Project description:The disruption of the mucosal barrier of the digestive tract is a common pathological change in the elderly, which often causes inflammatory bowel disease among old people.Given that microRNA (miRNA) molecules are dysregulated in many diseases, the miRNA expression in young and old normal distal colon mucosa in mice was determined by high-throughput analysis. Three 2-month-old mice and 3 24-month-old were enrolled in this study. We used sequencing analysis to identify miRNA expression in the distal colon mucosa.
Project description:The disruption of the mucosal barrier of the digestive tract is a common pathological change in the elderly, which often causes inflammatory bowel disease among old people.Given that microRNA (miRNA) molecules are dysregulated in many diseases, the miRNA expression in young and old normal distal colon mucosa in humans was determined by high-throughput analysis. Three young people (27, 28, and 36 years of age) and 3 aged people (72, 79, and 81 years of age) were enrolled in this study. We used microarray analysis to identify miRNA expression in the distal colon mucosa.
Project description:Colon cancer is the second most cancer type in Europe. Its development is highly influenced by life style factors such as nutrition and physical inactivity. Detailed biological mechanisms are so far unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of chronic wheel running on gene expression in rat colon mucosa. Therefore six-week-old male Wistar rats (exercise (EX) group, n=20) completed a stress free voluntary running exercise period of 12 weeks. Sedentary rats served as a control (CO, n=9) group. In the colon mucosa, steady-state mRNA expression levels of approximately 10,000 genes were compared between both groups by micro-array analysis (MWG rat 10k array). 8,846 mRNAs were detected above background level. Chronic exercise led to a decreased expression of 47 genes at a threshold-factor of 2.0. 3 genes were found to be up-regulated in the EX group. The identified genes encode proteins involved in signal transduction (n=11), transport (n=8), immune system (n=7), cytoskeleton (n=6), protein targeting (n=6) and metabolism (n=5). Among the genes regulated by chronic exercise, the betaine-homocysteine methyltransferase 2 (BHMT2) seems to be of particular interest. Physical activity may protect against aberrant methylation by repressing the BHMT2 gene and thus contribute to a decreased risk of developing colon cancer. In summary, our experiment presents the first gene expression pattern in rat colon mucosa following chronic wheel running and therefore represents an important step in understanding the molecular mechanisms responsible for the preventive effect of physical activity on the development of colon cancer. Keywords: voluntary running exercise, animal model
Project description:Effects of aldosterone on the transcriptome in distal colon. Expression of genes was studied in distal colon surface cells from aldosterone treated vs. vehicle treated rats.