Expression data were generated on 136 subjects from the COPDGene study using Affymetrix microarrays. Multiple linear regression with adjustment for covariates (gender, age, body mass index, family history, smoking status, pack years) was used to identify candidate genes and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis was used to identify candidate pathways.
Peripheral blood mononuclear cell gene expression in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Sex, Specimen part
View SamplesChronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, is primarily caused by prolonged exposures to cigarette smoke (CS) and the disease may persist or progress even after smoking cessation. To provide novel insight the mechanisms of COPD development we investigated temporal patterns of lung transcriptome expression in response to chronic CS exposure that also persist following CS cessation, using next generation sequencing techniques. Whole lung RNA-seq data was analyzed from C57Bl/6 mice exposed to CS for 1 day, 7 days, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months as well as for 6 months followed by 3 months of cessation. Age-matched littermate mice exposed to ambient air were used as control (AC). Differential gene expression and pathway analyses revealed consistent upregulation of genes involved in glutathione metabolism, a pathway previously implicated in lung responses to chronic CS and in COPD, that was reversible upon cessation. In addition, novel patterns in mouse-model pathways such as pyrimidine metabolism and phosphatidylinositol signaling system and have been recognized. Genes in these pathways encoding for enzymes controlling metabolic functions were significantly altered by CS exposures and were associated with congruent abnormalities in contemporaneous plasma metabolomic profiles. The bioinformatics integration of lung tissue genomics and plasma metabolomics uncovered that changes in lung gene expression induced by CS exposures are translated in systemic metabolic signatures, with potential implication in the development of COPD. Overall design: Whole transcriptome profiling of air control vs cigarette smoke-exposed mice at each of 6 timepoints from 1 day to 9 months of exposure, including a stop smoking group exposed to 6 months of CS followed by 3 months of ambient air recovery. Each treatment-by-time experimental group contains 5 biological replicates. 3 samples were discarded for quality reasons.
Gene and metabolite time-course response to cigarette smoking in mouse lung and plasma.
Specimen part, Cell line, Treatment, Subject, Time
View SamplesIdiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is associated with the accumulation of collagen-secreting fibroblasts and myofibroblasts in the lung parenchyma. Many mechanisms contribute to their accumulation, including resistance to apoptosis. In previous work, we showed that exposure to the pro-inflammatory cytokines, TNF- and IFN- reverses fibroblast resistance to apoptosis. The goal of this study was to investigate the underlying mechanism. Based on an initial interrogation of the transcriptomes of unstimulated and TNF- and IFN--stimulated primary lung fibroblasts and the lung fibroblast cell line, MRC5, we show here that among Fas-signaling pathway molecules, Fas expression was increased ~6-fold in an NF-B and p38mapk-dependent fashion. Prevention of the increase in Fas expression using Fas siRNAs blocked the ability of TNF- and IFN- to sensitize fibroblasts to Fas ligation induced-apoptosis; while enforced adenovirus-mediated Fas overexpression was sufficient to overcome basal resistance to Fas-induced apoptosis. Examination of lung tissues from IPF patients revealed low to absent staining of Fas in fibroblastic cells of fibroblast foci. Collectively, these findings suggest that increased expression of Fas is necessary and sufficient to overcome the resistance of lung fibroblasts to Fas-induced apoptosis. They also suggest that approaches aimed at increasing Fas expression by lung fibroblasts and myofibroblasts may be therapeutically relevant.
Increased cell surface Fas expression is necessary and sufficient to sensitize lung fibroblasts to Fas ligation-induced apoptosis: implications for fibroblast accumulation in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Specimen part, Treatment
View SamplesA375P melanoma cells were treated with 1uM of the MEK inhibitor PD184352 or 0.4uM of the V600EBRAF inhibitor PLX4720 for 2hr, 6hr and 24hrs.
Identification of direct transcriptional targets of (V600E)BRAF/MEK signalling in melanoma.
Cell line, Treatment, Time
View SamplesThe development of high-throughput genomic technologies has revealed that a large fraction of the genomes of eukaryotes is associated with the expression of noncoding RNAs. One class of noncoding RNA, the cis-natural antisense transcripts (cis-NATs), are particularly interesting as they are at least partially complementary to the protein-coding mRNAs. Although most studies described cis-NATs involved in the regulation of transcription, a few reports have shown recently that cis-NATs can also regulate translation of the cognate sense coding genes in plants and mammals. In order to identify novel examples of translation regulator cis-NATs in Arabidopsis thaliana, we designed a high-throughput experiment based on polysome profiling and RNA-sequencing. Expression of cis-NATs and translation efficiency of the cognate coding mRNAs were measured in roots and shoots in response to various conditions, including phosphate deficiency and treatment with phytohormones. We identified several promising candidates, and validated a few of them experimentally, in Arabidopsis thaliana transgenic lines over-expressing in trans the translation regulator candidate cis-NATs. Overall design: total RNA and polysomal RNA was sequenced from Arabidopsis thaliana whole seedlings grown in high or low pohsphate content, or from roots or shoots from seedlings treated or not with different phytohormones (Ctrl, IAA, ABA,MeJA and ACC). 3 biological replicates were analyzed for each of the 12 experimental conditions.
Prediction of regulatory long intergenic non-coding RNAs acting in trans through base-pairing interactions.
Specimen part, Treatment, Subject
View SamplesUstilago maydis is a basidiomycete fungus that causes smut disease in maize. Most prominent symptoms of the disease are plant tumors, which can be induced by U. maydis on all aerial parts of the plant. We identified two linked genes, pit1 and pit2, which are specifically expressed during plant colonization. Deletion mutants for either pit1 or pit2 are unable to induce tumor development and elicit plant defense responses.
Two linked genes encoding a secreted effector and a membrane protein are essential for Ustilago maydis-induced tumour formation.
Specimen part, Disease, Disease stage
View SamplesThe molecular etiology of invididual differences in complex behavior traits and susceptibility to psychiatric illness remains incomplete. Using an unbiased genetic approach in a mouse model, Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) influencing anxiety-like behaviors and beta-carboline-induced seizure vulnerability have been mapped to the distal portion of mouse chromosome 10 and an interval specific congenic strain (ISCS; A.B6chr10; 66 cM to telomere) was developed. This A.B6chr10 strain facilitated defining the behavioral influences of this region as well as gene expression profiling to identify candidate gene(s) underlying this QTL. By microarray studies, an unsuspected E3 Ubiquitin Ligase, Ring Finger 41 (Rnf41 / Neuregulin Receptor Degrading Protein1; Nrdp1) was differentially expressed in the region of interest, comparing the hippocampi of A/J vs A.B6chr10 mice as well as A/J vs B6 mice. By RT-PCR, Rnf41 expression levels were significantly increased 1.5 and 1.3-fold in the hippocampi of C57BL6/J and A.B6chr10 mice compared to A/J mice, respectively. In addition, protein levels of Rnf41 were increased in hippocampi of B6 mice compared to A/J mice across postnatal development with a 5.5-fold difference at P56. Among LxS recombinant inbred mice (N=33), Rnf41 hippocampal mRNA expression levels were significantly correlated with open field behavior (r= .454, p=.0073). Re-analyzing a microarray database of human post-mortem prefrontal cortex (Brodmanns Area 46/10), RNF41 mRNA expression levels were reduced significantly in patients with major depression and bipolar disorder compared to unaffected controls. Overall, Rnf41 is a pleiotropic candidate gene for anxiety-like behaviors, depression, and vulnerability to seizures. RNF41 and its binding partners provide novel etiological pathways for influencing behavior, highlighting a potential role for the ubiquitin proteasome system in psychiatric illness.
An E3 ubiquitin ligase, Really Interesting New Gene (RING) Finger 41, is a candidate gene for anxiety-like behavior and beta-carboline-induced seizures.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesBiopsies from uninvolved and from lesional skin of 13 patients with plaque-type psoriasis. Based on paired samples, 179 genes were more than 2-fold differentially expressed in lesional skin.
Increased expression of Wnt5a in psoriatic plaques.
Sex, Age
View SamplesOne of the most common genetic alterations in acute myeloid leukemia is the internal tandem duplication (ITD) in the FLT3 receptor for cytokine FLT3 ligand (FLT3L). The constitutively active FLT3-ITD promotes the expansion of transformed progenitors, but also has pleiotropic effects on normal hematopoiesis. We analyzed the effect of FLT3-ITD on dendritic cells (DCs), which express FLT3 and can be expanded by FLT3L administration. We report that young pre-leukemic mice with the Flt3ITD knock-in allele manifest an expansion of all DCs including classical (cDCs) and plasmacytoid (pDCs). The expansion originated in DC progenitors, occurred in a cell-intrinsic manner and was further enhanced in Flt3ITD/ITD mice. The mutation caused the downregulation of Flt3 on the surface of DCs and reduced their responsiveness to Flt3L. Flt3ITD mice showed enhanced capacity to support T cell proliferation, including a cell-extrinsic expansion of regulatory T cells (Tregs). Accordingly, these mice restricted alloreactive T cell responses during graft-versus-host reaction, but failed to control autoimmunity in the absence of Tregs. Thus, the FLT3-ITD mutation directly affects DC development, thereby indirectly modulating T cell homeostasis and supporting Treg expansion. This effect of FLT3-ITD may subvert immunosurveillance and promote leukemogenesis in a cell-extrinsic manner. Overall design: Sorted splenic dendritic cell subsets from either Flt3+/+ or Flt3ITD/+ mice were sequenced for mRNA profiling. For each subset per genotype contains 2-3 replicates, all from independent experiments.
Leukemia-associated activating mutation of Flt3 expands dendritic cells and alters T cell responses.
Specimen part, Cell line, Subject
View SamplesImpaired DNA replication is a hallmark of cancer and a cause of genomic instability. We report that, in addition to causing genetic change, impaired DNA replication during embryonic development can have major epigenetic consequences for a genome. In a genome-wide screen, we identified impaired DNA replication as causing increased expression from a repressed transgene in Caenorhabditis elegans. The acquired expression state behaved as an “epiallele,” being inherited for multiple generations before fully resetting. Derepression was not restricted to the transgene but was caused by a global reduction in heterochromatin-associated histone modifications due to the impaired retention of modified histones on DNA during replication in the early embryo. Impaired DNA replication during development can therefore globally derepress chromatin, creating new intergenerationally inherited epigenetic expression states. Overall design: 3 replicates of div-1 mutant worms and N2 wild type worms
Impaired DNA replication derepresses chromatin and generates a transgenerationally inherited epigenetic memory.
Specimen part, Subject
View Samples