Project description:The onset of menopause is accompanied by a dramatic increase in reported symptoms of vaginal dryness, soreness, irritation or itching, pain with intercourse and bleeding after intercourse. Collectively these affect 25-50% of women of post-menopausal age and significantly impact their quality of life. To examine how gene expression differs between these groups, surface vaginal epithelial cells were collected from postmenopausal women suffering from vaginal dryness and appropriate controls not suffering from dryness. Affymetrix GeneChip Human 1.0 ST microarrays were performed on RNA isolated from ten participants.
Project description:The onset of menopause is accompanied by a dramatic increase in reported symptoms of vaginal dryness, soreness, irritation or itching, pain with intercourse and bleeding after intercourse. Collectively these affect 25-50% of women of post-menopausal age and significantly impact their quality of life. To examine how gene expression differs between these groups, surface vaginal epithelial cells were collected from postmenopausal women suffering from vaginal dryness and appropriate controls not suffering from dryness. Affymetrix GeneChip Human 1.0 ST microarrays were performed on RNA isolated from ten participants. Suitable RNA was extracted from ten participants which were classified into two groups, the dryness and control groups, based on diagnosis of dryness by a nurse during gynecoligical examination.
Project description:Maximal aerobic exercise capacity (V̇O2max) is one of the strongest predictors of morbidity and mortality. Aerobic exercise training can increase V̇O2max, but inter-individual variability is marked and unexplained physiologically. The mechanisms underlying this variability have major clinical implications for extending human healthspan. Here, we report the first comprehensive, RNA-seq study of circulating transcriptome signatures related to ΔV̇O2max. We used RNA-seq to characterize transcriptomic predictors of ΔV̇O2max in healthy women who completed a 16-week, randomized controlled trial comparing higher vs. lower aerobic exercise training volume and intensity (four training groups, fully crossed). We found striking baseline gene expression differences in subjects who responded to aerobic exercise training with robust (R) vs. little/no (NR) ΔV̇O2max.
Project description:In MTN-007, a phase 1, randomized, double-blinded rectal microbicide trial, we used systems genomics/proteomics to determine the effect of tenofovir 1% gel, nonoxynol-9 2% gel, placebo gel or no treatment on rectal biopsies taken at baseline, after one application or after seven daily applications (15 subjects/arm). Experiments were repeated using primary vaginal epithelial cells from four healthy women. 36 Arrays (3 primary vaginal epithelial cell lines from healthy women donors, cultured with or without 50uM or 500 uM Tenofovir for 1,4,7, or 14 days per donor cell line. A no treatment, culture media only control was included for each donor cell line and for each time point.