Project description:To find a promoter upregulated in the presence of rotten meat, we exposed B. subtilis 168 to the volatiles of rotten meat (mixed beef/pork) and performed a microarray comparing it to B. subtilis which was not exposed to the meat. The results where used to build iGEM Groningen 2012s Food Warden, a spoiled meat detector. Find more information at: 2012.igem.org/Team:Groningen One condition design; including dye swap, two technical replicates and two experimental replicates
Project description:Indomethacin is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. It is widely used in clinical practice. In scientific intervention studies, it is applied as a methodology to inflict reversible damage to gastrointestinal epithelium. The exact pathogenesis is not well understood. The present study aimed to obtain a better understanding of indomathacin-induced pathogenesis by determining its effects on gene expression in duodenal mucosa in healthy subjects. Tissue samples from the horizontal part of the duodenum were obtained by standard flexible gastroduodenoscopy, and Affymetrix microarrays were used to determine genome-wide gene expression profiles.
Project description:The effects of a 2-week suppletion period with L. plantarum WCFS1 on duodenal gene expression profiles was investigated in healthy subjects in a placebo-controlled doouble-blind study. Each subject ingested a supplement containing L. Plantarum WCFS1 once a day. After that period, tissue samples from the horizontal part of the duodenum were obtained by standard flexible gastroduodenoscopy, and Affymetrix microarrays were used to determine genome-wide gene expression profiles.
Project description:Glutamine mediates different aspects of gut physiology. Its effects on gene expression is, however, not known. To examine the effect of glutamine on intestinal gene expression in vivo in healthy subjects, an intestinal catheter was inserted into the proximal part of the small intestine, to enable injection of a glutamine-containing solution. Glutamine injection occurred over a 4-h period. After this period, mucosal tissue samples from the horizontal part of the duodenum were obtained by standard flexible gastroduodenoscopy, and Affymetrix microarrays were used to determine genome-wide gene expression profiles.
Project description:Analysis of fluorescent assembly B-phycoerythrin with a combination of bottom-up and top-down mass spectrometry to reveal heterogeneity of proteoforms and characterize their chromophorylations.
Project description:Cultivation methods used to investigate microbial calorie restriction often result in carbon and energy starvation. This study aims to dissect cellular responses to calorie restriction and starvation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by using retentostat cultivation. In retentostats, cells are continuously supplied with a small, constant carbon and energy supply, sufficient for maintenance of cellular viability and integrity but insufficient for growth. When glucose-limited retentostats cultivated under extreme calorie restriction were subjected to glucose starvation, calorie-restricted and glucose-starved cells were found to share characteristics such as increased heat-shock tolerance and expression of quiescence-related genes. However, they also displayed strikingly different features. While calorie-restricted yeast cultures remained metabolically active and viable for prolonged periods of time, glucose starvation resulted in rapid consumption of reserve carbohydrates, population heterogeneity due to appearance of senescent cells and, ultimately, loss of viability. Moreover, during starvation, calculated rates of ATP synthesis from storage carbohydrates were 2-3 orders of magnitude lower than steady-state ATP-turnover rates calculated under extreme calorie restriction in retentostats. Stringent reduction of ATP turnover during glucose starvation was accompanied by a strong down-regulation of genes involved in protein synthesis. These results demonstrate that extreme calorie restriction and carbon starvation represent different physiological states in S. cerevisiae. The yeast was first grown for 14 days under extreme calorie restriction in anaerobic, glucose-limited retentostats (Boender et al., 2009, Appl.Environ.Microbiol., 75: 5607-5614.). Subsequently, starvation was started by terminating the glucose feed. Yeast transcriptional reprogramming in response to calorie restriction and starvation was monitored by microarray analysis. Independent duplicate retentostat cultures, and subsequently starvation, were sampled for transcriptome analysis using Affymetrix microarrays. One time-point was sampled during calorie restriction (T0) and four time points were sampled during the starvation phase 10, 30, 60 and 120 minutes after switching of the feed, resulting in a dataset of 10 arrays.
Project description:Prostate epithelial cells depend on androgens for survival and function. In early prostate cancer, besides survival, androgens also regulated tumor growth, which is exploited by androgen ablation/ blockade therapies in metastatic disease. The aim of the present study was to characterize the role of the androgen receptor pathway in prostate cancer progression and to identify potential disease markers. Microarray analysis was used to establish the androgen-regulated gene expression profile, upon stimulation with the synthetic androgen R1881 or the antiandrogen hydroxyflutamide, of the androgen-responsive PC346C cell line and its derivative castration-resistant sublines: PC346DCC (vestigial AR levels), PC346Flu1 (AR overexpression) and PC346Flu2 (T877A mutated AR) PC346C, PC346DCC, PC346Flu1 and PC346Flu2 were stimulated with 1 nM R1881, 1uM hydroxyflutamide or vehicle control, following a 4, 8 and 16h time-course. Each condition was performed in dye-swap, using biological duplicates. PC346DCC was only stimulated with R1881, not hydroxyflutamide.
Project description:The effects of fasting have been studied extensively, predominantly on isolated processes, within a specific organ. No comprehensive study of the adaptations was available for different organs, let alone interrelating them, which left the understanding of the body’s orchestration of fasting response limited. The gene expression profiles of brain, small intestine, kidney, liver and skeletal muscle were therefore studied in mice subjected to short, moderate and prolonged fasting. Functional category enrichment, network, and text-mining analyses were employed to scrutinize the overall adaptive response, aiming to identify responsive pathways, processes and networks, and their regulation. The implicated processes did not follow the accepted carbohydrate-lipid-protein succession of energy substrates expenditure. Instead, they were activated simultaneously in different organs during the whole duration of fasting. The most prominent changes occurred in lipid and steroid metabolism, especially in the liver and kidney, which showed biochemically similar, orchestrated responses. They were accompanied by suppression of the immune response and cell turnover, particularly in the small intestine, tied in with increased proteolysis in the muscle. Enhanced defence against oxidative damage, obvious in all the organs, was the top reaction of the brain, otherwise shown to be extremely well protected from starvation. The major transcription regulators of fasting response in different organs were FoxO transcription factors, AP-1, p53, cMyc, Sp1, EGF and HNF4α. The revealed interorgan interactions between metabolic, inflammatory and cell turnover responses are essential when designing strategies to treat the starvation affected individuals, while stressing the significance of using complimentary bioinformatics tools in the high-throughput data analysis. 6 week-old male FVB mice were fasted for 0, 12, 24, 48 or 72 hours before sacrifice (N = 5 per group). From each mouse total RNA was isolated from five organs - liver, small intestine, kidney, brain, and calf muscle. Five microarrays per experimental condition (five tissues, five timepoints) were performed. We used a common reference design. The single common-reference sample was a pool of equal amounts of RNA from all the samples investigated, including additional samples from 5 mice that were fasted for 48 hours and supplemented with vitamin B complex after 24 and 36 hours of fasting.
Project description:Prostate cancer is initially dependent on androgens for survival and growth, making hormonal therapy the cornerstone treatment for invasive tumors. However, despite initial remission, the cancer will inevitably recur. The present study was set to investigate how androgen-dependent prostate cancer cells eventually survive and resume growth under androgen-deprived and antiandrogen supplemented conditions Microarray technology was used to analyze differences in gene expression between androgen-responsive and hormone-refractory prostate cancer cell lines. As model system, we used the androgen-responsive PC346C cells and its castration-resistant sublines: PC346DCC, PC346Flu1 and PC346Flu2. These sublines were derived from the parental PC346C by long-term androgen ablation (PC346DCC), supplemented with the antiandrogen hydroxyflutamide (PC346Flu1 and PC346Flu2). Previous studies revealed distinct AR modifications in all three castration-resistant sublines: AR overexpression (PC346Flu1), AR down-regulation (PC346DCC) and T877A AR mutation (PC346Flu2). Each of the hormone-refractory sublines were cultured in their respective selection medium (steroid-stripped medium for PC346DCC, supplemented with 1 mM OH-Flutamide for PC346Flu1 and Flu2) and hybridized on the microarrays, together with the parental androgen-responsive PC346C (cultured in complete medium supplemented with 0.1 nM R1881). To account for the biological variability and dye-preferential binding to oligonucleotides on the microarray, four replicate arrays were performed per cell line, using two independent cell passages in dye-swap.