Project description:Transcriptional profiling of human mesenchymal stem cells comparing normoxic MSCs cells with hypoxic MSCs cells. Hypoxia may inhibit senescence of MSCs during expansion. Goal was to determine the effects of hypoxia on global MSCs gene expression.
Project description:Gene expression profiling of immortalized human mesenchymal stem cells with hTERT/E6/E7 transfected MSCs. hTERT may change gene expression in MSCs. Goal was to determine the gene expressions of immortalized MSCs.
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of human mesenchymal stem cells comparing normoxic MSCs cells with hypoxic MSCs cells. Hypoxia may inhibit senescence of MSCs during expansion. Goal was to determine the effects of hypoxia on global MSCs gene expression. Two-condition experiment, Normoxic MSCs vs. Hypoxic MSCs.
Project description:We have sequenced miRNA libraries from human embryonic, neural and foetal mesenchymal stem cells. We report that the majority of miRNA genes encode mature isomers that vary in size by one or more bases at the 3’ and/or 5’ end of the miRNA. Northern blotting for individual miRNAs showed that the proportions of isomiRs expressed by a single miRNA gene often differ between cell and tissue types. IsomiRs were readily co-immunoprecipitated with Argonaute proteins in vivo and were active in luciferase assays, indicating that they are functional. Bioinformatics analysis predicts substantial differences in targeting between miRNAs with minor 5’ differences and in support of this we report that a 5’ isomiR-9-1 gained the ability to inhibit the expression of DNMT3B and NCAM2 but lost the ability to inhibit CDH1 in vitro. This result was confirmed by the use of isomiR-specific sponges. Our analysis of the miRGator database indicates that a small percentage of human miRNA genes express isomiRs as the dominant transcript in certain cell types and analysis of miRBase shows that 5’ isomiRs have replaced canonical miRNAs many times during evolution. This strongly indicates that isomiRs are of functional importance and have contributed to the evolution of miRNA genes
Project description:Macrophages play a critical role in the pathogenesis of many diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and atherosclerosis. Monocytes recruited into tissues from peripheral blood differentiate into macrophages. There is limited data concerning the global changes in the expression of genes during monocyte to macrophage, and how the patterns of change identify the mechanism contributing to differentiation or macrophage function. Employing the microarray technology, we examined the transcriptional profile of in vitro adherence-induced differentiation of primary human monocytes into macrophages. We found the significant up regulation of genes contributing to the functions of macrophage, including signature patterns defining the induction of genes contributing to immunity and defense; lipid, fatty acid and steroid metabolism; cell adhesion and; carbohydrate metabolism; amino acid metabolism and endocytosis. In contrast, a variety of transcription factors were down regulated during monocyte to macrophage differentiation, suggesting that transcriptional repression may be important for the transition from monocytes to macrophages. However, a limited number of transcription factors were up regulated, among these was C/EBPA, which may contribute to differentiation by regulating down stream genes, which a characteristic of differentiated macrophages. These observations suggest that examination of the transcriptional profile in monocytes and macrophages in patients may identify relevant therapeutic targets in diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and atherosclerosis. Keywords: Targeting differential gene expressions during monocyte to macrophage differentiation