TERT对小鼠EL-4淋巴瘤细胞增殖调控的初步研究

为了研究端粒酶催化亚基TERT与细胞周期相关基因的调控关系及其在肿瘤细胞增殖中的调控作用,应用基因芯片及RT-PCR等技术,对靶向mTERT的RNA干涉后的小鼠EL-4淋巴瘤细胞进行细胞周期相关基因的表达谱分析,筛选到43个基因在TERT受抑制前后存在表达差异,并且全部为下调基因.表明在小鼠EL-4淋巴瘤细胞中内源性TERT的表达抑制,导致了调控G1期和S期进程的相关细胞周期相关基因的表达变化,并可能通过此途径影响肿瘤细胞的生长和增殖.     

应用基因芯片分析植物内生菌醇提取物处理条件下水稻的基因表达图谱

为探索植物内生菌R(人参)与D(越橘)醇提取混合物RD对水稻的促进生长、增强抗病性的作用机制,采用基因芯片技术对RD处理的水稻基因组进行分析,检测RD处理水稻后差异表达基因。结果显示,检测到差异表达基因1 171个,其中上调表达基因671个,下调表达基因500个。根据基因芯片的试验结果,采用Go注释系统对差异表达基因进行功能注释表明,主要为刺激应答、转录调控、生理功能、结合功能、细胞过程、代谢功能等。代谢途径的变化存在明显差异,表达量上调代谢通路39条,表达量下调代谢途径24条。说明植物内生菌R与D醇提取混合物处理影响水稻性状的表达不是某个基因孤立、单一的作用,而是多方面、多层次共同作用的结果。     

RASSF1A对黑色素瘤A375细胞基因网络的影响

RASSF1A(Ras association domain family 1 isoform A)是定位于染色体3p21.3区域的抑瘤基因,编码一个由340个氨基酸残基构成的微管相关蛋白.该基因在包括恶性黑色素瘤在内的多种肿瘤中因启动子高甲基化而表达沉默.本研究建立了RASSF1A稳定表达的恶性黑色素瘤A375细胞系,通过全基因组表达谱基因芯片分析RASSF1A过表达对A375细胞基因表达谱的影响,发现RASSF1A引起184个基因表达上调,26个基因表达下调.通过Realtime RT-PCR对部分差异表达基因进行验证,结果表明与芯片筛选结果一致.RASSF1A影响的差异表达基因功能上归属于细胞生长与增殖、细胞周期、细胞凋亡、细胞间黏附、信号传导等生物过程.采用STRING软件构建了RASSF1A影响的差异表达基因调控网络,结果表明RASSF1A调控的差异表达基因构成一个高连接度的基因网络.其中,炎症细胞因子、转录因子位于网络中央.RASSF1A通过影响炎症细胞因子与转录因子之间的表达,影响A375细胞基因网络,调节黑色素瘤恶性生物学行为.     

茶树种子发育过程的转录组分析

该研究以‘铁观音’茶树品种的种子为试验材料,采用转录组测序技术分析种子发育的3个时期(幼果期、膨大期、成熟期)的表达差异,探究茶树种子油脂代谢的分子机制。结果表明:(1)经转录组测序、组装后共获得30 940 581个clean reads,经数据合并拼接最终得到36 951条非冗余Unigene序列,其中28 476个Unigene可得到功能注释;在转录本中能够被注释到GO分类的Unigene有11 201条(30.3%),KEGG分析发现共有17 172个基因参与了127个代谢通路。(2)经KEGG通路筛选出14条与脂肪酸代谢相关的通路,且随着茶籽的发育,大部分脂肪酸调控途径相关基因呈下调趋势,其中上调基因数最多的有α-亚麻酸代谢途径和脂肪酸降解途径(有17个基因表达量上调),下调基因数最多的是甘油磷脂代谢途径(有58个基因表达量下调);在茶籽发育幼果期α-亚麻酸代谢途径中表达量上调的基因数超过表达量下调的基因数。(3)研究发现茶籽脂肪酸合成相关的基因涉及14个脂类调控途径,共409条差异基因;随着茶树种子发育到成熟期,上调的差异表达基因数量在减少,下调的差异表达基因数量增加,其中α-亚麻酸途径中的基因PLA2G16、DAD1、pldA、FabF、FabI表达量上调显著,随后表达量下调。(4)qRT-PCR检测结果表明,7个茶树FAD和1个ACP差异表达基因的水平与转录组测序结果基本一致;随着茶籽的发育,基因CsFAD7和Δ6-CsFAD从幼果期、果实膨大期至果实成熟期都为差异下调表达,CsFAD2、CsFAD6和Δ7-CsFAD为差异上调表达,CsFAD8、Δ8-CsFAD和CsACP在幼果期至果实膨大期差异上调表达,在果实膨大期至果实成熟期差异下调表达。     

NOR1基因转染对肝癌细胞HepG2基因表达谱的影响

NOR1基因是一在正常组织中广泛表达且在肿瘤组织中表达下调的新基因.为进一步研究NOR1基因的功能和寻找其下游基因,利用脂质体技术将NOR1基因转染进HepG2细胞,采用cDNA微阵列技术分析其基因表达谱的改变.试验表明NOR1基因的转染能使Grb2,HBP17,TNFRSF11B等59个基因上调,同时也下调Bik,MAp2K6,ZFP95等103个基因.随后用实时荧光定量PCR对cDNA 微阵列结果中上述3个上调表达基因进行验证,结果表明,基因表达差异具有统计学意义(P<0.05),荧光定量PCR结果与微阵列结果相符.这些结果提示,NOR1基因对肝癌HepG2细胞的生物学行为的影响可能与它对细胞信号转导,细胞周期调控,转录、翻译调控相关基因的表达影响有关.     

piwil2重编程人成纤维细胞形成肿瘤样干细胞的基因差异表达

利用基因芯片技术检测piwil2基因重编程人成纤维细胞(fibroblast, FB)形成肿瘤样干细胞的差异表达基因,分析主要差异表达信号通路。采用前期已构建的piwil2-gfp基因,以gfp作为空载对照的慢病毒转染人包皮来源的成纤维细胞,获得稳定转染的肿瘤样干细胞,人成纤维细胞作为正常对照,采用基因芯片技术检测其转录差异表达,进行pathway分析,挑选差异表达明显的支链氨基酸代谢信号通路,采用q-PCR进行验证。基因芯片结果显示,FB-piwil2组相较于FB,上调基因1 490个,下调基因1 484个,参与支链氨基酸代谢等多条信号通路;FB-piwil2组相较于FB-GFP组,上调基因3 765个,下调基因1 988个,参与支链氨基酸代谢等多条信号通路;FB-GFP组相较于FB组,上调基因2 095个,下调基因4 014个,参与破骨细胞分化等信号通路;q-PCR验证重编程形成的肿瘤样干细胞克隆的支链氨基酸代谢信号通路上调的7个基因(acad8, acadm, aldh3a2, bcat1, hibch, hmgcs1, mccc2)与基因芯片上调表达一致。由此可见,piwil2基因重编程人成纤维细胞形成的肿瘤样干细胞基因出现差异表达,与支链氨基酸代谢相关。     

力生长因子E肽对成骨细胞增殖及基因表达的影响

为了探索力生长因子羧基端E结构域的后24个氨基酸组成的短肽(MGF-Ct24E)对成骨细胞生物学活性的影响,通过组织块培养法获得大鼠原代成骨细胞,采用MTT法和流式细胞仪检测细胞的增殖及细胞周期分布情况,基因芯片技术检测细胞基因表达谱,并用定量PCR实验验证芯片检测结果。结果显示MGF-Ct24E组的细胞增殖活性明显高于对照组,且在培养第一天促增殖效果最为显著。细胞周期结果显示MGF-Ct24E显著提高了S期和G2/M期的细胞所占比例。基因芯片检测发现差异表达基因共1397个,其中上调922,下调475,且差异表达的基因主要是关于细胞的增殖分化调节,生长因子结合和活性调节等方面。MGF-Ct24E对成骨细胞的这种增殖分化调控提示MGF-Ct24E在促进骨修复方面有着潜在的应用价值。     

紫背天葵叶和花中花青素合成相关转录组基因分析

为获取紫背天葵(Gynura bicolor D C.)花青素合成代谢相关调控基因信息,该试验以紫背天葵叶片为材料,以其花朵为对照,进行转录组测序,并进行CHS、CHI、F3H等8类合成酶基因以及MYB、bHLH及WD40等3类转录因子检索,从中选取8个相关差异表达显著调控基因进行qRT-PCR验证分析。结果显示:(1)在紫背天葵中共获得72个花青素合成酶信息,其中差异表达明显的有1个F3′H和2个3GT下调,9个F3H基因中有上调基因4个和下调基因5个。(2)在紫背天葵中获取到238个MYB、113个bHLH和219个WD40转录因子,这3类转录因子中差异表达明显的分别为22个、16个和7个。(3)qRT-PCR结果显示,所选取的8个花青素合成相关调控基因,在紫背天葵叶及花朵中的下调表达趋势与转录组测序结果完全一致,但不同基因差异表达趋势略有不同。研究表明,在紫背天葵叶片和花朵中所存在的大量花青素合成代谢调控基因中,只有少量差异表达显著,但转录因子相比合成酶的调控更为复杂。     

大鼠胰腺发育不同阶段基因表达分析

目的:探讨大鼠胰腺发育不同阶段基因表达规律.方法:运用高通量基因芯片技术检测大鼠胰腺从胚胎12.5天(E12.5)到成年不同时期基因表达情况.结果:基因芯片所涵盖的基因59%在E12.5有表达,65%在15.5有表达,63%在E18.8有表达,53%在新生胰腺中有表达,38%在成年胰腺中有表达.E18.5相对于E15.5表达上调的基因中代谢相关的酶类有121条,占上调基因的18.2%,E18.5相对于E15.5表达下调的基因主要是一些转录因子和骨架蛋白.结论:在大鼠胰腺的发育过程中,早中期以细胞分化为主,而后期则是以细胞功能成熟为主.     

猪链球菌2型强毒株05ZYH33转录调控因子Rgg基因敲除突变体与野生株的基因表达差异分析

目的:为了解猪链球菌2型强毒株05Z33转录调控因子Rgg的调控作用,用基因芯片方法分析野生株与rgg基因敲除突变体之间的差异表达基因。方法:用猪链球菌2型全基因组序列点样制备芯片,将芯片运用于rgg敲除株与野生株的基因表达差异研究,采用定量real-time PCR(qRT-PCR)验证表达谱结果。结果:在突变体中共发现45个基因表达量变化在2倍以上,其中19个基因表达上调,26个基因表达下调。这些基因在细菌毒力、免疫抗原、DNA合成和修复、基础代谢和ABC转运系统等方面起着重要作用。结论:转录调控因子Rgg是一个全局调控因子,但rgg敲除后并不影响猪链球菌的毒力。     

Transcriptional profiling of apoptotic pathways in batch and fed-batch CHO cell cultures

Chinese Hamster ovary (CHO) cells are regarded as one of the "work-horses" for complex biotherapeutics production. In these processes, loss in culture viability occurs primarily via apoptosis, a genetically controlled form of cellular suicide. Using our "in-house" developed CHO cDNA array and a mouse oligonucleotide array for time profile expression analysis of batch and fed-batch CHO cell cultures, the genetic circuitry that regulates and executes apoptosis induction were examined. During periods of high viability, most pro-apoptotic genes were down-regulated but upon loss in viability, several early pro-apoptotic signaling genes were up-regulated. At later stages of viability loss, we detected late pro-apoptotic effector genes such as caspases and DNases being up-regulated. This sequential regulation of apoptotic genes showed that DNA microarrays could be used as a tool to study apoptosis. We found that in batch and fed-batch cultures, apoptosis signaling occurred primarily via death receptor- and mitochondria-mediated signaling pathways rather than endoplasmic reticulum-mediated signaling. These insights provide a greater understanding of the regulatory circuitry of apoptosis during cell culture and allow for subsequent targeting of relevant apoptosis signaling genes to prolong cell culture.     

Low-glutamine fed-batch cultures of 293-HEK serum-free suspension cells for adenovirus production

Recent developments in gene therapy using adenoviral (Ad) vectors have fueled renewed interest in the 293 human embryonic kidney cell line traditionally used to produce these vectors. Low-glutamine fed-batch cultures of serum-free, suspension cells in a 5-L bioreactor were conducted. Our aim was to tighten the control on glutamine metabolism and hence reduce ammonia and lactate accumulation. Online direct measurement of glutamine was effected via a continuous cell-exclusion system that allows for aseptic, cell-free sampling of the culture broth. A feedback control algorithm was used to maintain the glutamine concentration at a level as low as 0.1 mM with a concentrated glucose-free feed medium. This was tested in two media: a commercial formulation (SFM II) and a chemically defined DMEM/F12 formulation. The fed-batch and batch cultures were started at the same glucose concentration, and it was not controlled at any point in the fed-batch cultures. In all cases, fed-batch cultures with double the cell density and extended viable culture time compared to the batch cultures were achieved. An infection study on the high density fed-batch culture using adenovirus-green fluorescent protein (Ad-GFP) construct was also done to ascertain the production capacity of the culture. Virus titers from the infected fed-batch culture showed that there is an approximately 10-fold improvement over a batch infection culture. The results have shown that the control of glutamine at low levels in cultures is sufficient to yield significant improvements in both cell densities and viral production. The applicability of this fed-batch system to cultures in different media and also infected cultures suggests its potential for application to generic mammalian cell cultures.     

Rapamycin reduces hybridoma cell death and enhances monoclonal antibody production

Rapamycin was used as a medium additive to slow the progression of CRL 1606 hybridomas through the cell cycle, under the hypothesis that such a modulation might reduce cell death. Cell cycle distributions for CRL hybridomas in the G1 phase of the cell cycle ranged from 20% to 35% during batch, fed-batch, and continuous culture experiments, independent of culture time, dilution rate, growth rates, or death rates. Rapamycin, an mTOR signaling inhibitor, immunosuppressant, and G1-phase arresting agent, was identified and tested for efficacy in restraining cell cycle progression in CRL 1606 hybridoma cultures. However, in the presence of 100 nM rapamycin, the percentage of cells in the G1 phase of the cell cycle during fed-batch cultures was only increased from 28% to 31% in control cultures to 37% to 48% for those with rapamycin. Accordingly, rapamycin only slightly reduced culture growth rate. Instead, the use of rapamycin more notably kept viability higher than that of control cultures by delaying cell death for 48 h, thereby enabling viable proliferation to higher maximum viable cell densities. Furthermore, rapamycin enhanced specific monoclonal antibody production by up to 100% during high-viability growth. Thus, over the course of 6-day fed-batch cultivations, the beneficial effects of rapamycin on viable cell density and specific productivity resulted in an increase in final monoclonal antibody titer from 0.25 to 0.56 g/L (124%). As rapamycin is reported to influence a much broader range of cellular functions than cell cycle alone, these findings are more illustrative of the influence that signal transduction pathways related to mTOR can have on overall cell physiology and culture productivity.     

Enhanced cell culture performance using inducible anti-apoptotic genes E1B-19K and Aven in the production of a monoclonal antibody with Chinese hamster ovary cells

Mammalian cells are used for the production of numerous biologics including monoclonal antibodies. Unfortunately, mammalian cells can lose viability at later stages in the cell culture process. In this study, the effects of expressing the anti-apoptosis genes, E1B-19K and Aven, separately and in combination on cell growth, survival, and monoclonal antibody (MAb) production were investigated for a commercial Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) mammalian cell line. CHO cells were observed to undergo apoptosis following a model insult, glucose deprivation, and at later stages of batch cell culture. The CHO cell line was then genetically modified to express the anti-apoptotic proteins E1B-19K and/or Aven using an ecdysone-inducible expression system. Stable transfected pools induced to express Aven or E1B-19K alone were found to survive 1-2 days longer than the parent cell line following glucose deprivation while the expression of both genes in concert increased cell survival by 3 days. In spinner flask batch studies, a clonal isolate engineered to express both anti-apoptosis genes exhibited a longer operating lifetime and higher final MAb titer as a result of higher viable cell densities and viabilities. Interestingly, survival was increased in the absence of an inducer, most likely as a result of leaky expression of the anti-apoptosis genes confirmed in subsequent PCR studies. In fed-batch bioreactors, the expression of both anti-apoptosis genes resulted in higher growth rates and cell densities in the exponential phase and significantly higher viable cell densities, viabilities, and extended survival during the post-exponential phase. As a result, the integral of viable cells (IVC) was between 40 and 100% higher for cell lines engineered to express both Aven and E1B-19K in concert, and the operational lifetime of the fed-batch bioreactors was increased from 2 to 5 days. The maximum titers of MAb were also increased by 40-55% for bioreactors containing cells expressing Aven and E1B-19K. These increases in volumetric productivity arose primarily from enhancements in viable cell density over the course of the fed-batch culture period since the specific productivities for the cells expressing anti-apoptosis genes were comparable or slightly lower than the parental hosts. These results demonstrate that expression of anti-apoptosis genes can enhance culture performance and increase MAb titers for mammalian CHO cell cultures especially under conditions such as extended fed-batch bioreactor operation.     

Effect of production method and gene amplification on the glycosylation pattern of a secreted reporter protein in CHO cells

We have investigated the independent effects of selective gene amplification (using the dhfr amplifiable selection marker) and culture operating strategy (batch vs repeated fed-batch vs semicontinuous perfusion) on the glycosylation of a recombinant reporter protein (secreted alkaline phosphatase, SEAP) produced in transfected Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. HPLC analyses coupled with susceptibility to various exoglycosidases were used to determine the N-glycosylation profile of SEAP samples. The dhfr amplified cell line yielded an almost 10-fold increase in specific productivity as compared to that of the unamplified cell line. The glycosylation pattern of the reporter protein produced in batch bioreactor cultures of the amplified cell line showed only slight differences as compared to the glycosylation pattern of the protein from batch bioreactor cultures of the unamplified cell line. In contrast, analysis of SEAP glycosylation structures from the protein isolated from semicontinuous perfusion cultures indicated that both relative glycan content and extent of sialylation were increased as compared to samples isolated from repeated fed-batch cultures. These results suggest that the slow growing perfusion cultures produce more completely glycosylated proteins than the faster growing repeated fed-batch cultures.