Project description:Synchrony between embryo competency and uterine receptivity is essential for a successful implantation. Mice with ablation of COUP-TFII in the uterus (PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox), exhibit implantation defects and increased ER activity in the luminal epithelium, suggesting the high ER activity may disrupt the window of uterine receptivity. In order to determine if the increased ER activity in PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant is the cause of the defective implantation, we inhibited of ER activity in order to rescue the implantation defect in mutant mice. ICI 182,780 (ICI), a pure ER antagonist, was administered to PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant and COUP-TFIIflox/flox control mice during receptive period and the number of implantation sites were examined. COUP-TFIIflox/flox control mice treated with oil or ICI showed the normal number of implantation sites. As expected no implantation sites were observed in PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant mice treated with oil, consistent with previous observation. However, implantation sites were detected, albeit at a reduced number in comparison to the control in PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant mice upon ICI treatment.. ICI treatment was also able to rescue the expression of WNT4 and BMP2, genes important for endometrial decidualization in the PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant mice. To ensure the rescue of embryo attachment and decidualization is a consequence of a reduction of estrogen receptor activity with ICI treatment of the mutants, we examined the expression of ER target gene, such as lactoferrin, in PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant mice. Having shown that ICI could rescue the implantation and decidualization defects of the PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant mice, the ability of ICI treatment to rescue pregnancy in these mice was assayed. While mice were born in COUP-TFIIflox/flox control mice given ICI, no pups were born in the PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant mice, with the loss in pregnancy in the PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant mice treated with ICI being due to defects in placentation. These results demonstrate that during the peri implantation period, COUP-TFII’s role in regulating embryo attachment and decidualiton is through the reduction of ER activity. However COUP-TFII expression is still required in the post implantation period to facilitate placentation.
Project description:Synchrony between embryo competency and uterine receptivity is essential for a successful implantation. Mice with ablation of COUP-TFII in the uterus (PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox), exhibit implantation defects and increased ER activity in the luminal epithelium, suggesting the high ER activity may disrupt the window of uterine receptivity. In order to determine if the increased ER activity in PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant is the cause of the defective implantation, we inhibited of ER activity in order to rescue the implantation defect in mutant mice. ICI 182,780 (ICI), a pure ER antagonist, was administered to PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant and COUP-TFIIflox/flox control mice during receptive period and the number of implantation sites were examined. COUP-TFIIflox/flox control mice treated with oil or ICI showed the normal number of implantation sites. As expected no implantation sites were observed in PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant mice treated with oil, consistent with previous observation. However, implantation sites were detected, albeit at a reduced number in comparison to the control in PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant mice upon ICI treatment.. ICI treatment was also able to rescue the expression of WNT4 and BMP2, genes important for endometrial decidualization in the PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant mice. To ensure the rescue of embryo attachment and decidualization is a consequence of a reduction of estrogen receptor activity with ICI treatment of the mutants, we examined the expression of ER target gene, such as lactoferrin, in PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant mice. Having shown that ICI could rescue the implantation and decidualization defects of the PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant mice, the ability of ICI treatment to rescue pregnancy in these mice was assayed. While mice were born in COUP-TFIIflox/flox control mice given ICI, no pups were born in the PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant mice, with the loss in pregnancy in the PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant mice treated with ICI being due to defects in placentation. These results demonstrate that during the peri implantation period, COUP-TFIIâs role in regulating embryo attachment and decidualiton is through the reduction of ER activity. However COUP-TFII expression is still required in the post implantation period to facilitate placentation. Experiment Overall Design: Murine uteri were isolated at 6 hour after oil or ICI 182,780 injection for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. To do this mice were ovariectomized and treated hormones (estrogen and progesterone) to mimic the early pregnant condition.
Project description:Recent studies demonstrated that metabolic disturbance, such as augmented glycolysis, contributes to fibrosis. The molecular regulation of this metabolic perturbation in fibrosis, however, has been elusive. COUP-TFII (also known as NR2F2) is an important regulator of glucose and lipid metabolism. Its contribution to organ fibrosis is undefined. Here, we found increased COUP-TFII expression in myofibroblasts in human fibrotic kidneys, lungs, kidney organoids, and mouse kidneys after injury. Genetic ablation of COUP-TFII in mice resulted in attenuation of injury-induced kidney fibrosis. A non-biased proteomic study revealed the suppression of fatty acid oxidation and the enhancement of glycolysis pathways in COUP-TFII overexpressing fibroblasts. Overexpression of COUP-TFII in fibroblasts induced augmented glycolysis and production of alpha smooth muscle actin (αSMA) and collagen1. Knockout of COUP-TFII decreased glycolysis and collagen1 levels in fibroblasts. Chip-qPCR revealed the binding of COUP-TFII on the promoter of PGC1α. Overexpression of COUP-TFII reduced the cellular level of PGC1α. Targeting COUP-TFII serves as a novel treatment approach for mitigating fibrosis in chronic kidney disease and potentially fibrosis in other organs.
Project description:Chicken ovalbumin upstream promoter-transcription factor II (COUP-TFII; NR2F2) is an orphan nuclear receptor involved in cell-fate specification, organogenesis, angiogenesis and metabolism. Ablation of COUP-TFII in the mouse uterus causes infertility due to defects in embryo attachment and impaired uterine stromal cell decidualization. Although the function of COUP-TFII in uterine decidualization has been described in mice, its role in the human uterus remains unknown. To better elucidate the mechanisms with which COUP-TFII regulates target gene transcription, genome-wide COUP-TFII binding sites in human endometrial stromal cells (HESC) treated with deciduogenic hormones were identified using ChIP-seq. A total of 16,298 intervals (binding regions) for COUP-TFII were identified compared with the input in HESC chromatin with a very low false discovery rate (0.17%) using a stringent cutoff of p =1x10-10. Distribution of intervals showed that more than half (58.6%) of the COUP-TFII binding sites are located within 10 kb of gene boundaries. 7.5% of total intervals reside within the 10 kb promoter region. A total of 6,077 unique genes were identified to have COUP-TFII binding sites within 10 kb of their gene boundaries.
Project description:Treatment of mice with 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) has been shown to disrupt many physiological processes including hepatic lipid metabolism, bile acid homeostasis, glucose metabolism, iron and heme homeostasis, and one-carbon metabolism. TCDD disrupts these metabolic pathways mediated by the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR). We have previously shown that the AhR localizes to genomic regions possessing DNA motifs that also contain binding sites for other transcription factors, implicating potential co-operation between the AhR and these other transcription factors in the regulation of target genes. Two possible co-operating transcription factors include HNF4α and COUP-TFII. To investigate interactions between AhR, HNF4α and COUP-TFII hepatic ChIP-seq analysis was performed for HNF4α and COUP-TFII mice treated with TCDD for 2 hours, to supplement pre-existing AhR ChIP-seq data. ChIP-seq analysis revealed genome-wide changes in COUP-TFII and HNF4α binding following treatment with TCDD, with 11,688 and 9,547 genomic regions possessing differential enrichment, respectively. These differentially enriched regions for COUP-TFII and HNF4α fell within the intragenic region of 6,846 and 5,762 genes, respectively. When supplemented with pre-existing AhR ChIP-seq data, AhR, HNF4α and COUP-TFII were found to co-bind to the intragenic region of 6,376 genes.
Project description:COUP-TFII, a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily plays a critical role in angiogenesis and organogenesis during embryonic development. Our results indicate that COUP-TFII expression is profoundly upregulated in prostate cancer patients and might serves as biomarker for recurrence prediction. Thus we conduct transcriptome comparison of control and COUP-TFII depleted PC3 cells to gain genomic insights on the biological processes that COUP-TFII is involved in prostate cancer cells. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) shows that the most prominent altered pathways in the COUP-TFII depleted cells are related to cell growth; cell cycle progression and DNA damage response. Indeed many growth related genes including E2F1, p21, CDC25A, Cyclin A and Cyclin B are changed in COUP-TFII knockdown cells, suggesting that COUP-TFII might be an important regulator for prostate cancer cell growth. Further functional assays from cells and mice genetic studies confirm the hypothesis that COUP-TFII serve as the major regulator to control prostrate cancer growth. Together, results provide insight into the role of COUP-TFII in prostate tumorigenesis.
Project description:ABSTRACT Background: The control of the functional pancreatic b-cell mass serves the key homeostatic function of releasing the right amount of insulin to keep blood sugar in the normal range. It is not fully understood though how b-cell mass is determined. Methodology/principal findings: Conditional chicken ovalbumin upstream promoter transcription factor II (COUP-TFII)-deficient mice were generated and crossed with mice expressing Cre under the control of pancreatic duodenal homeobox 1 (pdx1) gene promoter. Ablation of COUP-TFII in pancreas resulted in glucose intolerance. Beta-cell number was reduced at 1 day and 3 weeks postnatal. Together with a reduced number of insulin-containing cells in the ductal epithelium and normal b-cell proliferation and apoptosis, this suggests decreased b-cell differentiation in the neonatal period. By testing islets isolated from these mice and cultured b-cells with loss and gain of COUP-TFII function, we found that COUP-TFII induces the expression of the b-catenin gene and its target genes such as cyclin D1 and axin 2. Moreover, induction of these genes by glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) via b-catenin was impaired in absence of COUP-TFII. The expression of two other target genes of GLP-1 signaling, GLP-1R and PDX-1 was significantly lower in mutant islets compared to control islets, possibly contributing to reduced b-cell mass. Finally, we demonstrated that COUP-TFII expression was activated by the Wnt signaling-associated transcription factor TCF7L2 (T-cell factor 7-like 2) in human islets and rat b-cells providing a feedback loop. Conclusions/significance: Our findings show that COUP-TFII is a novel component of the GLP-1 signaling cascade that increases b-cell number during the neonatal period. COUP-TFII is required for GLP-1 activation of the b-catenin-dependent pathwayand its expression is under the control of TCF7L2.
Project description:ChickenM-BM- ovalbumin upstream promoter-transcription factor II (COUP-TFII; NR2F2) is an orphan nuclear receptor involved in cell-fate specification, organogenesis, angiogenesis and metabolism. Ablation of COUP-TFII in the mouse uterus causes infertility due to defects in embryo attachment and impaired uterine stromal cell decidualization. Although the function of COUP-TFII in uterine decidualization has been described in mice, its role in the human uterus remains unknown. To better elucidate the mechanisms with which COUP-TFII regulates target gene transcription, genome-wide COUP-TFII binding sites in human endometrial stromal cells (HESC) treated with deciduogenic hormones were identified using ChIP-seq. A total of 16,298 intervals (binding regions) for COUP-TFII were identified compared with the input in HESC chromatin with a very low false discovery rate (0.17%) using a stringent cutoff of p =1x10-10. Distribution of intervals showed that more than half (58.6%) of the COUP-TFII binding sites are located within 10 kb of gene boundaries. 7.5% of total intervals reside within the 10 kb promoter region. A total of 6,077 unique genes were identified to have COUP-TFII binding sites within 10 kb of their gene boundaries. Examination of NR2F2 binding in pooled primary human endometrial stromal cells from 6 healthy women upon decidualization with a hormone cocktail of cAMP, E2 and medroxyprogesterone acetate.
Project description:COUP-TFII, a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily plays a critical role in angiogenesis and organogenesis during embryonic development. Our results indicate that COUP-TFII expression is profoundly upregulated in prostate cancer patients and might serves as biomarker for recurrence prediction. Thus we conduct transcriptome comparison of control and COUP-TFII depleted PC3 cells to gain genomic insights on the biological processes that COUP-TFII is involved in prostate cancer cells. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) shows that the most prominent altered pathways in the COUP-TFII depleted cells are related to cell growth; cell cycle progression and DNA damage response. Indeed many growth related genes including E2F1, p21, CDC25A, Cyclin A and Cyclin B are changed in COUP-TFII knockdown cells, suggesting that COUP-TFII might be an important regulator for prostate cancer cell growth. Further functional assays from cells and mice genetic studies confirm the hypothesis that COUP-TFII serve as the major regulator to control prostrate cancer growth. Together, results provide insight into the role of COUP-TFII in prostate tumorigenesis. PC3 Cells were transfected with siRNA (Control or COUP-TFII siRNA) duplexes (40 nM) and total RNA was isolated 48 hours later.
Project description:Increased COUP-TFII levels are found in human dilated cardiomyopathy as well as in mouse models that develop cardiomyopathy. COUP-TFII overexpression in adult mouse hearts caused ventricular dilation and compromised cardiac functions. To gain insights on COUP-TFII’s effect in hearts, we identified the molecular profile of COUP-TFII overexpressing hearts through microarray analysis. The result may shred light on molecular mechanisms that mediate development of dilated cardiomyopathy. We utilized a previously established CAG-S-COUP-TFII allele and crossed it with the Myh6-MerCreMer (Myh6-MCM) line to overexpress COUP-TFII specifically in cardiomyocytes at two months of age by administration of tamoxifen. The experimental group has genotype of Myh6-MCM; CAG-S-COUP-TFII while the control group consists of Myh6-MCM mice (Figure 1C). Whole ventricles were harvested 16 days post induction for molecular profiling.