Project description:We used unsupervised hierarchical clustering to analyse expression in primary ovarian tumors and associated abdominal deposits. GeneGo pathway analysis of differentially expressed genes between primary tumors and deposits revealed 4 of the top 10 pathways related to cytoskeleton remodeling and cell adhesion. Primary ovarian tumours and matched abdominal deposits were selected for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays.
Project description:We used unsupervised hierarchical clustering to analyse expression in primary ovarian tumors and associated abdominal deposits. GeneGo pathway analysis of differentially expressed genes between primary tumors and deposits revealed 4 of the top 10 pathways related to cytoskeleton remodeling and cell adhesion.
Project description:HGSOC, the most aggressive form of OC, is characterized by insidious onset, rapid intraperitoneal spread and development of massive ascites. Peritoneal adhesion was considered as the first step of abdominal metastasis, underscoring that only tumor cells gain access to peritoneal adherence contribute to metastasis. Studies on ovarian cancer progression were mainly focused on the primary and metastatic tumor cells, while understanding of the ascitic tumor cells is limited. We hypothesized that uncovering the gene expression profiles of ascitic tumor cells from high grade serous ovarian cancer patients will allow us to understand more specifically their unique phenotype which mediates the peritoneal adhesion. In this study, gene expression profiling was completed for 15 magnetic sorted tumor cells samples from matched primary tumors, ascites and metastases of 5 high grade serous ovarian cancer patients. By comparing the expression data from ascitic tumor cells with primary and metastasis tumor cells, we identified a set of differential expressed genes in ovarian ascitic tumor cells advantageous for peritoneal adhesion and metastasis. Further study revealed that ascites microenvironment modulated the ascitic tumor cells phenotype and contributed to ovarian cancer dissemination through facilitating CAFs in formation of compact spheroids with ascitic tumor cells. We used microarrays to profile the expression of 15 matched tumor cells samples in order to identify molecular alteration between primary tumor cells, ascitic tumor cells and metastatic tumor cells in high grade serous ovarian cancer.
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: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.