利用转录组测序筛选低切应力作用下人脐静脉内皮细胞的差异表达基因

目的:通过转录组测序分析获得不同切应力作用下人脐静脉内皮细胞的基因的表达谱,为进一步探索切应力影响内皮细胞形态和功能的机制提供依据。方法:以人脐静脉内皮细胞为材料,通过Streamer系统建立6通道可调控切应力的流体动力学细胞模型,以层流切应力(15 dynes/cm~2)为对照,以低切应力(0.1 dynes/cm~2)为实验组,分别加载细胞18 h。提取总RNA逆转录合成cDNA,建立文库,以二代测序平台Illumina HiSeq中进行扩增和测序。结果:序列比对结果显示,有19986个基因比对上,新转录本分析显示各组新转录本数约占总转录本数的50%。基因表达差异分析显示,较对照组,低切应力组表达上调基因983个,表达下调基因701个。GO分析显示,有18499个基因得到了归类注释,绝大多数基因富集到生物学过程。KEGG分析显示,富集Top20的信号通路与细胞周期、DNA复制和细胞分裂、细胞应激和凋亡等生物学过程相关。结论:低切应力作用不仅仅激活内皮细胞中细胞的增殖相关基因,同时也涉及到DNA损伤修复和凋亡相关基因。     

Genetic architecture of human brain evolution

Comparative studies of hominids have long sought to identify mutational events that shaped the evolution of the human nervous system. However, functional genetic differences are outnumbered by millions of nearly neutral mutations, and the developmental mechanisms underlying human nervous system specializations are difficult to model and incompletely understood. Candidate-gene studies have attempted to map select human-specific genetic differences to neurodevelopmental functions, but it remains unclear how to contextualize the relative effects of genes that are investigated independently. Considering these limitations, we discuss scalable approaches for probing the functional contributions of human-specific genetic differences. We propose that a systems-level view will enable a more quantitative and integrative understanding of the genetic, molecular and cellular underpinnings of human nervous system evolution.     

Differential perturbation of the interstitial cystitis-associated genes of bladder and urethra in rat model

Interstitial cystitis (IC) is a chronic bladder dysfunction characterized as urinary frequency, urgency, nocturia, and pelvic pain. The changes in urethra may wind up with the bladder changes in structure and functions, however, the functions of the urethra in IC remains elusive. The aim of this study was to understand the perturbed gene expression in urethra, compared with urinary bladder, associated with the defected urodynamics. Using female IC mimic rats, a comprehensive RNA-sequencing combined with a bioinformatics analysis was performed and revealed that IC-specific genes in bladder or urethra. Gene ontology analysis suggested that the cell adhesion or extracellular matrix regulation, intracellular signaling cascade, cardiac muscle tissue development, and second messenger-mediated signaling might be the most enriched cellular processes in IC context. Further study of the effects of these bladder- or urethra-specific genes may suggest underlying mechanism of lower urinary tract function and novel therapeutic strategies against IC.     

The “next-generation” knowledge of papillary thyroid carcinoma

The application of Next-Generation Sequencing for studying the genetics of papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTC) has recently revealed new somatic mutations and gene fusions as potential new tumor-initiating events in patients without any known driver lesion. Gene and miRNA expression analyses defined clinically relevant subclasses correlated to tumor progression. In addition, it has been shown that tumor driver mutations in BRAF, and RET rearrangements - altogether termed “BRAF-like” carcinomas - have a very similar expression pattern and constitute a distinct category. Conversely, “RAS-like” carcinomas have a different genomic, epigenomic, and proteomic profile. These findings justify the need to reconsider PTC classification schemes.