Project description:The Thioacetamide-treated rat was first identified as a model of hepatotoxicity by Gupta in 1956 and is now well-established, not least because the histopathogical output closely mimics that seen in humans with chronic liver disease. Acute treatment of rats with Thioacetamide causes pronounced necrosis and inflammation. Animals received intraperitoneal (ip) doses of vehicle-only (0.9% (v/v) saline) (n=3), or 100 mg/kg Thioacetamide (n=3) and were sacrificed after 24 hours. Blood was withdrawn via the descending vena cava and immediately transferred into potassium/EDTA tubes. Following centrifugation (16,100g, 4M-BM-0C, 5 min) the plasma was collected and stored at -80M-BM-0C. miRNA microarray profiling of RNA extracted from the plasma of rats treated with Thioacetamide revealed that a subset of miRNAs were differentially expressed following treatment. These miRNAs appeared to mediate pathways involved in hepatic fibrosis and stellate cell activation, suggesting that they might function as predictive biomarkers following compound-induced hepatotoxicity. The changes correlated well with increases in ALT levels, which are the current gold standard method for determining the extent of liver injury. Furthermore, it is hypothesised that particular aetiologies of liver damage might cause differing expression profiles of miRNAs, thus certain miRNAs could be implemented in a panel-type expression study to distinguish between different types of hepatic injury. Single channel miRNA microarrays were performed on n= 3 samples, 2 treatment groups; control and test. Control animals received vehicle-only (0.9% (v/v) saline) via the ip route. Test animals received 100 mg/kg Thioacetamide dissolved in 0.9% (v/v) saline, via the ip route. 24 h after dosing animals were sacrificed using decapitation under terminal anaesthesia.
Project description:The study assessed the efficacy of R-flurbiprofen in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) models of multiple sclerosis in mice. R-flurbiprofen, also known as tarenflurbil, is the R-enantiomer of the cyclooxyygenase inhibitor S-flurbiprofen. It is ineffective in terms of cyclooxygenase inhibition and has no relevant toxicity in humans. Oral R-flurbiprofen prevented and attenuated primary progressive EAE in C57BL6/J mice and relapsing-remitting EAE in SJL mice, even if the treatment was initiated on or after the first flare of the disease. R-flurbiprofen reduced immune cell infiltration and microglia activation and inflammation in the spinal cord, brain and optic nerve and attenuated myelin destruction and EAE-evoked hyperalgesia. R-flurbiprofen treatment increased CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ regulatory T-cells, CTLA4+ inhibitory T-cells and interleukin-10, whereas the EAE-evoked upregulation of pro-inflammatory genes in the spinal cord was strongly reduced (Sentrix6 results). The effects were associated with an increase of plasma and cortical endocannabinoids but decreased spinal prostaglandins, the latter likely due to R- to S inversion. The promising results suggest potential efficacy of R-flurbiprofen in human MS. To assess effects of R-flurbiprofen on EAE evoked gene regulations in the spinal cord a genome wide expression analysis was performed using Illumina Sentrix 6 v2 BeadChips. For the microarray study female C57BL6/J mice were immunized according to a standard protocol using the Hooke KitM-bM-^DM-" MOG35-55/CFA emulsion PTX (EK-2110, Hooke Labs, St Lawrence, MA), which contains 200 M-BM-5g myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) 35-55 emulsified in 200 M-BM-5l Complete FreundM-bM-^@M-^Ys Adjuvant (CFA). The emulsion was injected subcutaneously at two sites followed by two intraperitoneal (i.p.) injections of 200 ng pertussis toxin (PTX) in phosphate buffered saline (PBS), the first 1-2 h after MOG35-55, and the second 24 h after MOG35-55. Control mice received CFA without MOG35-55 (sham mice). Treatment with R-flurbiprofen or vehicle (n = 12 per group) was started 5 days after immunization and was administered continuously via the drinking water up to the end. Spinal cords were dissected out during the flare of the disease, day 16 after immunization. For microarray analysis, total RNA was extracted from homogenizedlumbar spinal cord tissue with Trizol reagent, followed by clean-up and DNase I treatment with QIAGEN RNeasy mini kit. RNA quality was checked (Nanodrop ND-1000, Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer), and subsequently biotinylated and hybridized to Mouse Sentrix-6 V2 Expression BeadChips (Illumina). Each sample consisted of pooled lumbar spinal cord tissue from 3 animals and 3 replicate samples were analyzed per group, i.e. the analysis is based on 9 mice per group. Groups were CFA-control with vehicle treatment, CFA-control with R-flurbiprofen, EAE-vehicle and EAE-R-flurbiprofen treatment. Treatment was started 5 days after immunization. For dissection, pairs were matched according to the clinical scores. QC, labeling, hybridization and raw data evaluation and normalization were done according to standard protocols at the core facilities of the Deutsche Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg, Germany.
Project description:Many long noncoding transcripts are involved in cancer progression. Here, we utilized high-throughput microarray to compare the transcriptome alterations between the KYSE30 cells overexpressing an empty vector and Epist, thus identified 95 and 99 down-regulated and up-regulated genes, respectively. Expression levels of several previously reported genes implicated in cancer development and progression were altered, such as DDIT3, GATA6, UPP1, FAT3. These genes are involved in tumorigenesis through diverse mechanisms. The present study reveals that Epist functions as a tumor suppressor in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma. KYSE30 cells overexpressing an empty vector were compared to KYSE30 cells overexpressing Epist. Three biological replicates of each condition were analysed on Agilent microarray.
Project description:Distal gut bacteria play a pivotal role in the digestion of dietary polysaccharides by producing a large number of carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) that the host otherwise does not produce. We report here the design of a high density custom microarray that we used to spot non-redundant DNA probes for more than 6,500 genes encoding glycoside hydrolases and lyases selected from 174 reference genomes from distal gut bacteria. The custom microarray was tested and validated by the hybridization of bacterial DNA extracted from the stool samples of lean, obese and anorexic individuals. Our results suggest that a microarray-based study can detect genes from low-abundance bacteria better than metagenomic-based studies. A striking example was the finding that a gene encoding a GH6-family cellulase was present in all subjects examined, whereas metagenomic studies have consistently failed to detect this gene in both human and animal gut microbiomes. In addition, an examination of eight stool samples allowed the identification of a corresponding CAZome core containing 46 families of glycoside hydrolases and polysaccharide lyases, which suggests the functional stability of the gut microbiota despite large taxonomical variations between individuals. Fecal samples were collected from eight female subjects. Three were obese subjects of BMI kg m-2: 35, 46.8 and 51.3, respectively; age: 42, 21 and 65 years old, respectively. Three were anorexic women of BMI kg m-2: 9.8, 10 and 13.7, respectively; age: 19, 23 and 49 years old, respectively. Finally, two fecal samples from lean women of BMI kg m-2: 18.6 and 23.42 were analyzed.
Project description:Q fever is a zoonosis caused by Coxiella burnetii, an obligate intracellular bacterium usually found in myeloid cells. The infection is a source of severe obstetrical complications in humans and cattle, and of chronic evolution in pregnant women. As C. burnetii is found in the placenta of aborted foetuses in humans and ruminants, we wondered if it may infect trophoblasts. In this work, we showed that C. burnetii, infected JEG trophoblastic cells without replication and was localized within phagolysosomes. We analyzed gene expression programs induced by C. burnetii in JEG trophoblastic cell line and compared it with transcriptomic program of BeWo trophoblasts in which C. burnetii replicates. These transcriptomic programs induced by C. burnetii in JEG trophoblasts was poor and markedly different from that induced by C. burnetii in BeWo trophoblasts. Hence, the differences in transcriptomic programs may explain the different intracellular fate of C. burnetii in JEG and BeWo cells. Our results suggest that C. burnetii may use trophoblastic cells as a reservoir by interfering with gene expression. Comparaison between unstimulated JEG cell line and Coxiella burnetii stimulated JEG cell line (bacterial ratio 200:1) for 6 hours
Project description:The obligatory aerobic acetic acid bacterium Gluconobacter oxydans oxidizes a variety of substrates in the periplasm by membrane-bound dehydrogenases, which transfer the reducing equivalents to ubiquinone. Two quinol oxidases, cytochrome bo3 and cytochrome bd, then catalyze transfer of the electrons from ubiquinol to molecular oxygen. In this study, mutants lacking either of these terminal oxidases were characterized. Deletion of the cydAB genes for cytochrome bd had no obvious influence on growth, whereas the lack of the cyoBACD genes for cytochrome bo3 severely reduced the growth rate and the cell yield. Using a respiration activity monitoring system and adjusting different levels of oxygen availability, hints for a low oxygen affinity of cytochrome bd oxidase were obtained, which were supported by measurements of oxygen consumption in a respirometer. The H+/O ratio of the M-NM-^TcyoBACD mutant with mannitol as substrate was 0.56 M-BM-1 0.11 and more than 50% lower than that of the reference strain (1.26 M-BM-1 0.06) and the delta-cydAB mutant (1.31 M-BM-1 0.16), indicating that cytochrome bo3 oxidase is the main component for proton extrusion via the respiratory chain. Plasmid-based overexpression of cyoBACD led to increased growth rates and growth yields, both in the wild type and the delta-cyoBACD mutant, suggesting that cytochrome bo3 might be the rate-limiting factor of the respiratory chain. The three transcriptome comparisons of G. oxydans M-NM-^TuppM-NM-^TcyoBACD vs. G.oxydans M-NM-^Tupp were repeated independently three times in biological replicates resulting in 3 hybridizations as termed by sample 1 to 3.
Project description:To date, all of the prior osteoarthritic microarray studies in human tissue have focused on the overlying articular cartilage, meniscus, or synovium but not the underlying subchondral bone. In our previous study, our group developed a methodology for high quality RNA isolation from site-matched cartilage and bone from human knee joints, which allowed us to perform candidate gene expression analysis on the subchohndral bone (published on Osteoarthritis and Cartilage on Dec/5/2012 (doi: 10.1016/j.joca.2012.11.016). To the best of our knowledge, the current study is the first to successfully perform whole-genome microarray profiling analyses of human osteoarthritic subchondral bone. We believe our comprehensive microarray results can improve the understanding of the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis and could further contribute to the development of new biomarker and therapeutic strategies in osteoarthritis. Following histological assessment of the integrity of overlying cartilage and the severity of bone abnormality by microcomputed tomography, we isolated total RNA from regions of interest from human OA (n=20) and non-OA (n=5) knee lateral and medial tibial plateaus (LT and MT). A whole-genome profiling study was performed on an Agilent microarray platform and analyzed using Agilent GeneSpring GX11.5. Confirmatory quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis was performed on samples from nine OA individuals to confirm differential expression of 85 genes identified by microarray. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) was used to investigate canonical pathways and immunohistochemical staining was performed to validate protein expression levels in samples.
Project description:Independent studies have reported that circulating miRNAs have the potential as biomarkers; however, no consolidated guidelines for the discovery process are available. We developed a pipeline using innovative applications of existing bioinformatics methods to (1) face the inapplicability of the classical normalization methods, (2) detect global differences of miRNA distributions between the comparison classes and (3) develop a 'robustM-bM-^@M-^Y classifier. 78 samples (26 hemolyzed and 52 non hemolyzed) were 1:2 paired with caliper matching according to disease status, age at drawing and drawing year, starting from a total of 208 hybridized samples collected between 1987 and 2004 (including 94 paired samples according to tumor ER status, age at drawing, drawing year, time from surgery, 7 additional samples from 'no evidence of disease' (NED) patients, 10 references, 1 healthy donor and 2 replicated samples)