Project description:Cholangiocyte organoids provide a powerful tool for characterizing bile duct epithelium and expanding cholangiocytes for tissue engineering purposes. However, this involves invasively obtained tissue-biopsies via surgery which is not preferential and limits the patient-specific capacities of these cultures. To overcome this, organoid culture were initiated from minimal invasive bile-samples obtained during routine clinical procedures. Characterization revealed that these bile-cholangiocyte organoids originate from the extrahepatic bile duct and are capable to repopulate human extrahepatic bile duct scaffolds. With this, bile duct tissue engineering as well as personalized disease modelling is in sight.
Project description:Primary outcome(s): Comparison of the IGFP levels between patients of Esohageal, gastric, hapatic, bile duct, colorectal cancers and control individuals
Project description:<p>Adenocarcinomas arising in the complex environment of the ampulla of Vater constitute a histopathological heterogenous group, presumably originating from the different epithelial cellular constituents present at the site: pancreas, bile duct, and intestinal duodenum. These tumors have been described in many different ways: intra-ampullary, periampullary, intra-ampullary papillary-tubular neoplasm, ampullary-ductal, periampullary-duodenal, and ampullary-not otherwise specified. These varied classifications reflect the difficulty in classifying these tumors into specific groups. Only the tumors clearly localized in the bile duct or duodenum are identified as distal cholangiocarcinomas (CAC) or duodenal adenocarcinomas (DUOAC). The current classification is based on macroscopic features that may distinguish the epithelium of origin, microscopic features, clinicopathological criteria, histopathology and expression of differential markers. This classification is subjective and prone to inter-observer variability and significantly impacts on treatment selection and therapeutic development.</p> <p>In order to define subtypes of periampullary cancer with clinical relevance, we performed whole exome sequencing and copy number analysis of 160 cancers arising in the periampullary region, 62 of these clearly arising from either the bile duct (n = 44), or the duodenum (n = 18) and 98 periampullary cancers (AMPAC) where the epithelium of origin could not be clearly defined.</p>
Project description:RNA-Sequencing was performed on mechanically dissociated, epithelial-enriched samples, of human extrahepatic biliary tissue from Gallbladder, Common Bile Duct, and Pancreatic Duct tissues. Sequencing was also performed on in vitro cultures of Organoid cell lines at passage 5 that were derived from human Gallbladder, Common Bile Duct, Pancreatic Duct, or Intrahepatic Bile Ducts.
Project description:Genome wide DNA methylation profiling of normal and tumor bile duct samples. The Illumina HumanMethylation450 BeadChip was used to obtain DNA methylation profiles across approximately 450,000 CpGs in 138 tumor bile duct samples and 4 normal bile duct samples.
Project description:Adenocarcinomas of the ampulla of Vater are classified as biliary cancers, though the exact epithelium of origin for these cancers is not known. We sought to molecularly classify ampullary adenocarcinomas in comparison to known adenocarcinomas of the pancreas, extrahepatic bile duct, and duodenum by gene expression analysis.
Project description:We leveraged massively parallel sequencing approach to comprehensively characterize the spectrum of somatic mutations and genomic rearrangements in two intestinal-type gastric adenocarcinomas from patients with and without active Helicobacter pylori infections. The tumours exhibited distinct patterns of genomic changes with more than 16,000 somatic substitutions on average, focal amplifications and rearrangements in the non-active infected tumour and a 7-fold enrichment of micro-deletions in the infected tumour. Paired-end sequences from large insert libraries revealed the structure and origins of large amplicons, including one involving the oncogene KRAS. The mutational frequencies of the tumours revealed patterns of H. pylori infection and mutagenesis and a unique exome signature, providing insights into mechanisms that define the mutational landscape of gastric cancer. For the tumour with active infection, we also reconstructed the genome of the pathogenic H. pylori strain from the raw sequence reads, demonstrating the power of whole-genome shotgun sequencing for simultaneously characterizing the tumour and its associated carcinogen genome.
Project description:An essential function of the liver is the formation of bile. This aqueous solution is critical for fat absorption and is transported to the duodenum via the common bile duct. Despite extensive studies of bile salts, other components of bile are less well-charted. Here, we characterized the murine bile metabolome and investigated how the microbiota and enteric infection influence bile composition. We discovered that the bile metabolome is not only substantially more complex than appreciated but is dynamic and responsive to the microbiota and enteric infection. Hepatic transcriptomics identified enteric infection-triggered pathways that likely underlie bile remodeling. Enteric infections stimulated elevation of four dicarboxylates in bile that modulated intestinal gut epithelial and microbiota composition, inflammasome activation, and host defense. Our data suggest that enteric infection-associated signals are relayed between the intestine and liver and induce transcriptional programs that shape the bile metabolome, modifying bile’s immunomodulatory and host defense functions.
