Project description:We profiled a RNA-seq on ICR mouse testis. The mice were treated with one dose of busulfan at 3 weeks of age. Then the mice were treated with gut microbiota for 2 weeks. Then after another 3 weeks, testis samples were collected. Then RNA was isoltated from the cultured testis to do RNA-seq.
Project description:Large-scale genome sequencing is poised to provide a substantial increase in the rate of discovery of disease-associated mutations, but the functional interpretation of such mutations remains challenging. Here we show that deletions of a sequence on human chromosome 16 that we term the intestine-critical region (ICR) cause intractable congenital diarrhoea in infants. Reporter assays in transgenic mice show that the ICR contains a regulatory sequence that activates transcription during the development of the gastrointestinal system. Targeted deletion of the ICR in mice caused symptoms that recapitulated the human condition. Transcriptome analysis revealed that an unannotated open reading frame (Percc1) flanks the regulatory sequence, and the expression of this gene was lost in the developing gut of mice that lacked the ICR. Percc1 knockout mice displayed phenotypes similar to those observed on ICR deletion in mice and patients, whereas an ICR-driven Percc1 transgene was sufficient to rescue the phenotypes found in mice that lacked the ICR. Together, our results identify a gene that is critical for intestinal function and underscore the need for targeted in vivo studies to interpret the growing number of clinical genetic findings that do not affect known protein-coding genes.
Project description:3,5,6-Trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCP) is a primary degradation product of chlorpyrifos and chlorpyrifos-methyl. TCP has longer half-life in soil and greater solubility in water than its parent compound, and cause wide contamination in environments. However, studies about the toxic effects of TCP are limited and outdate. In this study, 5 mg/kg/day, 50 mg/kg/day, and 150 mg/kg/day TCP were given to male mice through gavage for four weeks. As a result, the final body weights of TCP treated groups were significantly lower than control, and the relative organ weights of the liver and kidney were significantly higher than that of control. In addition, NMR-based metabolomics was used to investigate the toxic effects of TCP. It was found that a total of 39 serum metabolites were significantly changed in the TCP-treated groups, and these metabolites are related to hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity. These results were also confirmed by histopathology, serum biochemical, and oxidative stress analysis. In addition, metabolic disturbances due to TCP exposure were also observed based on altered metabolites. As far as we know, these results are the first to show the metabolomic toxicity of TCP, which warrants further research.
Project description:All-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) has been successfully used in therapy of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), a cytogenetically distinct subtype of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) but the response of non-APL AML cases to ATRA-based treatment has been poor. Here we show that, via epigenetic reprogramming, inhibitors of LSD1/KDM1 demethylase including tranylcypromine (TCP) unlocked the ATRA-driven therapeutic response in non-APL AML. LSD1 inhibition did not lead to an increase in genome-wide H3 lysine4 dimethylation (H3K4me2) but did increase H3K4me2 and expression of myeloid differentiation-associated genes. Importantly, treatment with ATRA plus TCP dramatically diminished engraftment of primary human AML cells in vivo in NOD.SCID mice, suggesting that ATRA in combination with TCP may target leukemia-initiating cells. Furthermore, initiation of ATRA plus TCP co-treatment 15 days post-engraftment of human AML cells in NOD.SCID gamma mice also revealed the ATRA plus TCP drug combination to have a potent anti-leukemic effect, which was superior to treatment with either drug alone. These data identify LSD1 as a therapeutic target and strongly suggest that it may contribute to AML pathogenesis by inhibiting the normal pro-differentiative function of ATRA, paving the way for novel combinatorial therapies of AML. ChIP-seq was used to study the effects of ATRA, TCP and ATRA/TCP treatment on H3K4 dimethylation. In addition to the three treatment samples, two reference samples were processed: (i) An untreated sample using the same anti-H3K4me2 antibody and an untreated sample using IgG. These five sequencing experiments were conducted using HL-60 cells and TEX cells, leading to 10 ChIP-seq samples in total.
Project description:Besides promoting inflammation by mobilizing lipid mediators, secreted phospholipase A2 group IIA (sPLA2-IIA) prevents bacterial infection by degrading bacterial membranes. Here we show that despite the restricted intestinal expression of sPLA2-IIA in BALB/c mice, its genetic deletion leads to amelioration of cancer and exacerbation of psoriasis in distal skin. Intestinal expression of sPLA2-IIA is reduced after antibiotics treatment or under germ-free conditions, suggesting its upregulation by gut microbiota. Metagenome, transcriptome and metabolome analyses have revealed that sPLA2-IIA deficiency alters the gut microbiota, accompanied by notable changes in the intestinal expression of genes related to immunity and metabolism as well as the levels of various blood metabolites and fecal bacterial lipids, suggesting that sPLA2-IIA contributes to shaping of the gut microbiota. The skin phenotypes in Pla2g2a–/– mice are lost when they are co-housed with littermate wild-type mice, resulting in mixing of the microbiota between the genotypes, or when they are housed in a more stringent pathogen-free facility, where Pla2g2a expression in wild-type mice is low and the gut microbial compositions in both genotypes are nearly identical. Thus, our results highlight a new aspect of sPLA2-IIA as a modulator of gut microbiota, perturbation of which affects distal skin responses.
Project description:Expression profile of liver of ICR mice (13-week old) treated with control diet (CRF-1) or CRF-1 containing 500 ppm diosgenin for 4 weeks.