Project description:Arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are characteristic of hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT). We used single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to analyzed the pulmonary ECs in mice with endothelial-specific deletion of Alk1 gene.
Project description:Arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are characteristic of hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT). We used single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to trace pulmonary EC lineages in mice with endothelial-specific deletion of Alk1 gene.
Project description:Distinct endothelial cell cycle states (early G1 vs. late G1) provide different “windows of opportunity” to enable the differential expression of genes that regulate venous and arterial specification, respectively. Endothelial cell cycle control and arterial-venous identities are disrupted in vascular malformations including arteriovenous (AV) shunts which is a hallmark of hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT). We show how endothelial cell late G1 arrest induced by Palbociclib modulates the expression of genes regulating arterio-venous identity and prevents AVM development induced by BMP9/10 inhibition.
Project description:Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) is a rare autosomal dominant vascular dysplasia characterized by epistaxis, mucocutaneous telangiectases, and arteriovenous malformations (AVM) in visceral organs. In this study, we carried out a liquid biopsy consisting in the isolation of total RNA from plasma exosomes samples from HHT type 1 (HHT1 group) and type 2 (HHT2 group) patients, and healthy relatives (Control group). Upon gene expression data processing and normalization, a bioinformatics analysis was performed for the study of principal components, hierarchical clustering and pairwise comparisons between HHT samples and control group. Results were evaluated in a further validation cohort of HHT and healthy donors by real time PCR and the diagnosis value of exosomal miRNA determined by the ROC curves analysis. We found that exosomal miRNA expression signature clearly distinguishes among healthy and HHT samples and types. Thus, we identified a disease-associated molecular fingerprint of 35 miRNAs over-represented, being 8 specifics for HHT1 and 11 for HHT2; and 30 under-represented, including 9 distinctive for HHT1 and 9 for HHT2. These exosome-transported miRNAs have diagnosis value for HHT, and even allow to distinguish between HHT1 and HHT2.