Project description:The naked mole-rat (NMR), Heterocephalus glaber, is a mouse-sized subterranean rodent native to East Africa. Research on NMRs is intensifying in an effort to gain leverage from their unusual physiology, long-life span and cancer resistance for the development of new theraputics. Few studies have attempted to explain the reasons behind the NMR’s cancer resistance, but most prominently Tian et al. reported that NMR cells produce high-molecular weight hyaluronan as a potential cause for the NMR’s cancer resistance. Tian et al. have shown that NMR cells are resistant to transformation by SV40 Large T Antigen (SV40LT) and oncogenic HRAS (HRASG12V), a combination of oncogenes sufficient to transform mouse and rat fibroblasts. We have developed a number of lentiviral vectors to deliver both these oncogenes and generated 106 different cell lines from five different tissues and eleven different NMRs, and report here that contrary to Tian et al.’s observation, NMR cells are susceptible to oncogenic transformation by SV40LT and HRASG12V. Our data thus point to a non-cell autonomous mechanism underlying the remarkable cancer resistance of NMRs. Identifying these non-cell autonomous mechanisms could have significant implications on our understanding of human cancer development.
Project description:Deep sequencing of mRNA from naked mole rat Analysis of ploy(A)+ RNA of different specimens: brain, kidney, liver from new born , 4 years old , 20 years old and 4 years old hypoxia-exposed naked mole rat
Project description:The goal of this analysis is to compare the transcriptome profile (RNA-seq) along different developmental ages in the naked mole rat ovary
Project description:Heathly naked mole-rats kept under normal housing conditions harbor either a small or enlarged spleen. The aim of the study is to compare RNAseq of naked mole-rat (NM-R) small and enlarged spleens between them and to compare them with RNAseq of mouse spleen.
Project description:This study compares the transcriptional response to hypoxia in liver of the hypoxia-tolerant naked mole rat (NMR) and the hypoxia-sensitive rat.
Project description:To study the tumour-suppressive capabilities of naked mole-rat fibroblasts we subcutaneously co-injected the fibroblasts and human squamous carcinoma cells into the flanks of NSG mice, which lack mature T cells. As controls, we (1) performed the co-injection experiment with mouse fibroblasts, and (2) performed experiments in which we injected human squamous carcinoma cells without mouse or naked mole-rat fibroblasts. To determine how the co-injections with mouse or naked mole-rat fibroblasts affected tumour growth in vivo, we then transcriptionally profiled the human skin tumours.
