Project description:Aims of study: (1) To identify systemic differences in osteoarthritic (OA) bone that contribute to OA pathogenesis. (2) Identify novel osteoporotic (OP) bone-related disease genes. Study involved comparison of trabecular bone extracted from the intertrochanteric (IT) region of the proximal femur (PF) from OA, OP and normal/control (CTL) individuals. Bone was obtained from OA and OP individuals at surgery for total hip replacement and from CTL individuals at autopsy. Keywords: Bone tissue comparison, diseased versus non-diseased, factorial design, linear modelling
Project description:Aims of study: (1) To identify systemic differences in osteoarthritic (OA) bone that contribute to OA pathogenesis. (2) Identify novel osteoporotic (OP) bone-related disease genes. Study involved comparison of trabecular bone extracted from the intertrochanteric (IT) region of the proximal femur (PF) from OA, OP and normal/control (CTL) individuals. Bone was obtained from OA and OP individuals at surgery for total hip replacement and from CTL individuals at autopsy. Keywords: Bone tissue comparison, diseased versus non-diseased, factorial design, linear modelling Four sets of sample comparisons (39 comparisons in total) were made in this study. These comprised 10 OA-CTL female, 10 OA-CTL male, 10 OA-OP female and 9 OP-CTL female comparisons. A Compugen Human 19K-oligo library spotted onto glass slides by the Adelaide Microarray facility (AMF) was used in this study. The slides were interrogated by competitive hybridisation of Cy3 and Cy5 labelled pairs of OA-CTL, OA-OP or OP-CTL amplified RNA samples. Sample pairs were age-matched as closely as possible. A biological dye-swap strategy was employed. After hybridisation and washing of the slides they were scanned using a GenePix 4000B Scanner driven by GenePix Pro 4.0. All analyses were performed using the statistical programming and graphics environment R. The “SPOT” software package was used to identify spots by adaptive segmentation method and subtract backgrounds utilising morphological opening approach. Data analysis was performed in R using Bioconductor. Loess print tip method was used to correct for dye-bias and intensity within each group of adjacent spots printed by one pin. Linear modelling was performed with the Limma package of Bioconductor. Linear models were used to incorporate all available data into a single analysis. This allowed the use of both direct and indirect comparisons in calculation of expression ratios as well as improved accuracy in estimation of variance for each gene. Factorial design utilised the following factors: medical condition (OA or OP or CTL); sex (male or female) for OA patients only.
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.
Project description:Kynureninase is a member of a large family of catalytically diverse but structurally homologous pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) dependent enzymes known as the aspartate aminotransferase superfamily or alpha-family. The Homo sapiens and other eukaryotic constitutive kynureninases preferentially catalyze the hydrolytic cleavage of 3-hydroxy-l-kynurenine to produce 3-hydroxyanthranilate and l-alanine, while l-kynurenine is the substrate of many prokaryotic inducible kynureninases. The human enzyme was cloned with an N-terminal hexahistidine tag, expressed, and purified from a bacterial expression system using Ni metal ion affinity chromatography. Kinetic characterization of the recombinant enzyme reveals classic Michaelis-Menten behavior, with a Km of 28.3 +/- 1.9 microM and a specific activity of 1.75 micromol min-1 mg-1 for 3-hydroxy-dl-kynurenine. Crystals of recombinant kynureninase that diffracted to 2.0 A were obtained, and the atomic structure of the PLP-bound holoenzyme was determined by molecular replacement using the Pseudomonas fluorescens kynureninase structure (PDB entry 1qz9) as the phasing model. A structural superposition with the P. fluorescens kynureninase revealed that these two structures resemble the "open" and "closed" conformations of aspartate aminotransferase. The comparison illustrates the dynamic nature of these proteins' small domains and reveals a role for Arg-434 similar to its role in other AAT alpha-family members. Docking of 3-hydroxy-l-kynurenine into the human kynureninase active site suggests that Asn-333 and His-102 are involved in substrate binding and molecular discrimination between inducible and constitutive kynureninase substrates.
Project description:Gene methylation profiling of immortalized human mesenchymal stem cells comparing HPV E6/E7-transfected MSCs cells with human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT)- and HPV E6/E7-transfected MSCs. hTERT may increase gene methylation in MSCs. Goal was to determine the effects of different transfected genes on global gene methylation in MSCs.
Project description:1,322 morphologically unidentified fragmentary bone specimens were analyzed using MALDI-TOF and a subset of 341 bone specimens with LC-MS/MS in order to characterize their proteome for species identification and potential hominin specimens related to the LRJ transitional period derived from the site Ilsenhöhle Ranis, Germany (50°39.7563’N, 11°33.9139’E).