Project description:Hyperactivation of Notch signaling and the cellular hypoxic response are frequently observed in cancers, with increasing reports of connections to tumor initiation and progression. The two signaling mechanisms are known to intersect, but while it is well established that hypoxia regulates Notch signaling, less is known about whether Notch can regulate the cellular hypoxic response. We now report that Notch signaling specifically controls expression of HIF2a, a key mediator of the cellular hypoxic response. Transcriptional upregulation of HIF2a by Notch under normoxic conditions leads to elevated HIF2a protein levels in primary breast cancer cells as well as in human breast cancer, medulloblastoma and renal cell carcinoma cell lines. The elevated level of HIF2a protein was in certain tumor cell types accompanied by down-regulation of HIF1a protein levels, indicating that high Notch signaling may drive a HIF1a-to-HIF2a switch. At the transcriptome level, the presence of HIF2a was required for approximately 21% of all Notch-induced genes: among the 1062 genes that were upregulated by Notch in medulloblastoma cells during normoxia, upregulation was abrogated in 227 genes when HIF2a expression was knocked down by HIF2a siRNA. In conclusion, our data show that Notch signaling affects the hypoxic response via regulation of HIF2a, which may be important for future cancer therapies.
Project description:Background: Interaction between key signaling mechanisms is important to generate the diversity in signaling output required for proper control of cellular differentiation and function, although the molecular manifestations of such cross-talk are only partially understood. Notch signaling and the cellular response to hypoxia intersect at different points in the signaling cascades, and in this report we analyze the consequences of this cross-talk at the transcriptome level. Results: Mouse ES cells were subjected to various combinations of hypoxia and/or activated Notch signaling, and the transcriptome changes could be grouped into different categories, reflecting various modes of hypoxia and Notch signaling integration. Two principal categories of novel Notch- and hypoxia-induced genes were identified: i) a larger set of genes induced by one pathway and not significantly affected by the activity status of the other pathway; and ii) a smaller set of genes co-regulated by Notch and hypoxia. In the latter category, we identified genes that were induced by hypoxia and the expression of which was enhanced by active Notch signaling. In addition, a number of genes were induced by Notch and hypoxia independently, and a final category of genes required simultaneous activation of Notch and hypoxia to be significantly induced. Several of the hypoxia- and Notch-induced genes were found to be upregulated in various forms of cancer. Conclusions: We identify novel Notch and hypoxia downstream genes and genes co-regulated by the two pathways, providing a molecular platform to better understand the intersection between the two signaling cascades in normal development and cancer.
Project description:The Notch signaling pathway regulates several differentiation and developmental processes. Reduction of oxygen availability, a condition referred to as hypoxia, impacts on the Notch response. Here we made use of RNA-Seq and ChIP-Seq analysis to investigate the Notch/hypoxia crosstalk at genomic level.
Project description:The goal of this study was to profile the total proteome and transcriptome of the established medulloblastoma cell lines, Daoy and UW228, using label-free nano-LC-MS/MS-based quantitative proteomics and high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq), coupled with pathway analysis to identify differentially expressed genes, proteins and signaling pathways with potential as prognostic markers. A total of 14250 and 12870 transcripts were detected for Daoy and UW228, respectively. Proteomic profiling identified 2630 and 1235 proteins in Daoy and UW228, representing 18% and 10% of detected transcripts, respectively. Interestingly, Daoy proteome included >50% unique proteins, while almost 90% of proteins expressed by UW228 were commonly expressed in Daoy. Differential expression of a number of adhesion, cytoskeletal and signaling molecules were observed between the two cell lines. Upregulation of a number of proteins and enrichment of key signaling pathways, including WNT, Sonic hedgehog (SHH) and integrin signaling pathways, were uniquely observed in MB cell lines, in particular in Daoy.
Project description:Hypoxia (low oxygen) and Notch signaling are two important regulators of vascular development, but how they interact in controlling the choice between arterial and venous fates for endothelial cells during vasculogenesis is less well understood. In this report, we show that hypoxia and Notch signaling intersect in promotion of arterial differentiation. Hypoxia upregulated expression of the Notch ligand Dll4 and increases Notch signaling, in a process requiring the vasoactive hormone adrenomedullin but not endogenous VEGF. Notch signaling also upregulated Dll4 expression, leading to a positive feedback loop sustaining Dll4 expression and Notch signaling. In addition, functional Notch signaling was required for hypoxia to upregulate the arterial marker genes Depp, connexin40 (Gja5), Cxcr4 and Hey1. In conclusion, the data reveal an intricate interaction between hypoxia and Notch signaling in the control of endothelial cell differentiation, including a hypoxia/adrenomedullin/Dll4 axis that initiates Notch signaling and a requirement for Notch signaling to effectuate hypoxiamediated induction of the arterial differentiation program.
Project description:Hypoxia (low oxygen) and Notch signaling are two important regulators of vascular development, but how they interact in controlling the choice between arterial and venous fates for endothelial cells during vasculogenesis is less well understood. In this report, we show that hypoxia and Notch signaling intersect in promotion of arterial differentiation. Hypoxia upregulated expression of the Notch ligand Dll4 and increases Notch signaling, in a process requiring the vasoactive hormone adrenomedullin but not endogenous VEGF. Notch signaling also upregulated Dll4 expression, leading to a positive feedback loop sustaining Dll4 expression and Notch signaling. In addition, functional Notch signaling was required for hypoxia to upregulate the arterial marker genes Depp, connexin40 (Gja5), Cxcr4 and Hey1. In conclusion, the data reveal an intricate interaction between hypoxia and Notch signaling in the control of endothelial cell differentiation, including a hypoxia/adrenomedullin/Dll4 axis that initiates Notch signaling and a requirement for Notch signaling to effectuate hypoxiamediated induction of the arterial differentiation program. 12 microarray samples consisting of >50,000 FACS sorted CD31+ cells purified from wild type mouse CCE ES cells that were differentiated into the endothelial lineages in 3 biological replicates. The ES cells were subjected to embryoid body formation over 4 days in hanging drop cultures, FACS sorted for Flk1 positive vascular progenitors cells and plated for a further 4 days in normoxia (21% oxygen) or hypoxia (1.5-2% oxygen) with or without 4 umol/l gamma-secretase inhibitor L-685.458.
Project description:Hyperactivation of Notch signaling and the cellular hypoxic response are frequently observed in cancers, with increasing reports of connections to tumor initiation and progression. The two signaling mechanisms are known to intersect, but while it is well established that hypoxia regulates Notch signaling, less is known about whether Notch can regulate the cellular hypoxic response. We now report that Notch signaling specifically controls expression of HIF2a, a key mediator of the cellular hypoxic response. Transcriptional upregulation of HIF2a by Notch under normoxic conditions leads to elevated HIF2a protein levels in primary breast cancer cells as well as in human breast cancer, medulloblastoma and renal cell carcinoma cell lines. The elevated level of HIF2 protein was in certain tumor cell types accompanied by down-regulation of HIF1a protein levels, indicating that high Notch signaling may drive a HIF1a-to-HIF2a switch. At the transcriptome level, the presence of HIF2a was required for approximately 21% of all Notch-induced genes: among the 1062 genes that were upregulated by Notch in medulloblastoma cells during normoxia, upregulation was abrogated in 227 genes when HIF2a expression was knocked down by HIF2a siRNA. In conclusion, our data show that Notch signaling affects the hypoxic response via regulation of HIF2a, which may be important for future cancer therapies.
Project description:Using measurements of absolute protein and mRNA concentrations in cellular lysate from a Daoy medulloblastoma cell line, we quantitatively evaluate the influence of absolute transcript levels and a large number of sequence-encoded regulatory elements on steady-state human protein expression levels.