Microglia have emerged as crucial players in the maintenance of mechanical hypersensitivity in models of chronic pain, including rheumatoid arthritis. Recent studies have suggested that there is a sexually dimorphic microglial involvement in chronic pain, but the debate is still ongoing. Here, we have used the collagen antibody-induced arthritis (CAIA) mouse model to ascertain possible differences between male and female microglia in the context of arthritis-induced pain. We have focused on the late phase of this arthritis model, when joint inflammation has resolved but mechanical hypersensitivity and microglial activation persist. We found that intrathecal administration of minocycline reversed mechanical thresholds to control levels in male, but not female mice. Moreover, we isolated resident microglia from the lumbar dorsal horns of male and female mice and observed a significantly lower number of microglial cells in females by flow cytometry analysis. Furthermore, genome-wide RNA sequencing results pointed to several transcriptional differences between male and female microglia, but no convincing differences were identified between control and CAIA groups. Taken together, these findings suggest that there are significant but subtle sex differences in microglial expression profiles independent of treatment. To what extent they help bring about the behavioural sexual dimorphism observed after minocycline administration remains to be explored. Finally, our experiments failed to identify the underlying biological correlates of the microglial activation that is present in the late phase of the CAIA model. It is likely that transcriptional changes are either subtle and highly localised and therefore difficult to identify with bulk isolation techniques or that other factors, such as changes in protein expression or epigenetic modifications are at play. Overall design: RNA-seq of male and female saline or CAIA treated mice
Exploring the transcriptome of resident spinal microglia after collagen antibody-induced arthritis.
Sex, Specimen part, Subject
View SamplesWe demonstrate for the first time that the extracellular matrix glycoprotein Tenascin-C regulates the expression of key patterning genes during late embryonic spinal cord development, leading to a timely maturation of gliogenic neural precursor cells. We first show that Tenascin-C is expressed by gliogenic neural precursor cells during late embryonic development. The loss of Tenascin-C leads to a sustained generation and delayed migration of Fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 expressing immature astrocytes in vivo. Furthermore, we could demonstrate an upregulation of Nk2 transcription factor related locus 2 (Nkx2.2) and its downstream target Sulfatase 1 in vivo. A dorsal expansion of Nkx2.2-positive cells within the ventral spinal cord indicates a potential progenitor cell domain shift. Moreover, Sulfatase 1 is known to regulate growth factor signalling by cleaving sulphate residues from heparan sulphate proteoglycans. Consistent with this possibility we observed changes in both Fibroblast growth factor 2 and Epidermal growth factor responsiveness of spinal cord neural precursor cells. Taken together our data clearly show that Tenascin-C promotes the astroglial lineage progression during spinal cord development.
The extracellular matrix molecule tenascin C modulates expression levels and territories of key patterning genes during spinal cord astrocyte specification.
Specimen part
View SamplesNine accessions of Arabidopsis were sampled before and after 14d of cold acclimation at 4°C. Transcript data were combined with metabolite data and related to quantitative measurement of plant freezing tolerance as determined by leaf electrolyte leakage assays.
Natural genetic variation of freezing tolerance in Arabidopsis.
Specimen part
View SamplesProstate tumors contain foci of neuroendocrine transdifferentiation (NETD), resulting in an increase of androgen-independent neuroendocrine-like (NE) tumor cells, whose number significantly correlates with tumor aggressiveness and a lower survival rate. The mechanisms leading to NETD and the exact role of NE-like tumor cells in disease progression are not fully understood yet.
The deregulation of miR-17/CCND1 axis during neuroendocrine transdifferentiation of LNCaP prostate cancer cells.
Cell line, Treatment
View SamplesIn most embryos, the mid-blastula transition is a complex process featuring maternal RNA degradation, cell cycle pause, zygotic transcriptional activation and morphological changes. The nucleocytoplasmic (N/C) ratio has been proposed to control the multiple events at MBT. To understand the global transcriptional response to the changes of the N/C ratio, we profiled wild type and haploid embryos using cDNA microarrays at three developmental stages.
Coupling of zygotic transcription to mitotic control at the Drosophila mid-blastula transition.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesKaposis sarcoma-associated hepesvirus (KSHV) encodes four genes with homology to human interferon regulatory factors (IRFs). One of these IRFs, the viral interferon regulatory factor 3 (vIRF-3) is expressed in latently infected PEL cells and required for their continuous proliferation. Moreover, vIRF-3 is known to be involved in modulation of the type I interferon response.
Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus viral interferon regulatory factor 3 inhibits gamma interferon and major histocompatibility complex class II expression.
Specimen part, Cell line
View SamplesTranscription is a highly regulated process, and stress-induced changes in gene transcription have been shown to play a major role in responses and adaptation to stress. Numerous emerging genome-wide studies reveal prevalent transcription beyond known protein-coding gene loci, generating a variety of new classes of RNAs, most of unknown function. One such class, termed downstream of gene (DoG)-containing transcripts, was reported to result from transcriptional readthrough upon osmotic stress in human cell lines. However, how widespread the readthrough phenomenon is, and what its causes and consequences are, remain elusive. Here we present a systematic genome-wide mapping of transcriptional readthrough, using deep nuclear RNA-seq, comparing heat shock, osmotic and oxidative stress in NIH3T3 mouse fibroblast cells. We observe massive induction of transcriptional readthrough under all stress conditions, with significant, yet not complete overlap of readthrough-induced loci between different conditions. Importantly, our analyses suggest that stress-induced transcriptional readthrough is not a random failure process, but is rather differentially induced across different conditions. Additionally, analyzing public Pol-II occupancy data further supported our findings of stress-induced readthrough. We explore potential regulators and find a role for HSF1 in the induction of a subset of heat shock-induced readthrough transcripts. Furthermore, we examine genomic features of readthrough transcription, and observe a unique chromatin signature typical of DoG-producing regions, suggesting that readthrough transcription is associated with the maintenance of an open chromatin state. Overall design: RNA profiles of NIH3T3 (mouse embryonic fibroblasts) cells after three stress treatments and control were generated by deep sequencing, in two replicates using Illumina HiSeq 2000.
Comparative analysis reveals genomic features of stress-induced transcriptional readthrough.
Specimen part, Cell line, Subject
View SamplesThe Early Growth Response (Egr) family of transcription factors consists of 4 members (Egr1-4) that are expressed in a wide variety of cell types. A large body of evidence point to a role for Egr transcription factors in growth, survival, and differentiation. A major unanswered question is whether Egr transcription factors serve similar functions in diverse cell types by activating a common set of target genes. Signal transduction cascades in neurons and lymphocytes show striking parallels. Activation of either cell type activates the Ras-MAPK pathway and, in parallel, leads to increases in intracellular calcium stimulating the calcineurin-NFAT pathway. In both cell types, the strength of the activation signal affects the cellular outcomes and very strong stimuli lead to cell death. Notably both these pathways converge on the induction of Egr genes. We believe that downstream targets of Egr transcription factors in lymphocytes may also be activated by Egr factors in activated neurons. There is precedence for common target gene activation in these two cell types: apoptosis in both activated T cells and methamphetamine stimulated neurons occurs via FasL induction by NFAT transcription factors. We propose to use developing T lymphocytes (thymocytes) as a model system for discovery of Egr-dependent target genes for several reasons. First, we have observed a prominent survival defect in thymocytes from mice deficient in both Egr1 and Egr3 (1/3 DKO) and a partial differention block in the immature double negative (DN) stage. In addition, thymocytes are an easily manipulatable cell type, and the DN subpopulation affected in 1/3 DKO mice can be isolated to very high purity. We anticipate that 1/3 DKO thymocytes will provide an excellent experimental system that will provide insight into Egr-dependent transcription in neuronal development, activation, and death.
Redundant role for early growth response transcriptional regulators in thymocyte differentiation and survival.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesRelapse, associated with therapy resistance, is a major clinical problem in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), yet little is known about the underlying molecular mechanisms. Using genome wide gene expression profiling on 11 paired samples from diagnosis and relapse, we show that the expression of a substantial number of genes was altered in a highly consistent manner between these disease stages. Furthermore, the relapse associated gene expression profile was significantly enriched for leukemia stem cell (LSC) genes, indicating that recurring AML is characterized by increased stemness, and supporting the concept that it is due to the outgrowth of chemotherapy resistant LSCs.
A gene expression profile associated with relapse of cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukemia is enriched for leukemia stem cell genes.
Sex, Age
View SamplesTo investigate whether and how expression of the oncogenic transcription factor EVI1 influences gene regulation by phorbol esters and vice versa, the human myeloid cell line U937 was transduced with an EVI1 expression vector or empty vector as a control. Cells were treated with 12-Otetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA) or its solvent ethanol as a control. RNA was extracted and subjected to gene expression microarray analysis.
The oncogene EVI1 enhances transcriptional and biological responses of human myeloid cells to all-trans retinoic acid.
Cell line
View Samples