Project description:Cerebral cavernous malformations are vascular anomalies that can cause hemorrhagic stroke. Mutations in genes encoding Krit 1 (CCM1), OSM (CCM2), and PDCD10 (CCM3) proteins cause CCM. A loss in teh expression of any of these CCM proteins disrupts normal cerebral vessel development by disrupting the cytoskeleton and thereby inhibits endothelial tube ofrmation. Examination of cellular changes based on the loss of CCM gene expression may lead to the methods for early detection and prevention of CCM associated hemorrhagic stroke.
Project description:Loss-of-function variants in CCM3/PDCD10 predispose to cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) that are vascular lesion of the central nervous system. Using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing and RNA sequencing, we have shown that long-term inactivation of CCM3 in human endothelial cells dysregulates fibronectin expression and thus impairs the assembly of a functional fibronectin matrix by endothelial cells.
Project description:CCM3 regulates blood-brain-barrier integrity and vascular maturation in vivo. CCM3 loss-of-function variants predispose to cerebral cavernous malformations (CCM). Various signalling pathways are deregulated upon CCM3 depletion in endothelial cells (ECs). In this study, we established a crRNA:tracrRNA:Cas9 RNP approach to efficiently knockout CCM3 in human ECs and studied the molecular and functional effects of its long-term inactivation. Using small RNA sequencing, we show that CCM3 regulates the expression of aging‑associated miRNAs.
Project description:CCM1 (also known as KRIT1) is critical regulator of endothelial cell biology. Mutations in CCM1 can lead to the formation of cerebral cavernous malformations (CCM). CCM lesions are frequent in the human population; however, their pathogenesis is poorly understood. This genome-wide expression analysis is aimed to unravelling novel mechanisms how CCM1 executes its functions in endothelial cells. We used human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) as a model system to study CCM1 functions after adenoviral over expression. The results of this experiment suggest that CCM1 is a critical regulator of endothelial cell cycle control and proliferation as well as migration and angiogenesis. This fits well to the roles of CCM1 in HUVEC which indeed acts as a negative regulator of angiogenesis. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells were transduced with adenovirus expressing CCM1 or GFP as control. 48 hours after transduction total RNA was isolated from duplicates for genome-wide expression analysis biological replicate: GFP rep1, GFP rep2 biological replicate: CCM1 rep1, CCM1 rep2
