Background: Ion channels are key determinants for the function of excitable cells but little is known about their role and involvement during cardiac development. Earlier work identified Ca2+-activated potassium channels of small and intermediate conductance (SKCas) as important regulators of neural stem cell fate. Here, we have investigated their impact on the differentiation of pluripotent cells towards the cardiac lineage. Methods and Results: We have applied the SKCa-activator EBIO on embryonic stem cells and identified this particular ion channel family as a new critical target involved in the generation of cardiac pacemaker-like cells: SKCa-activation led to rapid remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton, inhibition of proliferation, induction of differentiation and diminished teratoma formation. Time-restricted SKCa-activation induced cardiac mesoderm and commitment to the cardiac lineage as shown by gene regulation, protein and functional electrophysiological studies. In addition, the differentiation into cardiomyocytes was modulated in a qualitative fashion, resulting in a strong enrichment of pacemaker-like cells. This was accompanied by induction of the sino-atrial gene program and in parallel by a loss of the chamber-specific myocardium. In addition, SKCa activity induced activation of the Ras-Mek-Erk signaling cascade, a signaling pathway involved in the EBIO-induced effects.
Modulation of calcium-activated potassium channels induces cardiogenesis of pluripotent stem cells and enrichment of pacemaker-like cells.
Specimen part, Cell line
View SamplesPurpose: Probe the transcriptome-wide changes in the expression pattern between WT and Sertoli-specific Upf2 KO testes Methods: Total RNA were extracted from WT and Sertoli-specific Upf2 KO testes in triplicates and subject to deep-sequencing in Ion Torrent seq platform. Results: Using an optimized data analysis workflow, we mapped about 30 million sequence reads per sample to the mouse genome (build mm9) and identified 16,014 transcripts in the retinas of WT and Nrl-/- mice with BWA workflow and 34,115 transcripts with TopHat workflow. RNA-seq data confirmed stable expression of 25 known housekeeping genes, and 12 of these were validated with qRT–PCR. RNA-seq data had a linear relationship with qRT–PCR for more than four orders of magnitude and a goodness of fit (R2) of 0.8798. Approximately 10% of the transcripts showed differential expression between the WT and Nrl-/- retina, with a fold change =1.5 and p value <0.05. Altered expression of 25 genes was confirmed with qRT–PCR, demonstrating the high degree of sensitivity of the RNA-seq method. Hierarchical clustering of differentially expressed genes uncovered several as yet uncharacterized genes that may contribute to retinal function. Data analysis with BWA and TopHat workflows revealed a significant overlap yet provided complementary insights in transcriptome profiling. Conclusions: Our study represents the first detailed analysis of Upf2-mediated NMD pathway in Sertoli cell development Overall design: Testis mRNA profiling was generated from postnatal day 4 WT and Amh-cKO (Sertoli specific Upf2 KO) testes, in triplicates.
UPF2, a nonsense-mediated mRNA decay factor, is required for prepubertal Sertoli cell development and male fertility by ensuring fidelity of the transcriptome.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesIn this study, we use pre-malignant cells from different Cebpa mutant acute myeloid leukemia (AML) models. We have used conditional KO models (CreLoxP) and isolated hematopoietic cells shortly after induction of recombination, in order to look at pre-leukemic cells, which have acquired the first hit, but not yet undergone full malignant transformation.
Lack of the p42 form of C/EBPα leads to spontaneous immortalization and lineage infidelity of committed myeloid progenitors.
Sex, Specimen part
View SamplesThis report not only adds a novel mechanism to the current dogma on achieving global shortening of 3''UTRs, but also unveils a novel function of the NMD pathway in establishing tissue-specific transcriptome identity Overall design: We first generated prospermatogonia-specific Upf2 conditional knockout mice (Ddx4-Cre; Upf2 fl/?, hereafter called Ddx4-KO) by crossing Ddx4-Cre13 with Upf2 floxed.
UPF2-Dependent Nonsense-Mediated mRNA Decay Pathway Is Essential for Spermatogenesis by Selectively Eliminating Longer 3'UTR Transcripts.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesHistone modifications are a key epigenetic mechanism to activate or repress the expression of genes. Data sets of matched microarray expression data and histone modification data measured by ChIP-seq exist, but methods for integrative analysis of both data types are still rare. Here, we present a novel bioinformatic approach to detect genes that are differentially expressed between two conditions putatively caused by alterations in histone modification. We introduce a correlation measure for integrative analysis of ChIP-seq and gene expression data and demonstrate that a proper normalization of the ChIP-seq data is crucial. We suggest applying Bayesian mixture models of different distributions to further study the distribution of the correlation measure. The implicit classification of the mixture models is used to detect genes with differences between two conditions in both gene expression and histone modification. The method is applied to different data sets and its superiority to a naive separate analysis of both data types is demonstrated. This GEO series contains the expression data of the Cebpa example data set.
Integrative analysis of histone ChIP-seq and transcription data using Bayesian mixture models.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesTranslocations involving the MLL genes are frequently found in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and are associated with poor prognosis. The MLL fusion proteins act as aberrant transcription factor activating a transcriptional program that transforms the cells, potentially through collaboration with other transcription factors. To investigate this we searched gene expression profiles from patients with MLL-rearranged AML compared with normal hematopoietic progenitor cells for transcriptional regulators and found targets of C/EBP to be up-regulated in the AML samples, suggesting that C/EBP might collaborate with MLL fusion proteins in the initial transformation process. We could show that transformation by MLL fusion proteins is dependent on C/EBP activity both in early progenitors as well as in GMPs. In contrast, C/EBP was found to be indispensable in an already established leukemia. These results suggest that C/EBP play an important role in the early transforming event of leukemogenesis.
Initiation of MLL-rearranged AML is dependent on C/EBPα.
Specimen part
View SamplesIn the mammalian central nervous system (CNS) an important contingent of dopaminergic neurons are localized in the substantia nigra and in the ventral tegmental area of the ventral midbrain. They constitute an anatomically and functionally heterogeneous group of cells involved in a variety of regulatory mechanisms, from locomotion to emotional/motivational behavior. Midbrain dopaminergic neuron (mDA) primary cultures represent a useful tool to study molecular mechanisms involved in their development and maintenance. Considerable information has been gathered on the mDA neurons development and maturation in vivo, as well as on the molecular features of mDA primary cultures. Here we investigated in detail the gene expression differences between the tissue of origin and ventral midbrain primary cultures enriched in mDA neurons, using microarray technique. We integrated the results based on different re-annotations of the microarray probes. By using knowledge-based gene network techniques and promoter sequence analysis, we also uncovered mechanisms that might regulate the expression of CNS genes involved in the definition of the identity of specific cell types in the ventral midbrain. We integrate bioinformatics and functional genomics, together with developmental neurobiology. Moreover, we propose guidelines for the computational analysis of microarray gene expression data. Our findings help to clarify some molecular aspects of the development and differentiation of DA neurons within the midbrain.
Comparison of gene expression profile in embryonic mesencephalon and neuronal primary cultures.
Specimen part, Disease
View SamplesLong noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are emerging as powerful regulators of adipocyte differentiation and gene expression. However, their physiological role in adipose tissue biology and systemic energy metabolism has not been established. Here we show that adipose tissue expression of Blnc1, a conserved lncRNA regulator of thermogenic genes, is highly induced in obese mice. Fat-specific inactivation of Blnc1 impairs cold-induced thermogenesis and browning, exacerbates obesity-associated brown fat whitening, and worsens adipose tissue inflammation and fibrosis, leading to more severe insulin resistance and hepatic steatosis. On the contrary, transgenic expression of Blnc1 in adipose tissue elicits the opposite and beneficial metabolic effects, supporting a critical role of Blnc1 in driving adipose adaptation during obesity. Mechanistically, Blnc1 cell-autonomously attenuates proinflammatory cytokine signaling and promotes fuel storage in adipocytes through its protein partner Zbtb7b. This study illustrates a surprisingly pleiotropic and dominant role of lncRNA in driving adaptive adipose tissue remodeling and preserving metabolic health.
The long noncoding RNA Blnc1 orchestrates homeostatic adipose tissue remodeling to preserve metabolic health.
Sex, Age, Specimen part, Treatment
View SamplesCancer sequencing studies have implicated regulators of pre-mRNA splicing as important disease determinants in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), but the underlying mechanisms have remained elusive. We hypothesized that “non-mutated” splicing regulators may also play a role in AML biology and therefore conducted an in vivo shRNA screen in a mouse model of CEBPA mutant AML. This led to the identification of the splicing regulator RBM25 as a novel tumor suppressor, and down-regulation of RBM25 increased proliferation and decreased apoptosis in human leukemic cell lines. Mechanistically, we could show that RBM25 controlled the splicing of key genes, including those encoding the apoptotic regulator BCL-x and the MYC inhibitor BIN1. Specifically, we demonstrated that RBM25 acts as a regulator of MYC activity and sensitizes cells to increased MYC levels. This mechanism also appears to be operative in human AML patients where RBM25 levels correlative inversely with MYC activity and clinical outcome. Overall design: Examined transcriptome from U937 cells in biological triplicates.
The splicing factor RBM25 controls MYC activity in acute myeloid leukemia.
Specimen part, Cell line, Subject
View SamplesThe goal of this study was to investigate the role of hnRNP L-like in alternative pre-mRNA splicing in human B-cells through an RNA-Seq approach. Overall design: RNA-Seq was performed in DG75 cell line with over expression of hnRNP L-like or GFP as control.
HnRNP L and L-like cooperate in multiple-exon regulation of CD45 alternative splicing.
Cell line, Subject
View Samples