Spatial Transcriptomic Analysis of Superficial Peritoneal Endometriotic Lesions
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ABSTRACT: The mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of endometriosis, characterized by the presence of endometrium-like tissue outside the uterus, remain poorly understood. This study aimed to identify cell type-specific gene expression changes in superficial peritoneal endometriotic lesions and elucidate the crosstalk among the stroma, epithelium, and macrophages compared to patient-matched eutopic endometrium. Surprisingly, comparison between lesions and eutopic endometrium revealed transcriptional similarities, indicating minimal alterations in the sub-epithelial stroma and epithelium of lesions. Spatial transcriptomics (NanoString GeoMx) highlighted increased signaling between the lesion epithelium and macrophages, emphasizing the role of the epithelium in driving lesion inflammation. We propose that the superficial endometriotic lesion epithelium orchestrates inflammatory signaling and promotes a pro-repair phenotype in macrophages, providing a new role for Complement 3 in lesion pathobiology. This study underscores the significance of considering spatial context and cellular interactions in uncovering mechanisms governing disease in endometriotic lesions.
Project description:The pathophysiology of endometriotic lesion development remains unclear but involves a complex interaction between ectopic endometrium and host peritoneal tissues. We hypothesised that disruption of this interaction was likely to suppress endometriotic lesion formation. We hoped to delineate the molecular and cellular dialogue between ectopic human endometrium and peritoneal tissues in nude mice, as a first step towards testing this hypothesis. Human endometrium was xenografted into nude mice and the resulting lesions were analysed using microarrays. A novel technique was developed that unambiguously determined whether RNA transcripts identified by the microarray analyses originated from human cells (endometrium) or mouse cells (stroma). Four key pathways (ubiquitin/proteosome, inflammation, tissue remodelling/repair and ras-mediated oncogenesis) were revealed, that demonstrated communication between host stromal cells and ectopic endometrium. Experiment Overall Design: Paired samples of eutopic and ectopic endometrium from 9 individual women were collected and the transcript profiles compared.
Project description:The pathophysiology of endometriotic lesion development remains unclear but involves a complex interaction between ectopic endometrium and host peritoneal tissues. We hypothesised that disruption of this interaction was likely to suppress endometriotic lesion formation. We hoped to delineate the molecular and cellular dialogue between ectopic human endometrium and peritoneal tissues in nude mice, as a first step towards testing this hypothesis. Human endometrium was xenografted into nude mice and the resulting lesions were analysed using microarrays. A novel technique was developed that unambiguously determined whether RNA transcripts identified by the microarray analyses originated from human cells (endometrium) or mouse cells (stroma). Four key pathways (ubiquitin/proteosome, inflammation, tissue remodelling/repair and ras-mediated oncogenesis) were revealed, that demonstrated communication between host stromal cells and ectopic endometrium. Morphometric analysis of nude mouse lesions confirmed that necrosis, inflammation, healing and repair and cell proliferation occurred during xenograft development. These processes were entirely consistent with the molecular networks revealed by the microarray data. The transcripts detected in the xenografts overlapped with transcripts differentially expressed in a comparison between paired eutopic and ectopic endometrium from human endometriotic patients. For the first time components of the interaction between ectopic endometrium and peritoneal stromal tissues have been revealed in ectopic endometrial lesions. Targeted disruption of this dialogue is likely to disrupt endometriotic tissue formation and may prove to be an effective therapeutic strategy for endometriosis. Experiment Overall Design: Xenografts of human endometrium in nude mice hybridised to both human and mouse specific genechips. 2 biological replicates, at 3 time points. Control human endometrium and mouse pertioneum were hybridised to both human and mouse genechips
Project description:The pathophysiology of endometriotic lesion development remains unclear but involves a complex interaction between ectopic endometrium and host peritoneal tissues. We hypothesised that disruption of this interaction was likely to suppress endometriotic lesion formation. We hoped to delineate the molecular and cellular dialogue between ectopic human endometrium and peritoneal tissues in nude mice, as a first step towards testing this hypothesis. Human endometrium was xenografted into nude mice and the resulting lesions were analysed using microarrays. A novel technique was developed that unambiguously determined whether RNA transcripts identified by the microarray analyses originated from human cells (endometrium) or mouse cells (stroma). Four key pathways (ubiquitin/proteosome, inflammation, tissue remodelling/repair and ras-mediated oncogenesis) were revealed, that demonstrated communication between host stromal cells and ectopic endometrium. Morphometric analysis of nude mouse lesions confirmed that necrosis, inflammation, healing and repair and cell proliferation occurred during xenograft development. These processes were entirely consistent with the molecular networks revealed by the microarray data. The transcripts detected in the xenografts overlapped with transcripts differentially expressed in a comparison between paired eutopic and ectopic endometrium from human endometriotic patients. For the first time components of the interaction between ectopic endometrium and peritoneal stromal tissues have been revealed in ectopic endometrial lesions. Targeted disruption of this dialogue is likely to disrupt endometriotic tissue formation and may prove to be an effective therapeutic strategy for endometriosis. Keywords: time course, disease state analysis.
Project description:miRNA high-throughput sequencing was used to investigate endometriosis lesion-specific miRNA expression profiles by comparing a set of paired samples of peritoneal endometriotic lesions and matched healthy surrounding tissue together with eutopic endometrium of the same patients. We found that miRNAs of surrounding peritoneal tissue mask most of the miRNA expression differences that could originate from endometriotic tissue and thus only miRNAs with significantly different levels in the endometriotic lesions compared to peritoneal tissue were detected. According to the results of this study, two miRNAs – miR-34c and miR-449a showed remarkably higher expression in lesions compared to healthy tissue.
Project description:We performed gene expression analysis human peritoneal endometriosis lesions, eutopic endometrium from endometriosis patients and peritoneum form endometriosis patients.The goal of the study was to analyse gene expression differences between peritoneal endometriosis lesion and eutopic endometrium and peritoneal endometriosis lesion and peritoneum.
Project description:The pathophysiology of endometriotic lesion development remains unclear but involves a complex interaction between ectopic endometrium and host peritoneal tissues. We hypothesised that disruption of this interaction was likely to suppress endometriotic lesion formation. We hoped to delineate the molecular and cellular dialogue between ectopic human endometrium and peritoneal tissues in nude mice, as a first step towards testing this hypothesis. Human endometrium was xenografted into nude mice and the resulting lesions were analysed using microarrays. A novel technique was developed that unambiguously determined whether RNA transcripts identified by the microarray analyses originated from human cells (endometrium) or mouse cells (stroma). Four key pathways (ubiquitin/proteosome, inflammation, tissue remodelling/repair and ras-mediated oncogenesis) were revealed, that demonstrated communication between host stromal cells and ectopic endometrium. Keywords: Disease state analysis
Project description:Endometriosis is associated with aberrant gene expression in the eutopic endometrium of women with disease. To determine if the development of endometriotic lesions directly impacts eutopic endometrial gene expression, we sequentially analyzed the eutopic endometrium across the time course of disease progression in a baboon model of induced disease. Endometriosis was induced in baboons by intraperitoneal inoculation of autologous menstrual endometrium. Eutopic endometria were collected at 9-11 days postovulation) in five time points: 1, 3, 6-7, 10-12, and 15-16 months after disease induction and compared with tissue from disease-free baboons. We used microarrays to identify differentially expressed genes between time points. Sequential analysis of the same animals during disease progression demonstrated an early disease insult and a transitory dominance of an estrogenic phenotype. However, as the disease progressed, a progesterone-resistant phenotype became evident.
Project description:The pathogenesis of endometriosis may result from aberrant angiogenesis that occurs in eutopic endometrium with retrograde menstruation. The difference in gene expression profile between human endometrial endothelial cells (HEECs) from eutopic endometria of patients with and without endometriosis would be determinant that affects the occurrence of endometriosis. To explore this kind of difference, we performed in vitro culture and identified their endothelial origin, as well as observed growth features of HEECs from the two different origins. Finally we identified the difference in gene expression profile when combined suppression subtractive hybridization(SSH) with genechip and confirmed the results by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The HEECs derived from endometriosis exhibited potent survival ability in vitro compared to that from non-endometriosis. We found that gremlin and fibronectin genes were up-regulated in HEECs derived from eutopic endometrium of patients with endometriosis when compared with that from patients without endometriosis. Our study implies that enhanced angiogenic capacity of eutopic HEECs may be an independent determinant in endometriotic aberrant angiogenesis in addition to the interaction of exfoliated endometrium and peritoneal environment elements such as activated macrophages and soluble cytokines. Experiment Overall Design: We analyzed 5 arrays for HEECs derived from eutopic endometrium of patients with endometriosis and 5 arrays for HEECs derived from that of patients without endometriosis
Project description:Endometriosis is a common gynecological disease that affects 10-20% of women in child-bearing age. It is defined by the presence of endometrial tissues outside the uterus. The causes remain elusive, but the endometrium of these patients differs profoundly from that of disease-free subjects. During pregnancy, the maternal-fetal interface is built onto decidualized endometrium. We investigated whether this interface is normal when the subjects suffer of endometriosis and showed remarkly properties of eutopic endometrium from endometriosis-affected women to spontaneously develop endometriotic-like lesions within direct contact to non-uterine tissues.