Project description:We constructed the trans/mdx mice as a novel DMD disease model by crossing transgenic mice and mdx mice. The transgenic and trans/mdx mice have UAA incorporation system that can readthrough the nonsense mutation in the dmd gene with additional UAA. The whole transcriptomics of heart and muscle tissues of 5 mouse groups (n=2) were used to determine whether the introduced UAA incorporation system affect the normal gene expression of mice, or the safety of the system. Groups include: a) wild-type C57BL/6N mice; b) transgenic mice; c) mdx mice; d) trans/mdx mice without UAA; e) trans/mdx mice with UAA (50 mg NAEK every 2-3 day, treated for 4 weeks). The total numbers of expressed genes were around 11,000 in all 5 mouse groups. The expression levels of major genes (logFPKM>0) in 5 mouse groups were also close to each other. These data indicated that the UAA incorporation system was safe and could serve as a potential therapeutic strategy for DMD disease. The transgenic mice with UAA incorporation system we constructed could also cross with other nonsense mutation mice to build more functional animal models.
Project description:Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an incurable neuromuscular degenerative disease, caused by a mutation in the dystrophin gene. Mdx mice recapitulate DMD features. Here we show that injection of wild-type (WT) embryonic stem cells (ESCs) into mdx blastocysts produces mice with improved pathology. A small fraction of WT ESCs incorporates into the mdx mouse nonuniformly to upregulate protein levels of dystrophin in the skeletal muscle. The chimeric muscle shows reduced regeneration and restores dystrobrevin, a dystrophin-related protein, in areas with high and with low dystrophin content. WT ESC injection also normalizes the amount of fat, a tissue that does not express dystrophin. ESC injection without dystrophin does not prevent the appearance of phenotypes in the skeletal muscle or in the fat. Thus, dystrophin supplied by the ESCs reverses disease in mdx mice globally.
Project description:Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disease that results in the death of affected boys by early adulthood.The genetic defect responsible for DMD has been known for over 25 years, yet at present there is neither cure nor effective treatment for DMD. During early disease onset, the mdx mouse has been validated as an animal model for DMD and use of this model has led to valuable but incomplete insights into the disease process. For example, immune cells are thought to be responsible for a significant portion of muscle cell death in the mdx mouse; however, the role and time course of the immune response in the dystrophic process have not been well described. In this paper we constructed a simple mathematical model to investigate the role of the immune response in muscle degeneration and subsequent regeneration in the mdx mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Our model suggests that the immune response contributes substantially to the muscle degeneration and regeneration processes. Furthermore, the analysis of the model predicts that the immune system response oscillates throughout the life of the mice, and the damaged fibers are never completely cleared.
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of 13.5 day mouse embryo forelimbs. Gene expression comparison done between wild type and Chsy-1 gene knockout mice.
Project description:Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a classical monogenic disorder, a model disease for genomic studies and a priority candidate for regenerative medicine and gene therapy. Although the genetic cause of DMD is well known, the molecular pathogenesis of disease and the response to therapy are incompletely understood. Here, we describe analyses of protein, mRNA and microRNA expression in the tibialis anterior of the mdx mouse model of DMD. Notably, 3272 proteins were quantifiable and 525 identified as differentially expressed in mdx muscle (P < 0.01). Therapeutic restoration of dystrophin by exon skipping induced widespread shifts in protein and mRNA expression towards wild-type expression levels, whereas the miRNome was largely unaffected. Comparison analyses between datasets showed that protein and mRNA ratios were only weakly correlated (r = 0.405), and identified a multitude of differentially affected cellular pathways, upstream regulators and predicted miRNA–target interactions. This study provides fundamental new insights into gene expression and regulation in dystrophic muscle. 3 Wt, 4 mdx and 4 Pip6e-PMO treated mdx mice
Project description:Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a classical monogenic disorder, a model disease for genomic studies and a priority candidate for regenerative medicine and gene therapy. Although the genetic cause of DMD is well known, the molecular pathogenesis of disease and the response to therapy are incompletely understood. Here,we describe analyses of protein, mRNA and microRNA expression in the tibialis anterior of the mdx mouse model of DMD. Notably, 3272 proteins were quantifiable and 525 identified as differentially expressed in mdx muscle (P < 0.01). Therapeutic restoration of dystrophin by exon skipping induced widespread shifts in protein and mRNA expression towards wild-type expression levels, whereas the miRNome was largely unaffected. Comparison analyses between datasets showed that protein and mRNA ratios were only weakly correlated (r = 0.405), and identified a multitude of differentially affected cellular pathways, upstream regulators and predicted miRNA–target interactions. This study provides fundamental new insights into gene expression and regulation in dystrophic muscle. 3 Wt, 4 mdx and 4 Pip6e-PMO treated mdx mice
Project description:Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an incurable neuromuscular degenerative disease, caused by a mutation in the dystrophin gene. Mdx mice recapitulate DMD features. Here we show that injection of wild-type (WT) embryonic stem cells (ESCs) into mdx blastocysts produces mice with improved pathology. A small fraction of WT ESCs incorporates into the mdx mouse nonuniformly to upregulate protein levels of dystrophin in the skeletal muscle. The chimeric muscle shows reduced regeneration and restores dystrobrevin, a dystrophin-related protein, in areas with high and with low dystrophin content. WT ESC injection also normalizes the amount of fat, a tissue that does not express dystrophin. ESC injection without dystrophin does not prevent the appearance of phenotypes in the skeletal muscle or in the fat. Thus, dystrophin supplied by the ESCs reverses disease in mdx mice globally. Experiment Overall Design: 3-week old mdx (C57BL/10ScSn-Dmdmdx/J, Jax labs) females were superovulated and mated with mdx males (Jax labs). Blastocysts were collected at 3.5 days afer mating, injected with 15 WT or mdx R26 ES cells. Injected blastocysts were then transferred into the uteri of pseudopregnant females and allowed to develop to term. Skeletal muscle from 4 month old chimeric male mice was collected, RNA was isolated and microarray analysis were performed.
Project description:Fibro adipogenic progenitors (FAPs) promote satellite cell differentiation in adult skeletal muscle regeneration. However, in pathological conditions, FAPs are responsible for fibrosis and fatty infiltrations. Here we show that the NOTCH pathway negatively modulates FAP differentiation both in vitro and in vivo. However, FAPs isolated from young dystrophin- deficient mdx mice are insensitive to this control mechanism. An unbiased mass spectrometry-based proteomic analysis of FAPs from muscles of wild type and mdx mice, suggest that the synergistic cooperation between NOTCH and inflammatory signals controls FAP differentiation. Remarkably, we demonstrated that factors released by hematopoietic cells restore the sensitivity to NOTCH adipogenic inhibition in mdx FAPs. These results offer a basis for rationalizing pathological ectopic fat infiltrations in skeletal muscle and may suggest new therapeutic strategies to mitigate the detrimental effects of fat depositions in muscles of dystrophic patients.
Project description:In this study, in order to minimize the genetic variability of muscle samples we have used two approaches. First, we have analyzed the gene expression profile from a single skeletal muscle, the medial gastrocnemius (MG), and not from a pool of different muscles which could have different expression profiles. Second, we have performed the temporal gene expression profiling by extracting the MG muscles of the same individual from the both legs at two different times to minimize the inter-individual genetic variability. The MG muscle represent an excellent candidate for biopsy due to its easy accessible by surgery and also because its biopsy is well tolerated by the animals allowing us to perform another later biopsy in the other leg to obtain two MG samples of the same individual at two different times. Moreover, MG muscle is composed of approximately 20-30% type I (red) fibers and 70-80% type II (white) fibers {Ariano MA, 1973}, {Simard C, 1988}, {Zhan WZ, 1992} and therefore is more representative of skeletal muscle tissue in general than a muscle composed exclusively by red or white fibers.<br><br><br><br>The transcript expression profiles in MG muscles from mdx and wild-type mice were analyzed at 3 weeks, 1.5 months and 3 months of life by using the 430 2.0 gene chips from Affymetrix (n=3 for each condition). The differentially expressed transcripts which showed differences ?1.5-fold were obtained by performing three different comparisons: 1) genes differentially expressed in mdx compared with controls at each point in time (additional file 1); 2) temporal analysis of the genes differentially expressed in mdx mice between the three points in time also compared with the variations in control mice (additional file 2); and 3) temporal analysis of the genes differentially expressed in control mice between the three points in time also compared with the variations in mdx mice (additional file 3). The first comparison that we performed, by comparing the gene expression between mdx and control mice at every point in time, was similar to that performed in previous longitudinal studies {Porter JD, 2003}, {Rouger K, 2002}, {Turk R, 2005}. However, the other two comparisons were directed to elucidate the genes that are varying throughout the period of time analyzed in every mice strain, and therefore we obtained on the one hand the genes that vary in mdx mice but not in wild-type, and on the other hand the genes that vary in control animals but remain unchanged in mdx mice between the times analyzed. To present the results in a more comprehensive form, all the genes were classified in seven different categories: Cell adhesion & extracellular matrix; Proteolysis; Muscle structure & regeneration; Inflammation & immune response; Cell signaling & cell communication; Metabolism; and Others/unknown. The resulting genes from our study were classified in their functional categories using information from Affymetrix (www.affymetrix.com) and from the Gene Ontology database accessible in the Jackson Laboratory Mouse Genome Informatics website (www.informatics.jax.org).<br><br>