Project description:Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second most common cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Altered DNA methylation landscapes are ubiquitous features of cancer. Interpretation of epigenetic aberrations in HCC is confounded by effects of multiple etiologic drivers and underlying cirrhosis in most cases. We globally profiled the DNA methylome of 34 normal livers and 122 primary liver disease tissues arising in the setting of chronic hepatitis B (HBV) or C (HCV) viral infection, alcoholism (EtOH), and other causes to examine how these environmental agents impact DNA methylation in a manner that contributes to liver disease. Our results demonstrate that each etiologic factor leaves unique and overlapping signatures on the DNA methylome. CpGs aberrantly methylated in cirrhosis-HCV and conserved in HCC were enriched for cancer driver genes, suggesting a pathogenic role for HCV-induced methylation changes. Additionally, large genomic regions displaying stepwise hypermethylation or hypomethylation during disease progression were identified. HCC-HCV/EtOH methylomes overlap highly with cryptogenic HCC, suggesting shared epigenetically deregulated pathways for hepatic carcinogenesis. Finally, overlapping methylation abnormalities between primary and cultured tumors unveil highly conserved epigenetic signatures in HCC. Taken together, this study characterizes progressive liver DNA methylome changes under exposure to detrimental environmental agents and illuminates possible biomarkers for early detection of HCC. 156 primary tissues and 25 cultured normal and HCC cell lines
Project description:The etiology of autoimmune hepatitis is poorly understood but likely involves Th1 cells producing IFN-γ. BALB/c background TGF-β1-/- mice rapidly develop fulminant Th1-mediated autoimmune hepatitis. Our aims are to profile liver gene expression in TGF-β1-/- mice, to identify gene expression pathways dependent on IFN-γ as possible targets for rational therapy, and to test potential targets directly in vivo in mice. Keywords: Comparative analysis of gene expression in livers of WT, TGFB1 & IFN knockout mice
Project description:Corticosteroids are the current standard of care to improve short-term mortality in severe alcoholic hepatitis (AH), although nearly 40% of the patients do not respond and accurate pre-treatment predictors are lacking. We developed 123-gene prognostic score based on molecular and clinical variables before initiation of corticosteroids. Furthermore, The gene signature was implemented in an FDA-approved platform (NanoString), and verified for technical validity and prognostic capability. Here we demonstrated that a Nanostring-based gene expressoin risk classificatoin is useful to predict mortality in patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis who were treated by corticosteroid
Project description:Corticosteroids are the current standard of care to improve short_term mortality in severe alcoholic hepatitis (AH), although nearly 40% of the patients do not respond and accurate pre_treatment predictors are lacking. We developed 123_gene prognostic score based on molecular and clinical variables before initiation of corticosteroids. Furthermore, The gene signature was implemented in an FDA_approved platform (NanoString), and verified for technical validity and prognostic capability. Here we demonstrated that a Nanostring_based gene expressoin risk classificatoin is useful to predict mortality in patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis who were treated by corticosteroid
Project description:The etiology of autoimmune hepatitis is poorly understood but likely involves Th1 cells producing IFN-γ. BALB/c background TGF-β1-/- mice rapidly develop fulminant Th1-mediated autoimmune hepatitis. Our aims are to profile liver gene expression in TGF-β1-/- mice, to identify gene expression pathways dependent on IFN-γ as possible targets for rational therapy, and to test potential targets directly in vivo in mice. Keywords: Comparative analysis of gene expression in livers of WT, TGFB1 & IFN knockout mice DNA microarray analyses were applied to liver RNA from TGF-β1-/- mice, TGF-β1-/- /IFN-γ-/- mice, and TGF-β1+/+ littermate controls. 3 mice from each group were analyzed in this study.
Project description:Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second most common cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Altered DNA methylation landscapes are ubiquitous features of cancer. Interpretation of epigenetic aberrations in HCC is confounded by effects of multiple etiologic drivers and underlying cirrhosis in most cases. We globally profiled the DNA methylome of 34 normal livers and 122 primary liver disease tissues arising in the setting of chronic hepatitis B (HBV) or C (HCV) viral infection, alcoholism (EtOH), and other causes to examine how these environmental agents impact DNA methylation in a manner that contributes to liver disease. Our results demonstrate that each etiologic factor leaves unique and overlapping signatures on the DNA methylome. CpGs aberrantly methylated in cirrhosis-HCV and conserved in HCC were enriched for cancer driver genes, suggesting a pathogenic role for HCV-induced methylation changes. Additionally, large genomic regions displaying stepwise hypermethylation or hypomethylation during disease progression were identified. HCC-HCV/EtOH methylomes overlap highly with cryptogenic HCC, suggesting shared epigenetically deregulated pathways for hepatic carcinogenesis. Finally, overlapping methylation abnormalities between primary and cultured tumors unveil highly conserved epigenetic signatures in HCC. Taken together, this study characterizes progressive liver DNA methylome changes under exposure to detrimental environmental agents and illuminates possible biomarkers for early detection of HCC.
Project description:Approximately 50% of patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) have a sustained virologic response (SVR) to treatment with pegylated interferon (pegINF)-M-NM-1 and ribavirin. Non-response to treatment is associated with constitutively increased expression of IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs) in the liver. Treatment of patients with acute hepatitis C (AHC) is more effective, with SVR rates >90%. We investigated mechanisms of the different responses of patients with CHC and AHC to pegIFN-M-NM-1 therapy. We analyzed IFN signaling and ISG expression in liver samples from patients with acute hepatitis C (AHC), patients with chronic hepatitis (CHC), and individuals without hepatitis C (controls) using microarray, immunohistochemical, and protein analyses. Findings were compared with those from primary human hepatocytes stimulated with IFN-M-NM-1 or IFN-M-NM-3, as reference sets. Expression levels of 100s of genes, primarily those regulated by IFN-M-NM-3, were altered in liver samples from patients with AHC compared with controls. Expression of IFN-M-NM-3M-bM-^@M-^Sstimulated genes was induced in liver samples from patients with AHC, whereas expression of IFN-M-NM-1M-bM-^@M-^Sstimulated genes was induced in samples from patients with CHC. In an expression analysis of negative regulators of IFN-M-NM-1 signaling, we did not observe differences in expression of SOCS1 or SOCS3 between liver samples from patients with AHC and those with CHC. However, USP18 (another negative regulator of IFN-M-NM-1 signaling), was upregulated in liver samples of patients with CHC that did not respond to therapy, but not in AHC. In conclusion, differences in expression of ISGs might account for the greater response of patients with AHC, compared to those with CHC, to treatment with pegINF-M-NM-1 and ribavirin. Specifically, USP18 is upregulated in liver samples of patients with CHC that do not respond to therapy, but not in patients with AHC. (Interferon-M-NM-3 Stimulated Genes, but not USP18, are Expressed in Livers of Patients with Acute Hepatitis C; Dill MT, Makowska Z et al, Gastroenterology 2012 (in press)) Liver biopsy samples from 6 patients with acute hepatitis C virus infection were analyzed CHC data and controls previously submitted as GSE11190
Project description:Chronic hepatitis C (CH) frequently developed liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma without suitable treatment. However, peginterferon(IFN) and ribavirin therapy (combination therapy), which is present standard therapy, is imperfect effect because of several side effect. We attempt to catalog IFN related gene expression profile according to the response of combination therapy in to predict the outcome of drug-response before administration and establish the adequate treatment according to the individual clinical information.
Project description:With 350 million carriers worldwide who may suffer from serious sequelae, including hepatocellular carcinoma, chronic hepatitis B virus (CHB) infection remains an important health issue. Current antiviral therapies hardly eradicate the virus. Therefore, there are still imperative need to develop new therapeutic strategies and predictors for treatment response to cure the disease and avoid futile treatment. By taking the advantage of having the paired liver biopsy samples of IFNalpha responders before/after treatment and pretreatment samples from responders and non-responders, we could characterize the intrahepatic expression profiles associated with necroinflammatory activity and the profiles/signature potentially predictive of response to IFNalpha therapy for CHB in this study. RNA was extracted from pairedliver tissues for gene expression analysis. The gene expression profiles of seven paired liver biopsy samples of IFNalpha responders before/after treatment and other 3 pre- treatment samples were obtained by Affymatrix U133plus2 microarray. We also pooled samples of 11 responders and 11 non-responders to perform affymatrix EXON ST 1.0 array. This dataset is part of the TransQST collection.