Project description:GATA6 mutations have been linked to adult-onset diabetes with subclinical or no exocrine insufficiency suggesting an important role for GATA6 in humanβcell physiology. To investigate the role of GATA6 in adult endocrine pancreas, we generated mice in which Gata6 is specifically inactivated in the pancreas. These mice develop glucose intolerance. Islets deficient in GATA6 activity display decreased insulin content and impaired glucose-induced insulin secretion. Gata6-deficient ß cells exhibit ultrastructural abnormalities including increased immature insulin granules, swollen mitochondria and disorganized endoplasmic reticulum. Microarray analysis revealed that loss of GATA6 greatly impacts ß cell specific gene expression.
Project description:GATA6 is a master regulator of differentiation in the pancreas and its expression levels determine the two main molecular subtypes of pancreatic cancer. High GATA6 contributes to the “classical” pancreatic cancer subtype, which is associated with a higher degree of tumor differentiation and better disease prognosis. However, why GATA6 expression varies across pancreatic cancers and what regulate GATA6 expression remain elusive. Here we report that the oncogenic KRAS-activated ERK signaling suppresses GATA6 transcription in pancreatic cancers. GATA6 mRNA levels inversely correlated with KRAS/ERK activity in pancreatic tumors. A genome-wide CRISPR screen in a GATA6-EGFP reporter knockin cell line identified JUNB as the ERK-regulated transcriptional repressor for GATA6. Active ERK stabilizes JUNB protein while KRAS/ERK inhibition led to ubiquitin-independent proteasomal degradation of JUNB and increased transcription of GATA6. Up-regulation of GATA6 enhanced chemosensitivity of pancreatic cancer cells and KRAS/ERK inhibitors synergized with chemotherapy in a GATA6-dependent manner. Our study identifies how oncogenic KRAS/ERK signaling suppresses GATA6 to cause dedifferentiation in pancreatic cancer. Combining KRAS/ERK inhibitors with standard-of-care chemotherapies could be a promising therapeutic strategy for treating pancreatic cancers.
Project description:The aim of this study was to determine the effect of transgenic Aire expression on the transcriptional profile of a tissue that normally does not express Aire: pancreatic islets. The transcriptional profile of transgenic RIP-Aire27 islets was compared to non-transgenic littermate islets as well as to archival NOD thymic medullary epithelial cells (MEC) data. All data were from non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice Keywords: RIP-Aire transgenic vs non-transgenic comparison
Project description:Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly lethal disease characterized by late diagnosis and treatment resistance. Recurrent genetic alterations in defined genes in association with perturbations of developmental cell signaling pathways have been associated with PDAC development and progression. Here, we show that GATA6 contributes to pancreatic carcinogenesis during the temporal progression of pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia by virtue of Wnt pathway activation. GATA6 is recurrently amplified by both quantitative-PCR and fluorescent in-situ hybridization in human pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia and in PDAC tissues, and GATA6 copy number is significantly correlated with overall patient survival. Forced overexpression of GATA6 in cancer cell lines enhanced cell proliferation and colony formation in soft agar in vitro and growth in vivo, as well as increased Wnt signaling. By contrast siRNA mediated knockdown of GATA6 led to corresponding decreases in these same parameters. The effects of GATA6 were found to be due to its ability to bind DNA, as forced overexpression of a DNA-binding mutant of GATA6 had no effects on cell growth in vitro or in vivo, nor did they affect Wnt signaling levels in these same cells. A microarray analysis revealed the Wnt antagonist Dickopf-1 (DKK1) as a dysregulated gene in association with GATA6 knockdown, and direct binding of GATA6 to the DKK1 promoter was confirmed by chromatin immunoprecipitation and electrophoretic mobility shift assays. Transient transfection of GATA6, but not mutant GATA6, into cancer cell lines led to decreased DKK1 mRNA expression and secretion of DKK1 protein into culture media. Forced overexpression of DKK1 antagonized the effects of GATA6 on Wnt signaling in pancreatic cancer cells. These findings illustrate that one mechanism by which GATA6 promotes pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia is by virtue of its activation of canonical Wnt signaling via regulation of DKK1. AsPC1 and A13A cells were stably transfected with a lentivirus expressing mock shRNA or shRNA to GATA6. Each control/shRNA pair (total 4 samples) was analyzed by two-color microarray and the genes commonly dysregulated in both cell lines identified.
Project description:To gain insights into how pancreatic cells are programmed in vivo, we profiled Ring1b in embryonic stem cells and pancreatic islets
Project description:NOD mice deficient in the transcription factor Batf3 never develop diabetes. The goal of this study was to determine if NOD.Batf3-/- mice islets had any inflammatory signature associated with type 1 diabetes. Islets of Langerhans were isolated from NOD, NOD.Batf3-/-, and NOD.Rag1-/- and then compared to determine inflammatory gene profiles. At 6 and 8 weeks of age, NOD.Batf3-/- islets had an absence of inflammatory gene expression and were almost identical to uninflamed NOD.Rag1-/- islets. This work shows that absence of the Batf3 transcription factor is sufficient to prevent all the inflammatory sequelae of autoimmune diabetes. RNA was isolated from the pancreatic islets of Langerhans of 27 experimental mice. Mice were aged either 6 or 8 weeks. Three genotypes were tested: NOD, NOD.Rag1-/-, and NOD.Batf3-/-. There were 3-6 biological replicates per condition. All mice were female. All data was normalized using RMA in Arraystar.
Project description:The aim of this study was to determine the effect of transgenic Aire expression on the transcriptional profile of a tissue that normally does not express Aire: pancreatic islets. The transcriptional profile of transgenic RIP-Aire27 islets was compared to non-transgenic littermate islets as well as to archival NOD thymic medullary epithelial cells (MEC) data. All data were from non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice Experiment Overall Design: 3-wk-old individual male RIP-Aire27 or non-transgenic littermates islets were isolated by gradient purification followed by hanpicking under a microscope for subsequent RNA purification, labeling and hybridization to Affymetrix arrays.
Project description:To gain insights into how pancreatic cells are programmed in vivo, we profiled RNA expression in pancreatic islets of pancreatic Ring1b conditional KO mice (conditional using a pancreas specfic Cre; Pdx1-Cre) and their littermate controls