Project description:Sex-differences in human liver gene expression were characterized on a genome-wide scale using a large liver sample collection, allowing for detection of small expression differences with high statistical power. 1,249 sex-biased genes were identified, 70% showing higher expression in females. Chromosomal bias was apparent, with female-biased genes enriched on chrX and male-biased genes enriched on chrY and chr19, where 11 male-biased zinc-finger KRAB-repressor domain genes are distributed in six clusters. Top biological functions and diseases significantly enriched in sex-biased genes include transcription, chromatin organization and modification, sexual reproduction, lipid metabolism and cardiovascular disease. Notably, sex-biased genes are enriched at loci associated with polygenic dyslipidemia and coronary artery disease in genome-wide association studies. Moreover, of the 8 sex-biased genes at these loci, 4 have been directly linked to monogenic disorders of lipid metabolism and show an expression profile in females (elevated expression of ABCA1, APOA5 and LDLR; reduced expression of LIPC) that is consistent with the lower female risk of coronary artery disease. Female-biased expression was also observed for CYP7A1, which is activated by drugs used to treat hypercholesterolemia. Several sex-biased drug-metabolizing enzyme genes were identified, including members of the CYP, UGT, GPX and ALDH families. Half of 879 mouse orthologs, including many genes of lipid metabolism and homeostasis, show growth hormone-regulated sex-biased expression in mouse liver, suggesting growth hormone might play a similar regulatory role in human liver. Finally, the evolutionary rate of protein-coding regions for human-mouse orthologs, revealed by dN/dS ratio, is significantly higher for genes showing the same sex-bias in both species than for non-sex-biased genes. These findings establish that human hepatic sex differences are widespread and affect diverse cell metabolic processes, and may help explain sex differences in lipid profiles associated with sex differential risk of coronary artery disease.
Project description:Sex-differences in human liver gene expression were characterized on a genome-wide scale using a large liver sample collection, allowing for detection of small expression differences with high statistical power. 1,249 sex-biased genes were identified, 70% showing higher expression in females. Chromosomal bias was apparent, with female-biased genes enriched on chrX and male-biased genes enriched on chrY and chr19, where 11 male-biased zinc-finger KRAB-repressor domain genes are distributed in six clusters. Top biological functions and diseases significantly enriched in sex-biased genes include transcription, chromatin organization and modification, sexual reproduction, lipid metabolism and cardiovascular disease. Notably, sex-biased genes are enriched at loci associated with polygenic dyslipidemia and coronary artery disease in genome-wide association studies. Moreover, of the 8 sex-biased genes at these loci, 4 have been directly linked to monogenic disorders of lipid metabolism and show an expression profile in females (elevated expression of ABCA1, APOA5 and LDLR; reduced expression of LIPC) that is consistent with the lower female risk of coronary artery disease. Female-biased expression was also observed for CYP7A1, which is activated by drugs used to treat hypercholesterolemia. Several sex-biased drug-metabolizing enzyme genes were identified, including members of the CYP, UGT, GPX and ALDH families. Half of 879 mouse orthologs, including many genes of lipid metabolism and homeostasis, show growth hormone-regulated sex-biased expression in mouse liver, suggesting growth hormone might play a similar regulatory role in human liver. Finally, the evolutionary rate of protein-coding regions for human-mouse orthologs, revealed by dN/dS ratio, is significantly higher for genes showing the same sex-bias in both species than for non-sex-biased genes. These findings establish that human hepatic sex differences are widespread and affect diverse cell metabolic processes, and may help explain sex differences in lipid profiles associated with sex differential risk of coronary artery disease. A first set of randomized liver RNA pools (WS9) was generated by randomly distributing 112 male and 112 female liver RNA samples into 8 pools comprised of 14 male liver samples (pools M1 to M8), and 8 pools of 14 female liver samples each (pools F1 to F8). A second set of 16 pools (WS10) was prepared from the same set of 224 liver samples in the same way (pools M9 to M16 and F9 to F16). The 16 liver RNA pools of each sex were used in a total of 16 male vs. female two-color hybridization microarrays by pairing pool M1 and pool F1, pool M2 with pool F2, etc. Fluorescent labeling of RNA and hybridization of the Alexa 555-labeled and Alexa 647-labeled amplified RNA samples to Agilent Whole Human Genome oligonucleotide microarrays (4 x 44K format; Agilent Technology, Palo Alto, CA; catalog # G4112F) were carried out, with dye swaps to eliminate dye bias.
Project description:Following myocardial infarction, the prognosis for females is better than males. Estrogen is thought to be protective, but clinical trials with hormone replacement failed to show protection. Here, we sought to identify novel mechanisms that might explain this sex-based difference. By diverging from the traditional focus on sex hormones, we employed a conceptually novel approach to this question by using a non-biased approach to measure global changes in gene expression following infarction. Three days after coronary artery ligation surgery, RNA was extracted from left ventricular samples (infarct excluded) using the QIAGEN RNeasy Fibrous Tissue Mini Kit. Four groups were compared with a 2x2 design: male and female, sham and coronary artery ligation, with five mice per group.
Project description:This trial will determine the clinical effectiveness of polygenic risk score testing among patients at high genetic risk for at least one of six diseases (coronary artery disease, atrial fibrillation, type 2 diabetes mellitus, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, or prostate cancer), measured by time-to-diagnosis of prevalent or incident disease over 24 months.
Project description:The human LncRNA microarray analysis of the 6 monocytes samples from Coronary Artery Disease patients and non Coronary Artery Disease 3 Coronary Artery Disease patients and 3 non-Coronary Artery Disease donors
Project description:Sex-dependent pituitary growth hormone (GH) secretory patterns determine the sex-biased expression of >1,000 genes in mouse and rat liver, affecting lipid and drug metabolism, inflammation and disease. A fundamental biological question is how robust differential expression can be achieved for hundreds of sex-biased genes simply based on the GH input signal pattern: pulsatile GH stimulation in males vs. near-continuous GH exposure in females. STAT5 is an essential transcriptional mediator of the sex-dependent effects of GH in the liver, but the mechanisms that underlie its sex-dependent actions are obscure. Here we elucidate the dynamic, sex-dependent binding of STAT5 and the GH/STAT5-regulated repressor BCL6 to mouse liver chromatin, revealing the counteractive interplay between these two regulators of liver sex-specificity. Our findings establish a close correlation between sex-dependent STAT5 binding and sex-biased target gene expression. Moreover, sex-dependent STAT5 binding correlated positively with sex-biased DNase hypersensitivity and H3-K4me1 and H3-K4me3 (activating) marks, correlated negatively with sex-biased H3-K27me3 (repressive) marks, and was associated with sex-differentially enriched motifs for HNF6/CDP factors. Importantly, BCL6 binding was preferentially associated with repression of female-biased STAT5 targets in male liver. Furthermore, BCL6 and STAT5 common targets but not BCL6 unique targets showed strong enrichment for lipid and drug metabolism. These findings provide a comprehensive, genome-wide view of the mechanisms whereby these two GH-regulated transcription factors establish and maintain sex differences affecting liver physiology and disease. The approaches used here to characterize sex-dependent STAT5 and BCL6 binding can be applied to other condition-specific regulatory factors and binding sites and their interplay with co-operative chromatin-binding factors.
Project description:Atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CAD) development encompasses endothelial dysfunction, vascular infiltration of immune cells and smooth muscle cell dedifferentiation. However, the specific disease-associated transcriptional changes occurring within each of the major lesional cell types remain incompletely characterized. Here, we identify disease-associated cell states within the major aortic cell types and investigate the similarities and differences in their gene signatures compared to each other and to healthy (non-diseased) cells. By integrating human genetic association data and generating polygenic risk scores, we further use the atherosclerosis-associated cell state gene signatures to interrogate how the perturbed states of different lesional cell types contribute to the genetic risk for CAD.
Project description:Atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CAD) development encompasses endothelial dysfunction, vascular infiltration of immune cells and smooth muscle cell dedifferentiation. However, the specific disease-associated transcriptional changes occurring within each of the major lesional cell types remain incompletely characterized. Here, we identify disease-associated cell states within the major aortic cell types and investigate the similarities and differences in their gene signatures compared to each other and to healthy (non-diseased) cells. By integrating human genetic association data and generating polygenic risk scores, we further use the atherosclerosis-associated cell state gene signatures to interrogate how the perturbed states of different lesional cell types contribute to the genetic risk for CAD.
Project description:In this research, two 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal modified peptides with differential performance were identified in the plasma of patients with coronary artery disease, whether their antibodies were different in the plasma of patients with coronary artery disease and healthy people.