Project description:The Khakh laboratory used astrocyte selective AAVs expressing Rpl22-HA and hM4Di, a Gi DREADD, in the striatum. Mice recieved either 1 mg/kg CNO or vehicle to compare striatal astrocyte transcriptomes with and without Gi-GPCR signaling activation.
Project description:The Khakh laboratory used astrocyte selective AAVs expressing Rpl22-HA along with bARK for attenuating Gq pathway signaling in the dorsal striatum. In the control group, bARK(D110A), which is a mutated control of bARK was expressed instead of bARK. The mouse striatum expressing either bARK or bARK(D110A) was subjected to RNA-seq in order to compare striatal astrocyte transcriptomes with and without Gq-GPCR signaling attenuation.
Project description:Astrogliosis is a hallmark of the response to brain ischemia, comprised of changes in gene expression and morphology. Hsp72 protects from cerebral ischemia, and although several mechanisms of protection have been investigated, effects on astrocyte activation are unknown. To identify potential mechanisms of protection, gene expression was assessed in mice subjected to middle cerebral artery (MCAO) or sham surgery, of either wildtype (WT) or Hsp72-overexpressing (Hsp72Tg) mice. After stroke, both genotypes exhibited genes related to cell death, stress response, and immune response. Furthermore, genes indicative of astrocyte activation, including cytoskeletal proteins and cytokines, were upregulated. To measure astrocyte activation after stroke, detailed histological and morphological analyses were performed in the cortical penumbra after stroke using unbiased stereology. Consistent with other reports, we observed a marked and persistent increase in glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP ) as soon as 3 hours after MCAO. In contrast, vimentin immunoreactivity appeared 12-24 hours after stroke, peaked at 72 hours, and returned to baseline after 30 days. Surprisingly, no change in overall astrocyte number was observed based on glutamine synthetase (GS) immunoreactivity. To determine if Hsp72Tg mice exhibited altered astrocyte activation compared to WT controls, morphological evaluation by fractal analysis was used. Overexpression of Hsp72 reduced astrocyte cell area, arbor area, and to a lesser extent fractal dimension, 72 hours following stroke. In conclusion, in vivo overexpression of Hsp72 alters gene expression following stroke, including genes involved in astrocyte activation, and decreases astrocyte activation acutely following MCAO. Thus, modulation of astrogliosis may be a neuroprotective mechanism exerted by Hsp72 after ischemia. A total of 10 samples were analyzed, with 5 of each genotype, wildtype (WT) and Hsp72-overexpressing (Hsp72Tg) mice. Of the 5 in each group, 3 received middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) and 2 received a sham surgery. The sham samples serve as the controls for the MCAO samples in each genotype. All samples were taken from the ischemic or control hemisphere 24 hours after surgery.
Project description:Inflammation features in diverse central nervous system disorders such as stroke, trauma, neurodegeneration, infection and autoimmunity. To better understand how inflammatory mediators may alter astrocyte functions, we examined the effects of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and interferon-gamma (IFNγ) on purified, murine, primary cortical astrocyte cultures. We used microarrays to conduct whole genome expression profiling, and measured calcium signaling, which is implicated in mediating dynamic astrocyte functions. Combinatorial exposure to TGF-β1, LPS and IFNγ significantly modulated astrocyte expression of over 6,800 genes and resulted in both additive and synergistic changes compared with individual stimuli alone. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that combinatorial treatment significantly and markedly up regulated molecular networks and pathways associated with immune signaling and with regulation of cell compromise, death, growth and proliferation. These findings provide databases of astrocyte transcriptome changes elicited by the inflammatory stimuli, TGF-β1, LPS and IFNγ alone and in combination, and show that these stimuli up regulate astrocyte molecular networks associated with immune- and injury-related functions and significantly alter astrocyte calcium signaling evoked by multiple GPCR. We used microarrays to examine the effects of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and interferon-gamma (IFNγ) on purified, murine, primary cortical astrocyte cultures.
Project description:Gene expression profiling of striatum in R6/2 Huntington’s disease (HD) model mouse. Striatum gene set contained gene expression alterations in other neuronal populations, such as oligodendrocyte, astrocyte, microglia and interneuron.
Project description:Plants monitor and integrate temperature, photoperiod and light quality signals to respond to continuous changes in their environment. The GIGANTEA (GI) protein is central in diverse signaling pathways, including photoperiodic, sugar and light signaling pathways, stress responses and circadian clock regulation. Previously, GI was shown to activate expression of the key floral regulators CONSTANS (CO) and FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) by facilitating degradation of a family of CYCLING DOF FACTOR (CDF) transcriptional repressors. However, whether CDFs are implicated in other processes regulated by GI remains unclear. We investigated the contribution of the GI-CDF module to traits that depend on GI. Transcriptome profiling indicated that mutations in GI and the CDFs have antagonistic effects on expression of a wider set of genes than CO and FT, whilst other genes are regulated by GI independently of the CDFs. Detailed expression studies followed by phenotypic assays showed that the CDFs function downstream of GI to control responses to freezing temperatures and growth, but are not necessary for proper clock function. Thus GI-mediated regulation of CDFs contributes to several processes in addition to flowering, but is not implicated in all of the phenotypes influenced by GI. Seedlings of Col-0, the cdf1-R cdf2-1 cdf3-1 cdf5-1 quadruple mutant, gi-100 and gi-100 cdf1-R cdf2-1 cdf3-1 cdf5-1 quintuple mutant were grown for 10 days under LD conditions (16h light/8h dark). The aerial part of the seedlings was collected at ZT12 and RNA was prepared from three biological replicas
Project description:Plants monitor and integrate temperature, photoperiod and light quality signals to respond to continuous changes in their environment. The GIGANTEA (GI) protein is central in diverse signaling pathways, including photoperiodic, sugar and light signaling pathways, stress responses and circadian clock regulation. Previously, GI was shown to activate expression of the key floral regulators CONSTANS (CO) and FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) by facilitating degradation of a family of CYCLING DOF FACTOR (CDF) transcriptional repressors. However, whether CDFs are implicated in other processes regulated by GI remains unclear. We investigated the contribution of the GI-CDF module to traits that depend on GI. Transcriptome profiling indicated that mutations in GI and the CDFs have antagonistic effects on expression of a wider set of genes than CO and FT, whilst other genes are regulated by GI independently of the CDFs. Detailed expression studies followed by phenotypic assays showed that the CDFs function downstream of GI to control responses to freezing temperatures and growth, but are not necessary for proper clock function. Thus GI-mediated regulation of CDFs contributes to several processes in addition to flowering, but is not implicated in all of the phenotypes influenced by GI.
Project description:Astrogliosis is a hallmark of the response to brain ischemia, comprised of changes in gene expression and morphology. Hsp72 protects from cerebral ischemia, and although several mechanisms of protection have been investigated, effects on astrocyte activation are unknown. To identify potential mechanisms of protection, gene expression was assessed in mice subjected to middle cerebral artery (MCAO) or sham surgery, of either wildtype (WT) or Hsp72-overexpressing (Hsp72Tg) mice. After stroke, both genotypes exhibited genes related to cell death, stress response, and immune response. Furthermore, genes indicative of astrocyte activation, including cytoskeletal proteins and cytokines, were upregulated. To measure astrocyte activation after stroke, detailed histological and morphological analyses were performed in the cortical penumbra after stroke using unbiased stereology. Consistent with other reports, we observed a marked and persistent increase in glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP ) as soon as 3 hours after MCAO. In contrast, vimentin immunoreactivity appeared 12-24 hours after stroke, peaked at 72 hours, and returned to baseline after 30 days. Surprisingly, no change in overall astrocyte number was observed based on glutamine synthetase (GS) immunoreactivity. To determine if Hsp72Tg mice exhibited altered astrocyte activation compared to WT controls, morphological evaluation by fractal analysis was used. Overexpression of Hsp72 reduced astrocyte cell area, arbor area, and to a lesser extent fractal dimension, 72 hours following stroke. In conclusion, in vivo overexpression of Hsp72 alters gene expression following stroke, including genes involved in astrocyte activation, and decreases astrocyte activation acutely following MCAO. Thus, modulation of astrogliosis may be a neuroprotective mechanism exerted by Hsp72 after ischemia.