Project description:Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) have been recognized as important contributors to cancer development and progression. However, opposing evidence has been published whether CAFs, in addition to epigenetic, also undergo somatic genetic alterations and whether these changes contribute to carcinogenesis and tumour progression. We combined multiparameter DNA flow cytometry, flow-sorting and 6K SNP-arrays to study DNA aneuploidy, % S-phase, loss of heterozygosity (LOH) and copy number alterations (CNAs) to study somatic genetic alterations in cervical cancer-associated stromal cell fractions (n = 58) from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples. Tissue sections were examined for the presence of CAFs. Microsatellite analysis was used to study LOH. By flow cytometry we found no proof for DNA aneuploidy in the vimentin-positive stromal cell fractions of any samples (CV G0G1 population 3.7% +/- 1.2; S-phase 1.4% +/- 1.8). The genotype concordance between the stromal cells and the paired normal endometrium samples was > 99.9%. No evidence for CNAs or LOH was found in the stromal cell fractions. In contrast, high frequencies of DNA content abnormalities (43/57), a significant higher S-phase (14.6% +/- 8.5)(p = 0.0001) and substantial numbers of CNAs and LOH were identified in the keratin-positive epithelial cell fractions (CV G0G1 population 4.1% +/- 1.0). Smooth muscle actin and vimentin immunohistochemistry verified the presence of CAFs in all cases tested. LOH hot-spots on chromosomes 3p, 4p and 6p were confirmed by microsatellite analysis but the stromal cell fractions showed retention of heterozygosity only. From our study we conclude that stromal cell fractions from cervical carcinomas are DNA diploid, have a genotype undistinguishable from patient-matched normal tissue and are genetically stable. Stromal genetic changes do not seem to play a role during cervical carcinogenesis and progression. In addition, the stromal cell fraction of cervical carcinomas can be used as reference allowing large retrospective studies of archival FFPE tissues for which no normal reference tissue is available. Paired experiment, Endometrial (non-tumor) cells vs stromal cells from cervical tumors. Biological replicates: 58 patients. From 5 tumors also the tumor fraction was profiled.
Project description:Recurrent non-medullary thyroid carcinoma (NMTC) is a rare disease. We initially characterized 27 recurrent NMTC: 13 papillary thyroid cancers (PTC), 10 oncocytic follicular carcinomas (FTC-OV), and 4 non-oncocytic follicular carcinomas (FTC). A validation cohort composed of benign and malignant (both recurrent and non-recurrent) thyroid tumours was subsequently analysed (n = 20). Methods Data from genome-wide SNP arrays and flow cytometry were combined to determine the chromosomal dosage (allelic state) in these tumours, including mutation analysis of components of PIK3CA/AKT and MAPK pathways. Results All FTC-OVs showed a very distinct pattern of genomic alterations. Ten out of 10 FTC-OV cases showed near-haploidisation with or without subsequent genome endoreduplication. Near-haploidisation was seen in 5/10 as extensive chromosome-wide monosomy (allelic state [A]) with near-haploid DNA indices and retention of especially chromosome 7 (seen as a heterozygous allelic state [AB]). In the remaining 5/10 chromosomal allelic states AA with near diploid DNA indices were seen with allelic state AABB of chromosome 7, suggesting endoreduplication after preceding haploidisation. The latter was supported by the presence of both near-haploid and endoreduplicated tumour fractions in some of the cases. Results were confirmed using FISH analysis. Relatively to FTC-OV limited numbers of genomic alterations were identified in other types of recurrent NMTC studied, except for chromosome 22q which showed alterations in 6 of 13 PTCs. Only two HRAS, but no mutations of EGFR or BRAF were found in FTC-OV. The validation cohort showed two additional tumours with the distinct pattern of genomic alterations (both with oncocytic features and recurrent). Conclusions We demonstrate that recurrent FTC-OV is frequently characterised by genome-wide DNA haploidisation, heterozygous retention of chromosome 7, and endoreduplication of a near-haploid genome. Whether normal gene dosage on especially chromosome 7 (containing EGFR, BRAF, cMET) is crucial for FTC-OV tumour survival is an important topic for future research. 28 thyroid tumors from 27 patients were profiled by SNP array. Comparisons between different types were made.
Project description:In this experiment we used leaves from 6-week-old Arabidopsis SDH1-1/sdh1-1 mutant and Wt plants (Ws). The leaves were collected in the middle of light period.
Project description:To understand kinase-dependent and kinase-independent functions of Cdk6 in the hematopoietic stem and progenitor compartment, mouse models carrying wild-type Cdk6 (Cdk6_WT), a homozygous knock-in of a kinase-inactivated variant of Cdk6 (Cdk6_K43M) or a homozygous Cdk6 knock-out (Cdk6_KO) were used. From these mice, lineage-negative, Sca1-positive, c-Kit-positive cells (LSK cells) were isolated by means of flow cytometry cell sorting. 30000 LSK cells per mouse were subjected to library prep for single cell RNA Sequencing using the Chromium NextGem Single Cell 5’ v2 Kit (10x Genomics, Pleasanton, CA, USA)
Project description:The aim of this experiment was to investigate the role of KLF3 in regulating gene expression at different stages throughout the erythroid maturation process. Affymetrix microarrays were performed on fetal liver cells (both TER119- progenitor cells and TER119+ erythroblast cells) from E14.5 wildtype and Klf3 KO mice. Four wildtype TER119- replicates, four Klf3 KO TER119- replicates, four wildtype TER119+ replicates, three Klf3 KO TER119+ replicates. All are from E14.5 fetal liver.
Project description:To understand how Palbociclib (a CDK4/6 inhibitor) treatment changes the transcriptome of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, wildtype cells were isolated from mice and treated for 24h with either PBS (control) or Palbociclib. After 24h of culture, the cell suspensions were collected and sorted for lineage-negative, Sca1-positive, cKit-positive (LSK) cells which were subjected to library prep for single cell RNA sequencing.
Project description:We analyzed gene expression profiles of IL-18 generated murine NK cells in comparison to unstimulated, freshly isolated splenic NK cells. We identified a set of 1414 Affymetrix probe sets showing significant misregulation (Welch's T-test, p<0.05; Benjamini-Hochberg FDR corrected). IL-18 generated as well as unstimulated NK cells were isolated in three independent preparations and used for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays.
Project description:A kinase-inactivated variant of Cdk6 (Cdk6_K43M) was associated with prolonged repopulation potential of mouse lineage-negative, Sca1-positive, cKit-positive, CD150-positive, CD48-negative (HSC/MPP1) cells. In order to understand differences between Cdk6_K43M HSC/MPP1 cells, and HSC/MPP1 cells carrying wild-type Cdk6 (Cdk6_WT) or a complete Cdk6 knock-out (Cdk6_KO) in the context of repopulation the following experiment was performed. Pools of freshly isolated CD45.2-positive HSC/MPP1 cells from mice carrying Cdk6_WT, Cdk6_K43M or Cdk6_KO (all homozygous) were serially transplanted into three CD45.1-positive recipients, per genotype. After two rounds of transplantation, CD45.2-positive HSC/MPP1 cells were isolated using flow cytometry based cell sorting and subjected to library prep for RNA sequencing.
Project description:We tested the influence of pentanoate on B cells by treatment of CpG-stimulated B cells in vitro. We isolated naive B cells from FIR/TIGER mice (IL-10 (GFP) - Foxp3 (RFP) - Reporter mice) from spleen. Cells were cultured in presence of 5 µg/ml CpG 2395. 24h after CpG-stimulation, B cells were treated with 5 mM pentanoate or left untreated. Cells were harvested on day 4 after seeding.