Project description:To understand the mechanisms through which JunB regulates Tregs-mediated immune regulation, we examined the global gene expression profiles in the JunB WT and KO Tregs by performing RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis.
Project description:We created mice, which are deficient for Myc specifically in cardiac myocytes by crossing crossed Myc-floxed mice (Mycfl/fl) and MLC-2VCre/+ mice. Serial analysis of earlier stages of gestation revealed that Myc-deficient mice died prematurely at E13.5-14.5. Morphological analyses of E13.5 Myc-null embryos showed normal ventricular size and structure; however, decreased cardiac myocyte proliferation and increased apoptosis was observed. BrdU incorporation rates were also decreased significantly in Myc-null myocardium. Myc-null mice displayed a 3.67-fold increase in apoptotic cardiomyocytes by TUNEL assay. We examined global gene expression using oligonucleotide microarrays. Numerous genes involved in mitochondrial death pathways were dysregulated including Bnip3L and Birc2. Hearts were taken from wide type and Myc-null Mouse embryos at E13.5 under the dissecting scope. Cardiac myocyte RNA was isolated using TRIZOL®Reagent Total RNA (100 ng) was hybridized to the Sentrix® MouseRef-8 Expression BeadChip that contains probes for ~24,000 transcripts. GeneChips were scanned using the Hewlett-Packard GeneArray Scanner G2500A. The data were analyzed with Illumina Inc. BeadStudio version 1.5.0.34 and normalized by rank invariant method.
Project description:To investigate the differences in microRNA expression profiles between fibrotic and normal livers, we performed microRNA microarrays for total RNA extracts isolated from mouse livers treated with carbontetrachloride (CCl4) or corn-oil for 10 weeks (n=3/group). MicroRNAs were considered to have significant differences in expression level when the expression difference showed more than two-fold change between the experimental and control groups at p<0.05. We found that 12 miRNAs were differentially expressed in CCl4-induced fibrotic liver.
Project description:MicroRNA-offset RNAs (moRs) were first identified in simple chordates and subsequently in mouse and human cells by deep sequencing of short RNAs. MoRs are derived from sequences located immediately adjacent to microRNAs (miRs) in the primary miR (pri-miR). Currently moRs are considered to be simply a by-product of miR biosynthesis that lack biological activity. Here we show for the first time that a moR is biologically active. We now demonstrate that endogenous and over-expressed moR-21 significantly alters gene expression and inhibits the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC). We report that the seed region of moR-21 as well as the seed match region in the target gene 3'UTR are indispensable for moR-21-mediated gene down-regulation. We further demonstrated that moR-21-mediated gene repression is Argonaute 2 (Ago2) dependent. In addition, we find that miR-21 and moR-21 may regulate different genes in a given pathway and can oppose each other in regulating certain genes. Taken together, these findings provide the first evidence that microRNA offset RNA regulates gene expression and is biologically active. Primary mouse aortic smooth muscle cells (AoSMCs) were transfected with scrambled control or moR-21 mimetics at 5nM final concentration. Triplicate samples were prepared for each treatment. Total RNA was isolated at 48hr post-transfection. Labeling and hybridization to MouseRef-8 v2.0 Expression BeadChip (llumina) were performed according to the Yale Center for Genome Analysis protocol (YCGA, http://ycga.yale.edu/). Beadstudio suite of programs were used to calculate the quantile normalized expression values for probe sets. Bioconductor packages Lumi and Limma Linear models and empirical Bayes methods for assessing differential expression in microarray experiments were use to process and annotate the expression values and calculate the fold changes and P-values.