Project description:Puberty is the crucial developmental stage of transition from childhood to adulthood, organized by complex hormonal signaling within the neuroendocrine system with the hypothalamus regulating functions through the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. Genetic predisposition and environmental factors influence the pubertal timing, while miRNAs appear as potential regulators by either repressing genes or activating them by inhibiting their repressors. We investigated miRNA’s involvement in puberty control, by comparing the total population of miRNAs in the hypothalamus of female mice before, during and after puberty, through RNA sequencing. Our results present up- or down-regulation of expression on several miRNAs from pre-pubertal to pubertal stage. Monitoring these levels post-pubertally revealed four expression patterns, in which pathway analysis displayed associations with developmental processes, cell cycle regulation, metabolic biosynthesis and epigenetic regulation. These findings improve our understanding of the molecular pathways underlying puberty and stress the significance of miRNAs in fine-tuning gene expression within the hypothalamus.
Project description:Transcriptional profilling of the female primate hypothalamus during normal puberty. Total RNA samples from hypothalami from juvenile (JUV), early pubertal (EP) and mid pubertal (MP) female monkeys were used to compare pairwise against the JUV group. Keywords: Normal gene expression profiling
Project description:To determine the global changes in hypothalamic gene expression that may occur at the time of female puberty in this species, animals were euthanized at three different stages, juvenile (25-days of age), early puberty (30-35 days of age) and on the day of the first proestrus (32-37 days of age). According to criteria previously established (Ojeda,S.R.; Urbanski,H.F. Puberty in the rat pp.363-409. The Physiology of Reproduction, 2nd Edition, Vol 2. Edited by Knobil,E.; Neill,J.D. Raven Press, 1994), 25-day-old animals are in the mid- juvenile phase of prepubertal development (JUV). At this time, the vagina is not yet patent and the uterine weight is 60Â mg or less, with no accumulation of intrauterine fluid. Older rats showing a closed vagina, accumulation of intrauterine fluid and an uterine weight less that 180 mg are considered to be in the early proestrous (EP) phase of puberty. Finally, rats still exhibiting a closed vagina, but showing a uterus ballooned with fluid and a uterine weight of at least 200Â mg are considered to be in late proestrus (LP), i.e., the phase of puberty when the first preovulatory surge of LHRH and gonadotropins takes place. The first ovulation occurs the following day. All animals were sacrificed between 1600-1700 h, and the medial basal hypothalamus (MBH) was immediately dissected, as previously described (Rogers,L.C.; Junier,M-P.; Farmer,S.R.; Ojeda,S.R. A sex-related difference in the developmental expression of class II -tubulin messenger RNA in rat hypothalamus. Mol.Cell.Neurosci., 2: 130-138, 1991) and stored in RNAlater according to manufacturerâs instructions. Experiment Overall Design: Affymetrix arrays were used to detect global changes in gene expression in the hypothalamus of normal sexual development of the female rat.
Project description:Histone modification analysis of hypothalami from female animals at different juvenile developmental reproductive stages. Results provide insight into the role of the hypothalamus in controlling the onset of puberty.
Project description:Gene expression analysis of hypothalami from female animals at different juvenil developmental reproductive stages. Results provide insight into the role of the hypothalamus in controlling the onset of puberty.
Project description:This project investigates immune response differences in male and female during puberty. Experiment Overall Design: The specific aim is to expression profile of mouse male and femail spleens at pre-puberty (3-4 week old), puberty (6-9 week old), and post-puberty (24-28 week old).
Project description:Promoter methylation analysis of hypothalamc DNA from female rats at different juvenile developmental reproductive stages. Results provide insight into the role of the hypothalamus in controlling the onset of puberty.
Project description:To determine the global changes in hypothalamic gene expression that may occur at the time of female puberty in this species, animals were euthanized at three different stages, juvenile (25-days of age), early puberty (30-35 days of age) and on the day of the first proestrus (32-37 days of age). According to criteria previously established (Ojeda,S.R.; Urbanski,H.F. Puberty in the rat pp.363-409. The Physiology of Reproduction, 2nd Edition, Vol 2. Edited by Knobil,E.; Neill,J.D. Raven Press, 1994), 25-day-old animals are in the mid- juvenile phase of prepubertal development (JUV). At this time, the vagina is not yet patent and the uterine weight is 60 mg or less, with no accumulation of intrauterine fluid. Older rats showing a closed vagina, accumulation of intrauterine fluid and an uterine weight less that 180 mg are considered to be in the early proestrous (EP) phase of puberty. Finally, rats still exhibiting a closed vagina, but showing a uterus ballooned with fluid and a uterine weight of at least 200 mg are considered to be in late proestrus (LP), i.e., the phase of puberty when the first preovulatory surge of LHRH and gonadotropins takes place. The first ovulation occurs the following day. All animals were sacrificed between 1600-1700 h, and the medial basal hypothalamus (MBH) was immediately dissected, as previously described (Rogers,L.C.; Junier,M-P.; Farmer,S.R.; Ojeda,S.R. A sex-related difference in the developmental expression of class II -tubulin messenger RNA in rat hypothalamus. Mol.Cell.Neurosci., 2: 130-138, 1991) and stored in RNAlater according to manufacturer’s instructions. Keywords: comparison between Early pubertal and Juvenile or Late pubertal and Juvenile stages of sexual development in the female rat
Project description:The hypothalamus is a functionally and cellularly complex tissue controlling many developmental processes, including puberty. While key hormonal aspects of puberty regulation in the hypothalamus are well established, understanding the genes, cell-types, and epigenetic mechanisms underlying and regulating puberty is limited. Here, we performed 3’-UTR-seq on the hypothalamus from both sexes of C57BL/6J mice at 5 ages spanning pubertal transition (postnatal days 12, 22, 27, 32, 37) (4-5 replicates per sex at each age) to examine genome-wide age- and sex-biased trends in gene expression in a cell-type aware manner. Sample collection, RNA extraction, and sequencing was completed using the same protocols and on the same mice as PMID: 3622112 (E-MTAB-9459). QuantSeq 3’mRNA-seq libraries were constructed from total RNA using an automated method with Agilent NGS Workstation. The resulting single-end libraries were sequenced at SickKids TCAG core on the Illumina v4 flow cell with SR50 bp cycles extended to 68 bp. A customized pipeline was developed and used for the analysis of reads obtained (PMID: 36221127 for details). Processed reads were mapped to mouse genome (mm10).
Project description:Promoter methylation analysis of hypothalamc DNA from female rats at different juvenile developmental reproductive stages. Results provide insight into the role of the hypothalamus in controlling the onset of puberty. SD rats were housed (4/cage) in a controlled environment and euthanized at different ages (Early Juvenile: 21 days, Late Juvenile: 28 days, Late Proestus (the day of first ovulation): 31 days. Rats were anesthetized and brains were rapidly removed. The hypothalamus was dissected away from the rest of the brain and flash frozen. Total RNA and DNA was isolated from each sample using AllPrep DNA/RNA Mini Kit-Qiagen (Valencia, CA).