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Human post-mortem skin samples from slow death and fast death

ABSTRACT: Human death marks the end of organismal life under conditions such that the components of the human body continue to be alive. Such postmortem cellular survival depends on the nature (Hardy scale) of human death. Slow and expected death typically result from terminal illnesses and includes a prolonged terminal phase of life. As such organismal death process unfolds, do cells of the human body adapt for postmortem cellular survival? Organs with low energy cost-of-living, such as the skin, are better suited for postmortem cellular survival. In this work, the effect of different durations of terminal phase of human life on postmortem changes in cellular gene expression was investigated using RNA sequencing data of 701 human skin samples from the Genotype-Tissue Expression database. Longer terminal phase (slow-death) was associated with a more robust induction of survival pathways (PI3K-Akt signaling) in postmortem skin. Such cellular survival response was associated with the upregulation of embryonic developmental transcription factors such as FOXO1, FOXO3, ATF4 and CEBPD. Upregulation of PI3K-Akt signaling was independent of sex or duration of death-related tissue ischemia. Analysis of single nucleus RNA-seq of post-mortem skin tissue specifically identified the dermal fibroblast compartment to be most resilient as marked by adaptive induction of PI3K-Akt signaling. Prospective studies depicted hypomethylation of PI3K-Akt signaling genes in slow compared to fast human death. Compared to fast death, slow death also induced angiogenic pathways in the dermal endothelial cell compartment of postmortem human skin. In contrast, specific pathways supporting functional properties of the skin as an organ were downregulated following slow death. Such pathways included melanogenesis and those representing the skin extracellular matrix. Efforts to understand the significance of death as a biological variable in influencing the transcriptomic composition of surviving component tissues has far-reaching implications including rigorous interpretation of experimental data collected from the dead and mechanisms involved in transplant-tissue obtained from dead donors.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE268703 | GEO | 2025/05/29

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Mosca2012 - Central Carbon Metabolism Regulated by AKT The role of the PI3K/Akt/PKB signalling pathway in oncogenesis has been extensively investigated and altered expression or mutations of many components of this pathway have been implicated in human cancers. Indeed, expression of constitutively active forms of Akt/PKB can prevent cell death upon growth factor withdrawal. PI3K/Akt/mTOR-mediated survival relies on a profound metabolic adaptation, including aerobic glycolysis. Here, the link between the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, glycolysis, lactic acid production and nucleotide biosynthesis has been modelled, considering two states - high and low PI3K/Akt/mTOR activity. The high PI3K/Akt/mTOR activity represents cancer cell line where PI3K/Akt/mTOR promotes a high rate of glucose metabolism (condition H) and the low PI3K/Akt/mTOR activity is characterised by a lower glycolytic rate due to a reduced PI3K/Akt/mTOR signal (condition L). This model corresponds to the high PI3K/Akt/mTOR signal (condition H). This model is described in the article: Computational Modelling of the Metabolic States Regulated by the Kinase Akt. Mosca E, Alfieri R, Maj C, Bevilacqua A, Canti G, Milanesi L. Frontiers in Systems Biology. 2012 Oct 13 Abstract: Signal transduction pathways and gene regulation determine a major reorganization of metabolic activities in order to support cell proliferation. Protein Kinase B (PKB), also known as Akt, participates in the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, a master regulator of aerobic glycolysis and cellular biosynthesis, two activities shown by both normal and cancer proliferating cells. Not surprisingly considering its relevance for cellular metabolism, Akt/PKB is often found hyperactive in cancer cells. In the last decade, many efforts have been made to improve the understanding of the control of glucose metabolism and the identification of a therapeutic window between proliferating cancer cells and proliferating normal cells. In this context, we have modelled the link between the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, glycolysis, lactic acid production and nucleotide biosynthesis. We used a computational model in order to compare two metabolic states generated by the specific variation of the metabolic fluxes regulated by the activity of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway. One of the two states represented the metabolism of a growing cancer cell characterised by aerobic glycolysis and cellular biosynthesis, while the other state represented the same metabolic network with a reduced glycolytic rate and a higher mitochondrial pyruvate metabolism, as reported in literature in relation to the activity of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR. Some steps that link glycolysis and pentose phosphate pathway revealed their importance for controlling the dynamics of cancer glucose metabolism. This model is hosted on BioModels Database and identified by: MODEL1210150000 . To cite BioModels Database, please use: BioModels Database: An enhanced, curated and annotated resource for published quantitative kinetic models . To the extent possible under law, all copyright and related or neighbouring rights to this encoded model have been dedicated to the public domain worldwide. Please refer to CC0 Public Domain Dedication for more information.

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Human post-mortem skin samples from slow death and fast death

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