AXL inhibitor enhanced melanoma cell elimination by BRAF or ERK inhibition. Our results demonstrate that a low MITF/AXL ratio predicts early resistance to multiple targeted drugs, and warrant clinical validation of AXL inhibitors to combat resistance of BRAF and NRAS mutant MITF-low melanomas. Overall design: Experssion analysis by RNAseq of 14 melanoma cell lines.
Low MITF/AXL ratio predicts early resistance to multiple targeted drugs in melanoma.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesIn order to investigate the impact of MMP-14 (MT1-MMP) and three-dimensional (3D) culture conditions on the transcriptomes of a human breast adenocarcinoma cell line, we performed a microarray analysis from RNAs isolated from MCF-7 cells expressing either an empty vector (CTRL) or human MMP-14 cDNA (MT1) in monolayer (2D) and 3D collagen (3D Col) growth conditions.
A membrane-type-1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP)-discoidin domain receptor 1 axis regulates collagen-induced apoptosis in breast cancer cells.
Cell line
View SamplesHematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) maintain balanced self-renewal and differentiation according to physiological demands, but how different facets of these functions are precisely regulated is not fully understood. N6-methyladenosine (m6A) mRNA methylation has emerged as an important mode of epitranscriptional gene expression regulation affecting many biological processes. We show that deleting the m6A methyltransferase, Mettl3, from the adult hematopoietic system led to an accumulation of HSCs in the bone marrow and marked reduction of HSC reconstitution potential due to a blockage of HSC differentiation. Interestingly, deleting Mettl3 from myeloid cells using Lysm-cre did not have any discernable impact on myeloid cell number or function. m6A sequencing on purified HSCs revealed 2,073 genes with significant m6A modification. In particular, Myc, a key regulator of HSC differentiation, was identified as a direct target of m6A in HSCs. Mettl3-deficient HSCs failed to up-regulate Myc expression upon stimulation to differentiate and enforced expression of Myc rescued differentiation defects of Mettl3-deficient HSCs. Our results thus revealed a key role of m6A in governing HSC differentiation by regulating Myc expression. This data includes RNA-Seq analysis to showing only minor gene expression changes in adult bone marrow murine hematopoietic stem cells 10 days after Mettl3 deletion by pIpC administration compared to pIpC treated controls. Overall design: 7 samples were sequenced, 3 control and 4 Mettl3-deficient mutants from different biological replicates of Mx1-cre; Mettl3fl/fl mice and cre-negative control littermates 10 days after Mettl3 deletion by pIpC administration.
Stage-specific requirement for Mettl3-dependent m<sup>6</sup>A mRNA methylation during haematopoietic stem cell differentiation.
Specimen part, Cell line, Subject
View SamplesKnee joint synovium was used for gene expression analysis of mouse collagen induced arthritis (CIA). Synovium was prepared at day 30 after initial sensitization from: healthy controls, CIA animals with no, with mild, with moderate, or with severe joint inflammation. Each sample group is represented by three replicates, each consisting of tissue collected from three to four animals.
Computational design and application of endogenous promoters for transcriptionally targeted gene therapy for rheumatoid arthritis.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesGenome control is operated by transcription factors (TF) controlling their target genes by binding to promoters and enhancers. Conceptually, the interactions between TFs, their binding sites, and their functional targets are represented by gene regulatory networks (GRN). Deciphering in vivo GRNs underlying organ development in an unbiased genome-wide setting involves identifying both functional TF-gene interactions and physical TF-DNA interactions. To reverse-engineer the GRN of eye development in Drosophila, we performed RNA-seq across 72 genetic perturbations and sorted cell types, and inferred a co-expression network. Next, we derived direct TF-DNA interactions using computational motif inference, ultimately connecting 241 TFs to 5632 direct target genes through 24926 enhancers. Using this network we found network motifs, cis-regulatory codes, and new regulators of eye development. We validate the predicted target regions of Grainyhead by ChIP-seq and identify this factor as a general co-factor in the eye network, being bound to thousands of nucleosome-free regions. Overall design: RNA-seq gene expression profiling across Drosophila 3rd instar larval wild type tissues (brain, eye-antennal and wing discs), specific cell types from the eye-antennal disc, sorted by FACS, and genetic perturbations (TF mutants, TF over-expression, and TF RNAi knockdown).
Mapping gene regulatory networks in Drosophila eye development by large-scale transcriptome perturbations and motif inference.
Specimen part, Subject
View SamplesIt is currently accepted that the human brain has a limited neurogenic capacity and an impaired regenerative potential. We have previously shown the existence of CD271-expressing neural stem cells (NSCs) in the subventricular zone (SVZ) of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, which proliferate and differentiate towards neurons and glial cells in vitro. To study the molecular profile of these NSCs in detail, we performed RNA sequencing and mass spectrometry on CD271+ NSCs isolated from human post-mortem SVZ and on homogenates of the SVZ. CD271+ cells were isolated through magnetic cell separation (MACS). We first compared the molecular profile of CD271+ NSCs to the SVZ homogenate from control donors to assess the CD271+ NSCs gene signature and finally made a comparison between controls and PD patients to establish a specific molecular profile of NSCs and the SVZ in PD. While our transcriptome analysis did not identify any differentially expressed genes in the SVZ between control and PD patients, our proteome analysis revealed several proteins that were differentially expressed in PD. Some of these proteins are involved in cytoskeletal organization and mitochondrial function. Transcriptome and proteome analyses of NSCs from PD revealed changes in the expression of genes and proteins involved in metabolism, transcriptional activity and cytoskeletal organization. Our results not only confirm pathological hallmarks of PD (e.g. impaired mitochondrial function), but also suggest that NSCs may transit into a primed-quiescent state, that is in an “alert” non-proliferative phase in PD. Overall design: From post-mortem human SVZ of control and Parkinson disease donors we isolated CD271+ NSCs and Cd11b+ microglia by MACS and the whole SVZ to generate RNA sequencing libraries using Celseq2 method. We aimed for low coverage sequencing (~2 million mapped to the coding regions) per sample to investigate the gross changes in the transcriptome. Libraries (rpi small primer) were sequenced in 3 runs, 2 on an Illumina NextSeq500 using 75-bp paired-end sequencing at the Utrecht Seuqencing center (USEQ) and the third on a HiSeq4000 using 150-bp paired-end sequencing at Genomescan. All the samples were mapped in a single run to an average depth of ~10 million reads per sample. Reads were mapped to the latest human coding transcriptome using bwa, normalized and analyzed using the standard DESEQ2 package.
Transcriptome and proteome profiling of neural stem cells from the human subventricular zone in Parkinson's disease.
Specimen part, Subject
View SamplesRecent reports have proposed a new paradigm for obtaining mature somatic cell types from fibroblasts without going through a pluripotent state, by briefly expressing canonical iPSC reprogramming factors Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and c-Myc (abbreviated as OSKM), in cells expanded in lineage differentiation promoting conditions. Here we apply genetic lineage tracing for endogenous Nanog, Oct4 and X chromosome reactivation during OSKM induced trans-differentiation, as these molecular events mark final stages for acquisition of induced pluripotency. Remarkably, the vast majority of reprogrammed cardiomyocytes or neural stem cells derived from mouse fibroblasts via OSKM mediated trans-differentiation were attained after transient acquisition of pluripotency, and followed by rapid differentiation. Our findings underscore a molecular and functional coupling between inducing pluripotency and obtaining “trans-differentiated” somatic cells via OSKM induction, and have implications on defining molecular trajectories assumed during different cell reprogramming methods. Overall design: poly RNA-Seq was measured before, during and after conversion of mouse embryonic fibroblasts to neural stem cells using OSKM trans-differentiation method.
Transient acquisition of pluripotency during somatic cell transdifferentiation with iPSC reprogramming factors.
No sample metadata fields
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