Project description:Most tumors of the upper gastrointestinal tract are known to depend on an excessive expression of Shh. It was recently discovered that this Shh does not signal on the tumor cells, but rather the stromal cells that in turn produce an unknown set of reciprocal signals that act as growth- or survival cues for the tumor cells. This sequencing effort aims to identify the reciprocal signals. Mouse fibroblasts and Shh-expressing human pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells were either grown alone, or in a non-adherent coculture system. To be able to assess the effect of Shh on fibroblast gene expression (being the reciprocal signal), 5E1 blocking antibody was added to the cells and after 5 days, RNA was isolated. n=1
Project description:Most tumors of the upper gastrointestinal tract are known to depend on an excessive expression of Shh. It was recently discovered that this Shh does not signal on the tumor cells, but rather the stromal cells that in turn produce an unknown set of reciprocal signals that act as growth- or survival cues for the tumor cells. This sequencing effort aims to identify the reciprocal signals.
Project description:Cancer is a heterocellular disease composed of tumor cells and stromal cells. Although stromal cells are known to regulate cancer progression, oncogene-dependent signalling through heterocellular cancer systems remains poorly elucidated. Here, we describe KRASG12D-dependent ‘reciprocal’ signalling across tumor and stromal Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDA) cells. Heterocellular multivariate phosphoproteomics demonstrates how an oncogenic cue (KRASG12D), a trans-cellular signal (SHH), and stromal cells drive a reciprocal response in tumor cells. KRASG12D-dependent reciprocal signalling regulates the tumor cell phosphoproteome, total proteome, and mitochondria activity via an IGFR1/AXL-AKT axis. The reciprocal KRASG12D signalling state requires a heterocellular context and is unreachable by cell-autonomous oncogenic KRAS alone. These findings provide evidence that oncogenic KRAS regulates tumor cells via heterocellular reciprocation. Comparison between FACS resolved iKRAS cells (previously in co-culture with PSCs) pertubed with a SHH antibody
Project description:Cancer is a heterocellular disease composed of tumor cells and stromal cells. Although stromal cells are known to regulate cancer progression, oncogene-dependent signalling through heterocellular cancer systems remains poorly elucidated. Here, we describe KRASG12D-dependent ‘reciprocal’ signalling across tumor and stromal Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDA) cells. Heterocellular multivariate phosphoproteomics demonstrates how an oncogenic cue (KRASG12D), a trans-cellular signal (SHH), and stromal cells drive a reciprocal response in tumor cells. KRASG12D-dependent reciprocal signalling regulates the tumor cell phosphoproteome, total proteome, and mitochondria activity via an IGFR1/AXL-AKT axis. The reciprocal KRASG12D signalling state requires a heterocellular context and is unreachable by cell-autonomous oncogenic KRAS alone. These findings provide evidence that oncogenic KRAS regulates tumor cells via heterocellular reciprocation.
Project description:Recurrent mutations in chromatin modifiers are specifically prevalent in adolescent or adult patients with Sonic Hedgehog-associated medulloblastoma (SHH MB). Here, we report that mutations in the acetyltransferase CREBBP have opposing effects during the development of the cerebellum, the primary site of origin of SHH MB. Our data reveal that loss of Crebbp in cerebellar granule neuron progenitors (GNPs) during embryonic development of mice compromises GNP development, in part by downregulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Bdnf). Interestingly, concomitant cerebellar hypoplasia was also observed in patients with Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome, a congenital disorder caused by germline mutations of CREBBP. By contrast, loss of Crebbp in GNPs during postnatal development synergizes with oncogenic activation of SHH signaling to drive MB growth, thereby explaining the enrichment of somatic CREBBP mutations in SHH MB of adult patients. Together, our data provide novel insights into time-sensitive consequences of CREBBP mutations and corresponding associations with human diseases. We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression underlying the knockout of Crebbp in murine Shh medulloblastoma, acutely induced at postnatal stages of development.
Project description:Canonical Hedgehog (Hh) signaling regulates the expression of genes that are critical to the patterning and development of a variety of organ systems. In adult, both ligand-dependent and ligand-independent Hh pathway activation are known to promote tumorigenesis. Recent studies have shown that in tumors promoted by Hh ligand, activation occurs within the stromal microenvironment (Yauch et al., 2009). In situ hybridization of the pathway target gene, Ptch1, shows that signaling is located at stromal perivascular fibroblast-like cells in xenograft tumor sections derived from Hh-expressing colorectal cancer cell lines. To study the downstream genes regulated by Hh signaling, we treated a primary human colon myofibroblast, CCD-18Co, with SHH (1 ug/ml) or no treatment (control) in serum-free medium supplemented with 0.1% BSA for 72 hrs and performed microarray analysis (Affymetrix U133P) on these samples. Three biological replicates of SHH stimulated and three replicates of unstimulated primary colon myofibroblast cells CCD-18Co were used in the experiment to analyze their gene expression.
Project description:Androgen-signaling is essential for prostate development. However, how androgen action facilitates prostatic stem/progenitor initiated pubertal prostatic growth remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that androgens regulate Shh-signaling to control the cellular niche in prostatic epithelial development. Selective deletion of androgen receptor (AR) in stromal Shh-responsive cells significantly impedes pubertal prostatic epithelial morphogenesis and growth. Dysregulation of developmental signaling networks revealed in both prostatic stromal and epithelial cells of AR-deficient mice. Specifically, deletion of AR yielded increased Gli1 expression in prostatic stromal cells, elevated Shh expression in adjacent epithelial cells and stark inhibition of prostate cell growth. Trajectory analysis revealed AR deletion induces abnormal differentiation patterns of prostatic epithelia. Recombination of prostatic epithelial cells with AR-deficient stromal Gli1-expressing cells fails to develop normal prostatic epithelia. These data demonstrate the decisive role of stromal AR in interacting with Shh-signaling in the cellular niche to control pubertal prostatic morphogenesis and growth.
Project description:Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signals via Gli transcription factors to promote maintenance and proliferation of neural stem cells in the adult mouse forebrain. We have analyzed the gene expression pattern in neurogenic Shh-responding astroglia (= neural stem cells ) in the subventicular zone of the lateral ventricle and dentate gyrus of the hippocampus in comparison to the non-neurogenic Shh-responding glia (=Bergman glia) in the cerebellum to identify the genes specifically involved in neurogenic function downstream of Shh signaling. In this dataset, we include the expression data obtained from FACS-sorted Gli1+ GFAP+ cells from microdissected SVZ, hippocampus and cerebellum. GFAP expression is based on hGFAP-GFP reporter line and Gli1 expression is lineage marked using Gli1-CreER;ROSA26-tdTomato mice.
Project description:The activation of the androgen receptor (AR) through binding of androgens is essential for prostate tumorigenesis. Although significant effort has been devoted to determining the intrinsic mechanism underlying AR action and designing therapies to directly target AR expressing tumor cells, these therapies failed in most prostate cancer patients. Here, we demonstrate that loss of AR in stromal sonic-hedgehog Gli1-lineage cells diminishes prostate epithelial oncogenesis and tumor development using both in vivo tissue recombination assays and mouse models. Single-cell RNA sequencing combined with other experimental analyses showed that AR loss in stromal Gli1-lineage niches resulted in robust increased expression of insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 (IGFBP3) through attenuation of AR suppression on Sp1-regulated transcription. Aberrant increased IGFBP3 further inhibits IGF1 induced Wnt signaling activation in subsets of basal epithelial cells, impairing oncogenic cell growth and tumor development. IGFBP3 further showed to attenuate IGF1-induced oncogenic growth of prostatic organoids derived from mouse basal epithelia. Loss of human prostate tumor basal cell signatures was identified in basal cells with AR-deficient microenvironment. This study demonstrates the niche effect of stromal AR in Gli1-lineage cells in supporting prostate tumorigenesis, implicating co-targeting tumor epithelial and stromal AR signaling for treating advanced prostate cancer.