Project description:Aberrant activation of TGF-β2 plays an important role in the pathogenesis of adenomyosis. We used microarrays to detail the machanism underlying aberrant activation of TGF-β2 in adenomyosis
Project description:Adenomyosis is an estrogen-dependent disease in which endometrial glands and stroma are pathologically demonstrated in the myometrium. Despite its prevalence and severity of symptoms, the precise etiology and physiopathology of adenomyosis is not well understood.Vitamin defciency increase in women with adenomyosis. Much less is known about the mechanism of their relationship. We found the retinol-binding protein receptor STRA6 upregulation in uterinespiral arteries from adenomyosis patients. The increased estrogen level promote the STRA6 expression, resulting the depressed Wnt/β-catenin signaling mediated by FASN/GSK-3β interaction. Overexpression of STRA6 induced epithelial to mesenchymal transition process. miR-1249-5p achieved its negative function by regulating the target gene through 3' UTR.The depletion of STRA6 in vivo alleviated the pathogenesis of adenomyosis. These results reveal a hitherto undesribed positive feedback loop between estrogen and STRA6 in adenomyosis pathogenesis. Components of vitamin A metabolism network have more complex activities than simply controlling or transferring VA compounds between different cells.
Project description:Adenomyosis is an estrogen-dependent disease in which endometrial glands and stroma are pathologically demonstrated in the myometrium. Despite its prevalence and severity of symptoms, the precise etiology and physiopathology of adenomyosis is not well understood.Vitamin defciency increase in women with adenomyosis. Much less is known about the mechanism of their relationship. We found the retinol-binding protein receptor STRA6 upregulation in uterinespiral arteries from adenomyosis patients. The increased estrogen level promote the STRA6 expression, resulting the depressed Wnt/β-catenin signaling mediated by FASN/GSK-3β interaction. Overexpression of STRA6 induced epithelial to mesenchymal transition process. miR-1249-5p achieved its negative function by regulating the target gene through 3' UTR.The depletion of STRA6 in vivo alleviated the pathogenesis of adenomyosis. These results reveal a hitherto undesribed positive feedback loop between estrogen and STRA6 in adenomyosis pathogenesis. Components of vitamin A metabolism network have more complex activities than simply controlling or transferring VA compounds between different cells.
Project description:Endothelial-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) is a complex process, in which differentiated endothelial cells undergo phenotypic transition to mesenchymal cells. Given the diversity of the vascular system in architecture, structure, and embryonic origins, it is not clear if endothelial cells lining different vessels are able to undergo EndMT. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the molecular and functional changes that occur in different types of endothelial cells after induction of EndMT through overexpression of Snail and TGF-β2. Different types of endothelial cells (human umbilical vein, heart, and lung) have distinct response when induced to undergo EndMT. Coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAEC) induced with combined Snail overexpression plus TGF-β2 treatment promotes a decrease of endothelial markers, an increase of mesenchymal markers and migration. The mechanism that HCAEC undergoing EndMT may be mediated through Notch and non-canonical Wnt signaling pathways. These results provide the foundation for understanding the roles of specific signaling pathways in mediating EndMT in endothelial cells from different anatomical origin.
Project description:m6A-mRNA&lncRNA Epitranscriptomic Microarray of primary mouse RPE cells comparing control untreated RPE cells with RPE cells treated with TGF-β2 at a concentration of 10 ng/ml. The goal was to determine the effects of RNA m6a methylation on primary mouse RPE cells undergoing epithelial-mesenchymal transition induced by TGF-β2.
Project description:PHF8 exerts distinct functions in different types of cancer. However, the mechanisms underlying its specific functions in each case remain obscure. To establish whether overexpression of PHF8 regulates the TGF-β induced the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), we treated MCF10A-Mock (control) and MCF10A-PHF8wt (overexpressing wild-type PHF8) cells with TGF-β1 for 0, 24, 48 and 72 hours and performed RNA-seq in biological duplicates. Our data indicated that EMT gene signatures were significantly enriched in MCF10A-PHF8 cells with TGF-β1 treatment at all time points, strongly indicating that PHF8 overexpression induces a sustained EMT signaling program.
Project description:Tumor microenvironment contains various components including cancer cells, tumor vessels, and cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs), comprising of tumor-promoting myofibroblasts and tumor-suppressing fibroblasts. Multiple lines of evidence indicated that transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) induces the formation of myofibroblasts and other types of mesenchymal (non-myofibroblastic) cells from endothelial cells. Recent reports showed that fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) modulates TGF-β-induced mesenchymal transition of endothelial cells, but the molecular mechanisms regarding the signals that control the transcriptional networks during the formation of different groups of fibroblasts remain largely unclear. Here, we studied the roles of FGF2 during the regulation of TGF-β-induced mesenchymal transition of tumor endothelial cells (TECs). We demonstrated that auto/paracrine FGF signals in TECs inhibit TGF-β-induced endothelial-to-myofibroblast transition (End-MyoT), leading to suppressed formation of contractile myofibroblast cells, but on the other hand can also collaborate with TGF-β in promoting the formation of active fibroblastic cells which have migratory and proliferative properties. FGF2 modulated TGF-β-induced formation of myofibroblastic and non-myofibroblastic cells from TECs via transcriptional regulation of the array of various mesenchymal markers and growth factors. Furthermore, we observed that TECs treated with TGF-β were more competent in promoting in vivo tumor growth than TECs treated with TGF-β and FGF2. Mechanistically, we showed that Elk1 mediated this FGF2-induced inhibition of End-MyoT via inhibition of TGF-β-induced transcriptional activation of α-SMA promoter by myocardin-related transcription factor (MRTF)-A. Our data suggest that TGF-β and FGF2 oppose and cooperate with each other during the formation of myofibroblastic and non-myofibroblastic cells from TECs to determine the characteristics of the mesenchymal cells in tumor microenvironment. Identification of marker genes for TGF-β-induced endothelial-to-myofibroblast transition
Project description:Extracellular pH (pHe) is lower in many tumors than in the corresponding normal tissue. Acidic tumor microenvironment has been shown to facilitate epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) and tumor metastasis, while the mechanisms underlying tumor acidic microenvironment-induced tumor cell metastasis remain undefined. Here, we aimed to investigate the tumor metastasis and the EMT by acidic microenvironment and to explore their mechanisms and clinical significance in lung cancer. Results showed that acidic pHe remarkably enhanced invasion ability of lung cells accompanying with increased mesenchymal and decreased epithelial markers. Moreover, acidic pHe triggered the inhibition of microRNA-7 (miR-7) expression and activation of TGF-β2/SMAD signaling. Mechanistic studies showed that TGF-β2 is a direct potential target gene of miR-7, and acidity-induced metastasis could be abolished by treatment with a TGFβRI inhibitor, anti-TGF-β2 antibody and miR-7 mimic, respectively. The clinical samples further revealed that miR-7 was decreased in lung tissues and antagonistically correlated with TGF-β2 expression, associating with overall survival and metastasis. In conclusion, our study indicated that acidic pHe showed enhanced invasive potential, and enhanced potential to develop experimental metastases by a novel mechanism involving tumor acidic microenvironment-induced regulation of miR-7/TGF-β2/SMAD axis. Our findings suggest that the possibility that pHe of the primary tumor may be an important prognostic parameter for lung cancer patients merit clinical investigation. Moreover, miR-7 may serve as prognostic molecular marker and a novel therapeutic target for lung cancer.
Project description:Endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) is a dynamic transformation process that has a functional impact upon pathological vascular remodelling. The molecular mechanisms that govern EndMT remain largely unknown. By induction of EndMT in human primary endothelial cells (EC), using a combination of transforming growth factor-β2 (TGF-b2) and interleukin-1b (IL-1β), we identified the dramatic loss of the lncRNA MIR503HG, as a common signature across multiple primary EC types. Targeted depletion of MIR503HG spontaneously induced EndMT. Overexpression of MIR503HG repressed EndMT despite TGF-β2 and IL-1β co-stimulation. RNA-seq was carried out to identify the changes in gene expression induced by MIR503HG overexpression. We showed that over 25% of the EndMT-transcriptome signature was inhibited upon MIR503HG overexpression. Crucially, phenotypic changes induced by MIR503HG were independent of the functional regulation of miR-503 and miR-424, both harbored within the MIR503HG locus. Collectively, we identify the lncRNA MIR503HG as an essential regulator of EndMT.
Project description:Endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) is a dynamic transformation process that has a functional impact upon pathological vascular remodelling. However, the molecular mechanisms that govern EndMT remain largely unknown. We modelled this process in vitro by exposing human primary endothelial cells to a combination of transforming growth factor-β2 (TGF- β2) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β). RNAseq was carried out to analyse the change of gene expression during the transition and define the transcriptional architecture of EndMT.