Project description:The incidence of prostate cancer is directly linked to age, but we still lack an adequate understanding of the prostatic aging-associated changes that facilitate carcinogenesis. In this study, we investigated possible associated factors in the aged prostate microenvironment, using an orthotopic mouse model of prostate cancer. We found that aged mice showed accelerated growth of TRAMP-C2 cells, compared with young mice. Metastatic lesions following intravenous injection were also more numerous in aged mice. TRAMP-C2 tumors from young and aged mice showed no significant differences concerning their proliferation index, apoptosis or angiogenesis. However, analysis of tumor-infiltrating immune cells by immunohistochemistry and RNA-seq gene expression revealed that aged mice present higher numbers of macrophages in normal prostatic tissue and that these are quickly polarized towards an M2 phenotype upon TRAMP-C2 cells engraftment.
Project description:Current smokers develop metastatic prostate cancer more frequently than nonsmokers, suggesting that a tobacco-derived factor induces metastasis. To identify smoking-induced alterations in human prostate tumors, we analyzed gene and protein expression of tumors from current, past, and never smokers and observed distinct molecular alterations in current smokers. Specifically, an immune and inflammation signature was identified in prostate tumors of current smokers that was either attenuated or absent in past and never smokers. Key characteristics of this signature included augmented immunoglobulin expression by tumor-infiltrating B cells, NF-kB activation, and increased interleukin-8 in tumor and blood. In an alternate approach to characterize smoking-induced oncogenic alterations, we explored the effects of nicotine in prostate cancer cells and prostate cancer-prone TRAMP mice. These experiments showed that nicotine increases both invasiveness of human prostate cancer cells and metastasis in tumor-bearing TRAMP mice, indicating that nicotine can induce a phenotype that resembles the epidemiology of smoking-associated prostate cancer progression. In summary, we describe distinct oncogenic alterations in prostate tumors from current smokers and show that nicotine can enhance prostate cancer metastasis. TRAMP mice in five replicates received either tap water or a solution of 250 µg/ml of nicotine [nicotine tartrate salt (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO)] in tap water
Project description:Introgressed variants from other species can be an important source of genetic variation because they may arise rapidly, can include multiple mutations on a single haplotype, and have often been pretested by selection in the species of origin. Although introgressed alleles are generally deleterious, several studies have reported introgression as the source of adaptive alleles-including the rodenticide-resistant variant of Vkorc1 that introgressed from Mus spretus into European populations of Mus musculus domesticus. Here, we conducted bidirectional genome scans to characterize introgressed regions into one wild population of M. spretus from Spain and three wild populations of M. m. domesticus from France, Germany, and Iran. Despite the fact that these species show considerable intrinsic postzygotic reproductive isolation, introgression was observed in all individuals, including in the M. musculus reference genome (GRCm38). Mus spretus individuals had a greater proportion of introgression compared with M. m. domesticus, and within M. m. domesticus, the proportion of introgression decreased with geographic distance from the area of sympatry. Introgression was observed on all autosomes for both species, but not on the X-chromosome in M. m. domesticus, consistent with known X-linked hybrid sterility and inviability genes that have been mapped to the M. spretus X-chromosome. Tract lengths were generally short with a few outliers of up to 2.7 Mb. Interestingly, the longest introgressed tracts were in olfactory receptor regions, and introgressed tracts were significantly enriched for olfactory receptor genes in both species, suggesting that introgression may be a source of functional novelty even between species with high barriers to gene flow.
Project description:Osteopontin (OPN) is a secreted glycoprotein, belonging to the non-structural extracellular matrix (ECM), and its over expression in human prostate cancer cells has been associated with disease progression, androgen independence and metastases. Nevertheless the pathophysiology of OPN in prostate tumorigenesis has never been studied. We crossed TRansgenic Adenocarcinoma of the Mouse Prostate (TRAMP) mice with OPN deficient (OPN-/-) mice and followed tumor onset and progression in these double mutants. Ultrasound examination detected the early onset of a spherical homogeneous tumor in about 60% of OPN-/- TRAMP mice that seldom occurs in parental TRAMP mice. Histology and immunohistochemistry characterized these tumors for being Tag positive but negative for AR, highly proliferative and endowed of neuroendocrine (NE) features. Gene expression profiling showed up-regulation of genes involved in tumor progression, cell cycle and neuronal differentiation in OPN-deficient versus -sufficient TRAMP tumors. Down-regulated genes included key genes of TGFï?¢ pathway, and a role for TGFï?¢ in NE differentiation of prostate cancer was also confirmed at the protein level. Furthermore, NE genes and particularly those characterizing early prostatic lesions of OPN-deficient mice were found to correlate with those of human NE tumours. These data underscore a novel role of OPN at early stages of prostate cancer growth, protecting against the development of aggressive NE tumors. Total RNA obtained from prostate tumors from 18 and 30 weeks old TRAMP mice, compared to RNA extracted from prostate tumors and prostate tissue from Osteopontin-deleted TRAMP mice
Project description:We collected whole genome testis expression data from hybrid zone mice. We integrated GWAS mapping of testis expression traits and low testis weight to gain insight into the genetic basis of hybrid male sterility.
Project description:Analysis of gene expression of prostate tumors arisen in TRAMP mice in which mast cells are pharmacologically stabilized or genetically ablated.The hypothesis tested in the present study was that mast cells inhibition or absence impacted prostate tumor development and histotype. Results demonstrate that prostate tumors arisen in TRAMP mice in which mast cells are pharmacologically stabilized or genetically ablated have a neuroendocrine signature. Total RNA obtained from prostate tumors from 24 wks old TRAMP mice chronically treated with sodium chromoglycate (cromolyn) since 8 wks of age, and from 24 wks old TRAMP KitW-sh mice, compared to untreated 30 wks old TRAMP mice and to non tumoral prostates
Project description:Current smokers develop metastatic prostate cancer more frequently than nonsmokers, suggesting that a tobacco-derived factor induces metastasis. To identify smoking-induced alterations in human prostate tumors, we analyzed gene and protein expression of tumors from current, past, and never smokers and observed distinct molecular alterations in current smokers. Specifically, an immune and inflammation signature was identified in prostate tumors of current smokers that was either attenuated or absent in past and never smokers. Key characteristics of this signature included augmented immunoglobulin expression by tumor-infiltrating B cells, NF-kB activation, and increased interleukin-8 in tumor and blood. In an alternate approach to characterize smoking-induced oncogenic alterations, we explored the effects of nicotine in prostate cancer cells and prostate cancer-prone TRAMP mice. These experiments showed that nicotine increases both invasiveness of human prostate cancer cells and metastasis in tumor-bearing TRAMP mice, indicating that nicotine can induce a phenotype that resembles the epidemiology of smoking-associated prostate cancer progression. In summary, we describe distinct oncogenic alterations in prostate tumors from current smokers and show that nicotine can enhance prostate cancer metastasis. Prostate tissues of cancer patients were selected for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. Gene expression profiles of current, past and never smokers were compared.
Project description:Current smokers develop metastatic prostate cancer more frequently than nonsmokers, suggesting that a tobacco-derived factor induces metastasis. To identify smoking-induced alterations in human prostate tumors, we analyzed gene and protein expression of tumors from current, past, and never smokers and observed distinct molecular alterations in current smokers. Specifically, an immune and inflammation signature was identified in prostate tumors of current smokers that was either attenuated or absent in past and never smokers. Key characteristics of this signature included augmented immunoglobulin expression by tumor-infiltrating B cells, NF-kB activation, and increased interleukin-8 in tumor and blood. In an alternate approach to characterize smoking-induced oncogenic alterations, we explored the effects of nicotine in prostate cancer cells and prostate cancer-prone TRAMP mice. These experiments showed that nicotine increases both invasiveness of human prostate cancer cells and metastasis in tumor-bearing TRAMP mice, indicating that nicotine can induce a phenotype that resembles the epidemiology of smoking-associated prostate cancer progression. In summary, we describe distinct oncogenic alterations in prostate tumors from current smokers and show that nicotine can enhance prostate cancer metastasis. 22RV1 and LnCap in three replicates were treated with 100uM nocotine for 24 hours and then compared the global gene expression profiles.