Hepatic fibrosis, the wound-healing response to repeated liver injury, ultimately leads to cirrhosis. There is an urgent need to develop effective antifibrotic therapies. Ghrelin (encoded by Ghrl) is an orexigenic hormone that has pleiotrophic functions including protection against cell death1. Here we investigate whether ghrelin modulates liver fibrosis and protects from acute liver injury. Recombinant ghrelin reduced the fibrogenic response to prolonged bile duct ligation in rats. This effect was associated with decreased liver injury and myofibroblast accumulation as well as attenuation of the altered gene expression profile. Ghrelin also reduced fibrogenic properties in cultured hepatic stellate cells. Moreover, Ghrl-/- mice developed exacerbated hepatic fibrosis and liver damage after chronic injury. Ghrelin also protected rat livers from acute liver injury and reduced the extent of oxidative stress and the inflammatory response. In patients with chronic liver diseases, ghrelin serum levels decreased in those with advanced fibrosis and hepatic expression of the ghrelin gene correlated with expression of fibrogenic genes. Finally, in patients with chronic hepatitis C, single nucleotide polymorphisms of the ghrelin gene (-994CT and 604GA) influenced the progression of liver fibrosis. We conclude that ghrelin exerts antifibrotic effects on the liver and may represent a novel antifibrotic therapy.
Ghrelin attenuates hepatocellular injury and liver fibrogenesis in rodents and influences fibrosis progression in humans.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesDelineating key HSC regulators is of significant interest for informing the treatment of hematologic malignancy. While HSC activity is enhanced by overexpression of SKI, the transforming growth factor-beta (TGFß) signaling antagonist corepressor, its requirement in HSC is unknown. Here we reveal a profound defect in Ski-/- HSC fitness but not specification. Transcriptionally, Ski-/- HSC exhibited striking upregulation of TGFb superfamily signaling and splicing alterations. As these are both common aspects of myelodysplastic-syndrome (MDS) pathobiology with prognostic value, we investigated the role of SKI in MDS. A SKI-correlated gene signature defines a subset of low-risk MDS patients with active TGFß signaling and deregulated RNA splicing (e.g. CSF3R). The apparent paradox of Ski-/- HSC sharing molecular aspects of MDS with elevated SKI-mRNA is resolved by miR-21 targeting of SKI in MDS. We conclude that miR-21-mediated loss of SKI contributes to early stage MDS pathogenesis by activating TGFß signaling and alternative splicing while hindering HSC fitness. Overall design: Single cell RNA seq of transplanted fetal liver-derived hematopoietic stem cells
<i>SKI</i> controls MDS-associated chronic TGF-β signaling, aberrant splicing, and stem cell fitness.
Specimen part, Cell line, Subject
View SamplesRecessive retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is often caused by nonsense mutations that lead to low mRNA levels as a result of nonsense-mediated decay. Some RP genes are expressed at detectable levels in leukocytes as well as in the retina. We designed a microarray-based method to find recessive RP genes based on low lymphoblast mRNA expression levels
Insights from retinitis pigmentosa into the roles of isocitrate dehydrogenases in the Krebs cycle.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesNovel prognostic subclasses of high-grade astrocytoma are identified and discovered to resemble stages in neurogenesis. One tumor class displaying neuronal lineage markers shows longer survival, while two tumor classes enriched for neural stem cell markers display equally short survival. Poor prognosis subclasses exhibit either markers of proliferation or of angiogenesis and mesenchyme. Analysis of gene expression data is described in Phillips et al., Cancer Cell, 2006.
Molecular subclasses of high-grade glioma predict prognosis, delineate a pattern of disease progression, and resemble stages in neurogenesis.
Sex, Age, Disease stage
View SamplesThis SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below.
The transcriptional network for mesenchymal transformation of brain tumours.
Time
View SamplesUsing a novel combination of cellular-network reverse-engineering algorithms and experimental validation assays, we identified a transcriptional module, including six transcription factors that synergistically regulates the mesenchymal signature of malignant glioma. This is a poorly understood molecular phenotype, never observed in normal neural tissue. It represents the hallmark of tumor aggressiveness in high-grade glioma, and its upstream regulation is so far unknown. Overall, the newly discovered transcriptional module regulates >74% of the signature genes, while two of its transcription factors (C/EBP and Stat3) display features of initiators and master regulators of mesenchymal transformation. Ectopic co-expression of C/EBP and Stat3 is sufficient to reprogram neural stem cells along the aberrant mesenchymal lineage, while simultaneously suppressing differentiation along the default neural lineages (neuronal and glial). Conversely, silencing the two transcription factors in human glioma cell lines and glioblastoma-derived tumor initiating cells leads to collapse of the mesenchymal signature with corresponding loss of tumor aggressiveness in vitro and in immunodeficient mice after intracranial injection. In human tumor samples, combined expression of C/EBP and Stat3 correlates with mesenchymal differentiation of primary glioma and is a predictor of poor clinical outcome. Taken together, these results reveal that activation of a small regulatory module inferred from the accurate reconstruction of transcriptional networks is necessary and sufficient to initiate and maintain an aberrant phenotypic state in eukaryotic cells.
The transcriptional network for mesenchymal transformation of brain tumours.
Time
View SamplesUsing a novel combination of cellular-network reverse-engineering algorithms and experimental validation assays, we identified a transcriptional module, including six transcription factors that synergistically regulates the mesenchymal signature of malignant glioma. This is a poorly understood molecular phenotype, never observed in normal neural tissue. It represents the hallmark of tumor aggressiveness in high-grade glioma, and its upstream regulation is so far unknown. Overall, the newly discovered transcriptional module regulates >74% of the signature genes, while two of its transcription factors (C/EBP and Stat3) display features of initiators and master regulators of mesenchymal transformation. Ectopic co-expression of C/EBP and Stat3 is sufficient to reprogram neural stem cells along the aberrant mesenchymal lineage, while simultaneously suppressing differentiation along the default neural lineages (neuronal and glial). Conversely, silencing the two transcription factors in human glioma cell lines and glioblastoma-derived tumor initiating cells leads to collapse of the mesenchymal signature with corresponding loss of tumor aggressiveness in vitro and in immunodeficient mice after intracranial injection. In human tumor samples, combined expression of C/EBP and Stat3 correlates with mesenchymal differentiation of primary glioma and is a predictor of poor clinical outcome. Taken together, these results reveal that activation of a small regulatory module, inferred from the accurate reconstruction of transcriptional networks, is necessary and sufficient to initiate and maintain an aberrant phenotypic state in eukaryotic cells.
The transcriptional network for mesenchymal transformation of brain tumours.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesRNA was isolated from FFPE samples of IDH1 mutant, WT tumors and normal brains Overall design: Determination of the glioma subtype in IDH1 mutant and WT tumors
Mutant IDH1 Promotes Glioma Formation In Vivo.
Specimen part, Subject
View SamplesHere we analyse single cell transcriptome profiles of EZH2-deficient human embroynic stem cells Overall design: Single cell transcriptome (mRNA-Seq) from Ezh2-/- (Null) and EZH2+/+ (WT) human ESC
Deletion of the Polycomb-Group Protein EZH2 Leads to Compromised Self-Renewal and Differentiation Defects in Human Embryonic Stem Cells.
Specimen part, Subject
View SamplesThe homeobox containing gene Arx is expressed during ventral telencephalon development and it is required for correct GABAergic interneuron tangential migration from the ganglionic eminences to the olfactory bulbs, cerebral cortex and striatum. Its human ortholog is associated with a variety of neurological clinical manifestations whose syntoms are compatible with a loss of cortical interneurons and altered basal ganglia related-activities in humans. Herein, we reported the identification by global expression profiling of a group of genes whose expression is consistently altered in Arx mutant ganglionic eminences. Following analysis revealed the striking ectopic expression in the ganglionic eminences of a number of genes normally not, or only marginally, expressed in the ventral telencephalon. Among them, we functionally analyzed Ebf3, whose ectopic expression in ventral telencephalon is preventingneuronal tangential migration. Further, we showed that Arx is sufficient to repress Ebf3 endogenous expression and that its silencing in Arx mutant tissue might marginally rescue tangential cell movements. Together, these data provide an initial analysis of the molecular pathways regulated by Arx and how their networking might regulate those specific cellular processes during telencephalon development strongly altered by loss of Arx.
Arx acts as a regional key selector gene in the ventral telencephalon mainly through its transcriptional repression activity.
No sample metadata fields
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