Project description:Overactive bladder (OAB) syndrome is a condition that has four symptoms: urgency, urinary frequency, nocturia, and urge incontinence and negatively affects a patient’s life. Recently, it is considered that the urinary bladder urothelium is closely linked to pathogenesis of OAB. However, the mechanisms of pathogenesis of OAB at the molecular level remain poorly understood, mainly as a result of lack of modern molecular analysis. The goal of this study is to identify a potential target protein that could act as a predictive factor for effective diagnosis and aid in the development of therapeutic strategies for the treatment of OAB syndrome. We produced OAB in a rat model and performed the first proteomic analysis on the mucosal layer (urothelium) of the bladders of normal and OAB rats.
Project description:E-cadherin upregulation is an early event of reprogramming of fibroblasts to induce pluripotent stem cells (iPS). Knocking down of E-cadherin by shRNA impairs iPS generation, though some colonies with great morphorlogical difference to shRNA control colonies remain. To illustrate the molecular and functional difference between shECAD iPS clones and shRNA control iPS clones, three respective iPS clones (shECAD 4,8,9 and Ctrl 2,3,4) were derived and DNA microarrays were run to analyze the transcriptional profile of these clones.
Project description:Objectives: Much of the information to date in terms of subtypes and function of bladder urothelial cells were derived from anatomical location or by the expression of a small number of marker genes. To have a comprehensive map of the cellular anatomy of bladder urothelial cells, we performed single-cell RNA-sequencing to thoroughly characterize mouse bladder urothelium. Materials and methods: A total of 18,917 single cells from mouse bladder urothelium was analyzed by unbiased single-cell RNA sequencing. The expression of the novel cell marker was confirmed by immunofluorescence using urinary tract infections models. Results: Unsupervised clustering analysis identified 8 transcriptionally distinct cell subpopulations from mouse bladder urothelial cells. We discovered a novel type of bladder urothelial cells marked by Plxna4 that may be involved with host response and wound healing. We also found a group of basal-like cells labeled by ASPM that could be the progenitor cells of adult bladder urothelium. ASPM+ urothelial cells are significantly increased after injury by UPEC. In addition, specific transcription factors were found to be associated with urothelial cell differentiation. At the last, a number of interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome-regulating genes were found differentially expressed among different urothelial cell subpopulations. Conclusions: Our study provides a comprehensive characterization of bladder urothelial cells, which is fundamental to understanding the biology of bladder urothelium and associated bladder disease.
Project description:E-cadherin upregulation is an early event of reprogramming of fibroblasts to induce pluripotent stem cells (iPS). Knocking down of E-cadherin by shRNA impairs iPS generation, though some colonies with great morphorlogical difference to shRNA control colonies remain. To illustrate the molecular and functional difference between shECAD iPS clones and shRNA control iPS clones, three respective iPS clones (shECAD 4,8,9 and Ctrl 2,3,4) were derived and DNA microarrays were run to analyze the transcriptional profile of these clones. OG2 MEFs were infected with Sox2, Klf4, Oct4 and c-Myc (SKOM) plus either Luciferase shRNA (shLUC) or E-cadherin shRNA (shECAD) retrovirus. At Day 6 post infection cells were split onto feeder cells. Several colonies from SKOM+shLuc and SKOM+shECAD were picked out at Day 14 post infection respectively and three cell lines were established, namely Ctrl 2,3,4 for SKOM+shLuc iPS and shECAD 4,8,9 for SKOM+shECAD iPS. All clones were maintained on feeder cells in mESC medium. RNA were extracted from these six cell lines and DNA microarrays were run to analyze the transcriptional profile.
Project description:Urothelium forms a distensible yet impermeable barrier, senses and transduces stimuli, and defends the urinary tract from mechanical, chemical and bacterial injuries. Biochemical and genetic labeling studies support the existence of one or more progenitor populations with the capacity to rapidly regenerate the urothelium following injury, but slow turnover, a low mitotic index, and inconsistent methodologies obscure progenitor identity. The progenitor properties of basal Keratin 5 urothelial cells (K5-UC) have been previously investigated, but those studies focused on embryonic or adult bladder urothelium. Urothelium undergoes desquamation and apoptosis after birth, which requires postnatal proliferation and restoration. Therefore, we mapped the fate of bladder K5-UCs across postnatal development/maturation and following administration of cyclophosphamide to measure homeostatic and reparative progenitor capacities, respectively. In vivo studies demonstrate that basal K5-UCs are age-restricted progenitors in neonates and juveniles, but not in adult mice. Neonatal K5-UCs retain a superior progenitor capacity in vitro, forming larger and more differentiated urothelial organoids than adult K5-UCs. Accordingly, K5-UC transcriptomes are temporally distinct, with enrichment of transcripts associated with cell proliferation and differentiation in neonates. Induction of urothelial proliferation is sufficient to restore adult K5-UC progenitor capacity. Our findings advance the understanding of urothelial progenitors and support a linear model of urothelial formation and regeneration, which may have significant impact on therapeutic development or tissue engineering strategies.
Project description:Whole genome sequencing was performed on several murine iPS cell clones (and their parental cells) from each of three independent reprogramming experiments. Hundreds of single nucleotide variants (SNVs) were detected in each clone, with an average of 11 in coding regions. Affymetrix Mouse Exon 1.0ST arrays were used to compare expression patterns in MPSVII iPS lines, and embryo-derived MPSVII ES cells. Unsupervised hierarchal clustering analysis showed that the iPS clones and ES cell lines clustered randomly, suggesting that their global patterns of gene expression are highly similar. Taken together, our data suggest that most of the genetic variation in iPS cell clones is not caused by reprogramming, but is rather a consequence of cloning individual cells, “capturing” random mutations that preexisted in the single cells that were reprogrammed. These mutations can sometimes contribute to reprogramming “fitness”, thus providing a selective advantage for rare cells when they overexpress reprogramming factors.