The Liquid Liver Biopsy: Detection of Circulating Epithelial Cells in Liver Disease
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Using a microfluidic device, circulating epithelial cells (CECs) were enriched from peripheral blood from patients with chronlic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma. Select samples were further flow sorted for WBC subsets. CEC and WBC subsets transcriptomes were sequenced.
Project description:Circulating epithelial cells (CECs) were purified using a microfluidic device from healthy donors, patients bearing intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms, or pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and their transcriptomes were sequenced.
Project description:Corneal endothelium is composed of a monolayer of corneal endothelial cells (CECs) in the inner layer of cornea, which is essential for maintaining corneal transparency. In order to better characterize CECs in different developmental stages, we profiled mRNA transcriptomes in human fetal and adult corneal endothelium with the goal to identify novel molecular markers in these cells. By comparing CECs with 12 other types of tissues, we identified 245 and 284 signature genes that are highly expressed in fetal and adult CECs, respectively. Functionally, these genes are characteristic of CECs, involving in cell adhesion, proteoglycan and sulfur metabolic process. Importantly, several of these genes are disease target genes in hereditary corneal dystrophies, consistent with their functional significance in CEC physiology. By comparing fetal and adult CECs, we also identified stage-specific markers associated with CEC maturation, such as the activation of the Wnt pathway genes in fetal, but not in adult CECs. Lastly, by immunohistochemistry of ocular tissues, we further confirmed the unique protein expression patterns for Wnt5a, S100A4, S100A6, and IER3, the four novel markers for either fetal or adult CECs. The identification of a new panel of molecular markers for fetal and mature CECs would be very useful for characterizing and quality controlling CECs through ex vivo expansion or stem cell differentiation for cell replacement therapy. mRNA profile between adult and fetal CECs by high-throughput sequencing
Project description:Proper differentiation of corneal epithelial cells (CECs) from limbal stem/progenitor cells (LSCs) is required for maintaining ocular homeostasis and clear vision. Here, using a single-cell transcriptomic atlas, we delineate the comprehensive and refined molecular regulatory dynamics during human CEC development and differentiation. We find that RORA is a CEC-specific molecular switch that initiates and drives LSCs to differentiate into mature CECs by activating PITX1. RORA dictates CEC differentiation by establishing CEC-specific enhancers and chromatin interactions between CEC gene promoters and distal regulatory elements. Conversely, RORA silences LSC-specific promoters and disrupts promoter-anchored chromatin loops to turn off LSC genes. Collectively, our work provides detailed and comprehensive insights into the transcriptional dynamics and RORA-mediated epigenetic remodeling underlying human corneal epithelial differentiation.
Project description:Proper differentiation of corneal epithelial cells (CECs) from limbal stem/progenitor cells (LSCs) is required for maintaining ocular homeostasis and clear vision. Here, using a single-cell transcriptomic atlas, we delineate the comprehensive and refined molecular regulatory dynamics during human CEC development and differentiation. We find that RORA is a CEC-specific molecular switch that initiates and drives LSCs to differentiate into mature CECs by activating PITX1. RORA dictates CEC differentiation by establishing CEC-specific enhancers and chromatin interactions between CEC gene promoters and distal regulatory elements. Conversely, RORA silences LSC-specific promoters and disrupts promoter-anchored chromatin loops to turn off LSC genes. Collectively, our work provides detailed and comprehensive insights into the transcriptional dynamics and RORA-mediated epigenetic remodeling underlying human corneal epithelial differentiation.
Project description:Proper differentiation of corneal epithelial cells (CECs) from limbal stem/progenitor cells (LSCs) is required for maintaining ocular homeostasis and clear vision. Here, using a single-cell transcriptomic atlas, we delineate the comprehensive and refined molecular regulatory dynamics during human CEC development and differentiation. We find that RORA is a CEC-specific molecular switch that initiates and drives LSCs to differentiate into mature CECs by activating PITX1. RORA dictates CEC differentiation by establishing CEC-specific enhancers and chromatin interactions between CEC gene promoters and distal regulatory elements. Conversely, RORA silences LSC-specific promoters and disrupts promoter-anchored chromatin loops to turn off LSC genes. Collectively, our work provides detailed and comprehensive insights into the transcriptional dynamics and RORA-mediated epigenetic remodeling underlying human corneal epithelial differentiation.
Project description:Considerable interest has been generated for the development through cell-tissue engineering of suitable corneal endothelial graft alternatives, which can potentially alleviate the shortage of corneal transplant material. The advent of less invasive suture-less key-hole surgery options such as DescemetM-bM-^@M-^Ys Stripping Endothelial Keratoplasty (DSEK) and DescemetM-bM-^@M-^Ys Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty (DMEK), which involve transplantation of solely the endothelial layer instead of full thickness cornea, provide further impetus for the development of alternative endothelial grafts for clinical applications. A major challenge for this endeavor is the lack of specific markers for this cell type. To identify genes that reliably mark corneal endothelial cells (CECs) in vivo and in vitro, we performed RNA-sequencing on freshly isolated human CECs (from both young and old donors), CEC cultures, and corneal stroma. Gene expression of these corneal cell types were also compared to that of other human tissue types. Based on high throughput comparative gene expression analysis, we identified a panel of markers that are: i) highly expressed in CECs from both young donors and old donors; ii) expressed in CECs in vivo and in vitro; and iii) not expressed in corneal stroma keratocytes and the activated corneal stroma fibroblasts. These were SLC4A11, COL8A2 and CYYR1. The use of this panel of genes in combination reliably ascertains the identity of the CEC cell type. A total of 20 donor corneas consisting of 10 single donor corneas and 5 paired donor corneas were used in this study. Donor age ranged from 19 - 76. This RNA-seq study included 15 pooled corneas (5 each) used form CEC old, CEC young and stroma samples.
Project description:The corneal endothelium is composed of a monolayer of corneal endothelial cells (CECs), which is essential for maintaining corneal transparency. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) hold the promise of providing an abundant donor source for generating CEC cells for cell replacement therapies. Here we demonstrate that CEC-like cells can be efficiently derived from human ESCs. In addition, we performed global gene expression profiling of stem-cell-derived CEC cells, incorporating with adult CEC cells, fetal CEC cells and other human tissue type data. Our data indicate that hESC-derived CEC-like cells closely resemble human fetal CEC cells.
Project description:Corneal endothelium is composed of a monolayer of corneal endothelial cells (CECs) in the inner layer of cornea, which is essential for maintaining corneal transparency. In order to better characterize CECs in different developmental stages, we profiled mRNA transcriptomes in human fetal and adult corneal endothelium with the goal to identify novel molecular markers in these cells. By comparing CECs with 12 other types of tissues, we identified 245 and 284 signature genes that are highly expressed in fetal and adult CECs, respectively. Functionally, these genes are characteristic of CECs, involving in cell adhesion, proteoglycan and sulfur metabolic process. Importantly, several of these genes are disease target genes in hereditary corneal dystrophies, consistent with their functional significance in CEC physiology. By comparing fetal and adult CECs, we also identified stage-specific markers associated with CEC maturation, such as the activation of the Wnt pathway genes in fetal, but not in adult CECs. Lastly, by immunohistochemistry of ocular tissues, we further confirmed the unique protein expression patterns for Wnt5a, S100A4, S100A6, and IER3, the four novel markers for either fetal or adult CECs. The identification of a new panel of molecular markers for fetal and mature CECs would be very useful for characterizing and quality controlling CECs through ex vivo expansion or stem cell differentiation for cell replacement therapy.
Project description:PAX6, a paired box transcription factor, is necessary for eye development. However, how it regulates thecell identity of human corneal epithelial cells (CECs) is not well understood. We aimed to clarify thefunction of PAX6 in human CECs using gene knockout via the clustered regularly interspaced shortpalindromic repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR associated protein 9 (Cas9) system. We designed guide RNAsfor different targets in PAX6. PAX6-depleted CECs maintained the epithelial morphology, but becamelarger. Global analyses using microarray revealed that down-regulated genes were primarily CEC-specificand included keratin 12, keratin 3, clusterin (CLU), aldehyde dehydrogenase 3 family member A1(ALDH3A1), angiopoietin-like 7 (ANGPTL7) and transketolase (TKT), while up-regulated genes wereprimarily epidermis-related and included keratin 10, keratin 1, involucrin (IVL), filaggrin (FLG). Thesefindings suggest that PAX6 maintains CEC identity by regulating differentiation.
Project description:Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) encompass multiple analytes, interrogated by sampling blood from patients with cancer. However, the clinical utility of tumor cell-based liquid biopsy has proven to be limited since CTCs are rare, and current technologies cannot process larger blood volumes required to isolate a sufficient number of tumor cells. We have described a high-throughput microfluidic prototype utilizing high-flow channels and amplification of cell sorting forces through magnetic lenses. Here, we apply this technology to analyze patient-derived leukapheresis products, interrogating a mean blood volume of 5.83 liters from patients with metastatic cancer and achieving a median of 2,799 CTCs per patient. Isolation of many CTCs from individual patients enables characterization of their morphological and molecular heterogeneity, including cell and nuclear size and RNA expression. It also allows robust detection of gene copy number variation (CNV), a definitive cancer marker with potential diagnostic applications. High-volume microfluidic enrichment of CTCs constitutes a new dimension in liquid biopsies.