Project description:POWV isolate from Long Island (POWV-LI-9) is released basolaterally from humban brain microvascular endothelial cells (hBMECs) and infects primary human brain vascular pericutes (hBVPs).
Project description:POWV isolate from Long Island (POWV-LI-9) is released basolaterally from humban brain microvascular endothelial cells (hBMECs) and infects primary human brain vascular pericutes (hBVPs).
Project description:For the formation of the blood-brain barrier not only endothelial cells alone, but also their interaction with surrounding cell types, like pericytes, plays an important role, and co-culture of the two cell types increases barrier function in vitro. Furthermore, observed sex differences with regard to several cardiovascular as well as neurodegenerative disorders have led to the hypothesis that the female sex hormone estrogen might protect from endothelial barrier break-down. Microarray analysis was performed to determine the effect of co-culture on the gene expression profiles of pericytes and endothelial cells. Additionally, cells were treated with and without estradiol in order to determine possible effects of the sex hormone on the two cell types in mono- and co-cultures.
Project description:Brain metastasis of lung cancer causes high mortality, but the exact mechanisms underlying the metastasis remain unclear. Here we report that vascular pericytes derived from CD44+ lung cancer stem cells (CSCs) in lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) potently cause brain metastases through GPR124-mediated trans-endothelial migration (TEM). CD44+ CSCs in the perivascular niche generate the majority of vascular pericytes in lung ADC. CSC-derived pericyte-like cells (Cd-pericytes) exhibit remarkable TEM capacity to effectively intravasate into vessel lumina, survive in the circulation, extravasate into the brain parenchyma, and then de-differentiate into tumorigenic CSCs to form metastases. Moreover, Cd-pericytes uniquely express GPR124, a G-protein-coupled receptor. GPR124 mediates through Wnt7-β-Catenin activation to enhance TEM capacity of Cd-pericytes for intravasation and extravasation, two critical steps during tumor metastasis. Furthermore, selective disruption of Cd-pericytes, GPR124 or Wnt7-β-Catenin signaling markedly reduced brain and liver metastases of lung ADC. Our findings uncover an unappreciated cellular and molecular paradigm driving tumor metastasis.
Project description:Brain metastasis of lung cancer causes high mortality, but the exact mechanisms underlying the metastasis remain unclear. Here we report that vascular pericytes derived from CD44+ lung cancer stem cells (CSCs) in lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) potently cause brain metastases through GPR124-mediated trans-endothelial migration (TEM). CD44+ CSCs in the perivascular niche generate the majority of vascular pericytes in lung ADC. CSC-derived pericyte-like cells (Cd-pericytes) exhibit remarkable TEM capacity to effectively intravasate into vessel lumina, survive in the circulation, extravasate into the brain parenchyma, and then de-differentiate into tumorigenic CSCs to form metastases. Moreover, Cd-pericytes uniquely express GPR124, a G-protein-coupled receptor. GPR124 mediates through Wnt7-β-Catenin activation to enhance TEM capacity of Cd-pericytes for intravasation and extravasation, two critical steps during tumor metastasis. Furthermore, selective disruption of Cd-pericytes, GPR124 or Wnt7-β-Catenin signaling markedly reduced brain and liver metastases of lung ADC. Our findings uncover an unappreciated cellular and molecular paradigm driving tumor metastasis.
Project description:To understand the molecular mechanisms during the maturation of cord blood-derived endothelial cells into blood brain barrier capillary endothelial cells (BCECs), we have employed whole genome microarray expression profiling to identify genes responsible for the maturation process. Hematopoietic stem cells were isolated from cord-blood samples and differentiated into endothelial cells. The endothelial cells were further maturated into BCECs by co-culturing with blood-brain barrier (BBB) specific cells (pericytes) for 3 days and 6 days. The gene expression in human hematopoietic stem cell-derived endothelial cells was measured at 3 and 6 days after co-culture with pericytes. Three independent experiments were performed at each time (3 or 6 days). The RNA obtained from different experiments were pooled together for each group before microarray studies.
Project description:The objective of this array was to determine the global gene expression profile of human placental pericytes for comparison with other publicly available arrays of pericytes and mesenchymal stromal cells isolated from various human tissues. Pericytes are critical cellular components of the microvasculature that play a major role in vascular development and pathologies, yet their study has been hindered by lack of a standardized method for their isolation and growth. Here we report a method for culturing human pericytes from a readily available tissue source, placenta, and provide a thorough characterization of resultant cell populations. We developed an optimized protocol for obtaining pericytes by outgrowth from microvessel fragments recovered after enzymatic digestion of human placental tissue. We characterized outgrowth populations by immunostaining, by gene expression analysis, and by functional evaluation of cells implanted in vivo. Our approach yields human pericytes that may be serially expanded in culture and that uniformly express the cellular markers NG2, CD90, CD146, α-SMA, and PDGFR-β, but lack markers of smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells, and leukocytes. When co-implanted with human endothelial cells into C.B-17 SCID/bg mice, human pericytes invest and stabilize developing human endothelial cell-lined microvessels. We conclude that our method for culturing pericytes from human placenta results in the expansion of functional pericytes that may be used to study a variety of questions related to vascular biology. Total RNA from three different pericyte isolations at subculture 1 was collected and examined for relative gene expression.