The introduction of microarray techniques to cancer research brought great expectations for finding biomarkers that would improve patients treatment; however, the results of such studies are poorly reproducible and critical analyses of these methods are rare. In this study, we examined global gene expression in 97 ovarian cancer samples. Also, validation of results by quantitative RT-PCR was performed on 30 additional ovarian cancer samples. We carried out a number of systematic analyses in relation to several defined clinicopathological features. The main goal of our study was to delineate the molecular background of ovarian cancer chemoresistance and find biomarkers suitable for prediction of patients prognosis. We found that histological tumor type was the major source of variability in genes expression, except for serous and undifferentiated tumors that showed nearly identical profiles. Analysis of clinical endpoints [tumor response to chemotherapy, overall survival, disease-free survival (DFS)] brought results that were not confirmed by validation either on the same group or on the independent group of patients. CLASP1 was the only gene that was found to be important for DFS in the independent group, whereas in the preceding experiments it showed associations with other clinical endpoints and with BRCA1 gene mutation; thus, it may be worthy of further testing. Our results confirm that histological tumor type may be a strong confounding factor and we conclude that gene expression studies of ovarian carcinomas should be performed on histologically homogeneous groups. Among the reasons of poor reproducibility of statistical results may be the fact that despite relatively large patients group, in some analyses one has to compare small and unequal classes of samples. In addition, arbitrarily performed division of samples into classes compared may not always reflect their true biological diversity. And finally, we think that clinical endpoints of the tumor probably depend on subtle changes in many and, possibly, alternative molecular pathways, and such changes may be difficult to demonstrate.
Gene expression analysis in ovarian cancer - faults and hints from DNA microarray study.
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View SamplesObjective: Transcriptional profiling of murine HSPC in response to ß-glucan-induced innate immune training Overall design: HSPC mRNA profiles of wild type (WT) mice injected with PBS or ß-glucan. Wild type (WT) C57BL/6 mice were intraperitoneally injected with PBS or 1 mg ß-glucan in PBS. Mice were sacrificed on day 7 or day 28 and long-term heematopoietic stem cells (LT-HSC) and/or multipotent progenitors (MPP) were sorted. In another group, mice were injected with PBS or 1 mg ß-glucan in PBS and on day 7 they were additionally injected with 150 mg/kg 5-fluouracil. Mice were sacrificed on day 14 after 5-FU administration and LT-HSC were sorted.
Modulation of Myelopoiesis Progenitors Is an Integral Component of Trained Immunity.
Age, Specimen part, Cell line, Subject
View SamplesAntigen receptor gene recombination requires stochastic, monoallelic choice of a single variable gene in each lymphocyte progenitor. However, how this occurs remains unknown. Herein, we report that prior to V? to J? gene recombination, Ig? alleles reside within spatially different nuclear niches defined by elongating RNA Polymerase II (e-Pol II) and cyclin D3 complexes assembled on the nuclear matrix. Upon cell cycle exit, and cyclin D3 downregulation, only the V? allele in the more constrained e-Pol II niche was transcribed. Chromatin modeling and single cell RNA-seq revealed that the nuclear niche favored V? flanking CTCF sites, thus shaping the transcribed repertoire. Furthermore, multiple contiguous V?s oriented away from CTCF sites were preferentially transcribed. Cyclin D3 also repressed monoallelic protocadherin and olfactory genes. These studies of Ig? reveal a general mechanism by which regulated, stochastic chromatin loop capture by fixed e-Pol II complexes generates diversity and couples cell cycle exit to monogenic choice. Overall design: Bulk and Single Cell RNA-seq of B6 x CAST F1 hybrid small pre-B cells and bulk RNA-seq of Ccnd3-/- pro-B cells
Regulated Capture of Vκ Gene Topologically Associating Domains by Transcription Factories.
Specimen part, Cell line, Subject
View SamplesDeep sequencing has revealed that epigenetic modifiers are the most mutated genes in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Thus, elucidating epigenetic dysregulation in AML is crucial to understand disease mechanisms. Here, we demonstrate that Metal Response Element Binding Transcription Factor 2/Polycomblike 2 (MTF2/PCL2) plays a fundamental role in the Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) and that its loss elicits an altered epigenetic state underlying refractory AML. Unbiased systems analyses identified the loss of MTF2-PRC2 repression of MDM2 as central to, and therefore a biomarker for, refractory AML. Thus, immature MTF2- deficient CD34+CD38- cells overexpress MDM2, thereby inhibiting p53 that leads to chemoresistance due to defects in cell cycle regulation and apoptosis. Targeting this dysregulated signaling pathway by MTF2 overexpression or MDM2 inhibitors sensitized refractory patient leukemic cells to induction chemotherapeutics and prevented relapse in AML patient-derived xenograft (PDX) mice. Therefore, we have uncovered a direct epigenetic mechanism by which MTF2 functions as a tumor suppressor required for AML chemotherapeutic sensitivity and identified a potential therapeutic strategy to treat refractory AML. Overall design: Fold change analysis between treatment and control
Targeting the MTF2-MDM2 Axis Sensitizes Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia to Chemotherapy.
Specimen part, Subject
View SamplesHematopoietic stem cell (HSC) are regulated by their niche, which limits activation of HSCs, to ensure their maintenance and self-renewal.
Stroma-Derived Connective Tissue Growth Factor Maintains Cell Cycle Progression and Repopulation Activity of Hematopoietic Stem Cells In Vitro.
Cell line
View SamplesGlioblastoma (GBM) patient-derived orthotopic xenografts (PDOXs) were derived from organotypic spheroids obtained from patient tumor samples. To detect whether gene expression profiles of GBM patient tumors are retained in PDOXs, we performed genome-wide transcript analysis by human-specific microarrays . In parallel, we analyzed GBM cell cultures and corresponding intracranial xenografts from stem-like (NCH421k, NCH644) and adherent GBM cell lines (U87, U251). PDOXs show a better transcriptomic resemblance with patient tumors than other preclinical models. The major difference is largely explained by the depletion of human-derived non-malignant cells.
Patient-derived organoids and orthotopic xenografts of primary and recurrent gliomas represent relevant patient avatars for precision oncology.
Specimen part, Disease
View SamplesWe here show that the niche regulates the quality of the hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that are regenerated after transplantation. We find that a reduced level of Wnt5a in the niche regenerates dysfunctional HSCs, which do not successfully engraft secondary recipients. In particular, RNA sequencing shows a dysregulated Zeb1-associated gene expression of multiple genes involved in the small GTPase-dependent actin polymerization pathway. Misexpression of these genes results in reduced ability to direct polarized F-actin localization, leading to defects in adhesion, migratory behavior and homing to the bone marrow of secondary recipients. Our study further shows that the Wnt5a-haploinsufficient environment similarly affects BCR-ABLp185+ cells, which, in 42% of the studied recipients, fail to generate leukemia and, in the remaining cases, fail to transfer leukemia to secondary hosts. Thus, we show that Wnt5a in the niche is required to regenerate HSCs and leukemic cells with functional ability to rearrange the actin cytoskeleton which is required for successful engraftment. Overall design: Hematopoietic stem cells are regenerated in WT or Wnt5a-haploinsufficient niches. We profile LSK hematopoiteic stem cells after transplantation and three cell populations from the niche environment: endothelial cells (EC), osteoblastic cells (OBC), and mesenchymal cells (MSC)
Niche WNT5A regulates the actin cytoskeleton during regeneration of hematopoietic stem cells.
Cell line, Subject
View SamplesTo identify signaling pathways that are differentially regulated in human gliomas, a microarray analysis on 30 brain tumor samples (12 primary glioblastomas (GBM), 3 secondary glioblastomas (GBM-2), 8 astrocytomas (Astro) and 7 oligodendrogliomas (Oligo)) and on 5 glioblastoma cell lines (LN018, LN215, LN229, LN319 and BS149) was performed. Normal brain tissue (NB) and normal human astrocytes (NHA) were used as a control. Kinase expression in each tumor was compared to expression in normal brain and expression values from normal human astrocytes were used as an additional control.
MAP kinase-interacting kinase 1 regulates SMAD2-dependent TGF-β signaling pathway in human glioblastoma.
Sex, Age, Specimen part, Disease stage, Cell line
View SamplesComparison of transcriptional profile of CD8 cytotoxic T lymphocytes terated with the mTORC1 inhibitor rapamycin or the mTOR inhibitor KU-0063794 and comparison with proteomic analysis.
The cytotoxic T cell proteome and its shaping by the kinase mTOR.
Specimen part, Treatment
View SamplesDuring S-phase of the cell cycle production of the core histone proteins is precisely balanced with DNA replication. Metazoan mRNAs encoding replication dependent (RD) histones lack polyA tail normally formed by 3' end cleavage and coupled polyadenylation of the pre-mRNA. Instead, they undergoes to endonucleolytic cleavage on the 3' side of an RNA hairpin (stem loop) producing mRNA with a 3´-stem loop (SL), which is exported from the nucleus for use in translation. The same endonuclease that is involved in normal protein-coding pre-mRNA cleavage, i.e. cleavage and poyladenylation specificity factor 73 (CPSF73), is proposed to catalyse RD pre-histone mRNA cleavage. Additional factors specific to RD pre-histone mRNA processing, including stem loop binding protein (SLBP) and the U7 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (U7snRNP) that binds to a histone downstream element (HDE) are thought to be involved in CPSF73 targeting to RD pre-histone mRNA. We report that a different histone specific endonuclease (HSE), which like CPSF73 is a metallo ß lactamase (MBL) fold protein, is specific for RD pre-histone mRNA cleavage10,11. Crystallographic and biochemical studies reveal HSE has a di-zinc ion containing active site related to that of CPSF73, but which has distinct overall fold. Notably HSE depletion from cells leads to the production of unprocessed RD pre-histone mRNA due to inefficient 3' end processing. The consequent depletion of core histone proteins correlates with a cell cycle defect due to a delay in entering/progressing through S-phase. HSE thus may represent a new type of S-phase specific cancer target. Overall design: Examination of chromatin mRNA profiles in HeLa cells after depletion of HSE or CPSF73 by siRNA treatment.
Biosynthesis of histone messenger RNA employs a specific 3' end endonuclease.
Specimen part, Subject
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