Project description:Tumor-specific antigens (TSAs) represent ideal targets for cancer immunotherapy, but very few of them have been identified. We are using a proteogenomic approach, combining RNA-Sequencing and mass spectrometry, to discover TSAs. We performed RNA-Sequencing on human medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) to use them as a "normal control" because they express most known genes and orchestrate T cell selection to induce central tolerance to MHC peptides coded by their vast transcriptome.
Project description:Thymic epithelial cells govern thymic T lymphocyte differentiation and selection. Medullary TECs (mTECs) facilitate the negative selection of self-reactive thymocytes and the differentiation of FOXP3+ regulatory T cells. Medullary TECs are also distinctive for their “promiscuous” gene expression, transcribing thousands of peripheral tissue genes (PTG) that are otherwise only expressed highly in one or two other organs. Much of this PTG expression by mTECs is controlled by the autoimmune regulator, AIRE. To probe the mechanism by which KAT7 promotes AIRE function, we performed ATAC-seq to compare chromatin accessibility in MHCII-high medullary thymic epithelial cells from Kat7-knockout and wildtype mice.
Project description:We have found that Cdx1 can promote ectopic gene expression in thymic epithelial cells. We isolated MHCIIhi CD80hi medullary thymic epithelial cells from Cdx1-/- and Cdx1+/+ and compare gene expression between the two subsets, also in the context of Cdx1-mediated changes in intestinal epithelial cells.
Project description:10x sequencing of TSPAN8+, GP2+ or Unselected medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTEC) isolated from female C57BL/6, BALB/c, and C57BL/6 x BALB/c F1 mice with the intent to identify co-expression patterns in promiscuously expressed genes in individual mTEC.
Project description:We compared gene expression profiles of lymphotoxin alpha- and lymphtoxin beta receptor-deficient thymic medullary epithelial cells with their wild-type littermates, as well as with Aire-deficient and wild-type littermates. This was done in order to determine whether there was overlap in the effects of lymphotoxin and aire. Keywords: genetic modification
Project description:The oligo microarrays were used to determine mRNA expression profiles of medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) isolated from thymus of pre-diabetic NOD mice.
Project description:Medullary thymic epithelial cells play essential role for induction of central self-tolerance by facilitating negative selection of self-reactive thymocytes and the generation of Foxp3+ regulatory T cells. Although studies highlighted the non-canonical NFκB pathway as the key regulator of mTEC development, comprehensive understanding of the molecular pathways regulating this process still remains incomplete. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of Histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3), which is highly expressed by mTECs, on mTEC development and function. We used Affymetrix mouse 1ST arrays to analyze the impact of the Hdac3 gene on the gene expression profile of MHC-II medullary thymic epithelial cells
Project description:Medullary thymic epithelial cells play essential role for induction of central self-tolerance. This functional capacity is mediated through a phenomenon known as promiscuous gene expression (pGE) of various tissue-restricted antigen (TRA) genes. pGE was previously shown to be mediated by a single factor called the Autoimmune regulator (Aire), which is specically expressed by mTECs. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of deacetylase Sirtuin1, which is also highly expressed by mTECs, on mTEC gene expression profile and compare it with the impact of Aire. We used Affymetrix mouse 1ST arrays to analyze the impact of the Sirt1 gene on the gene expression profile of MHC-II high medullary thymic epithelial cells
Project description:Due to high sequence identity between human and M. musculus microRNAs, we used in this study human microRNA microarrays to determine microRNA expression profiles of medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) from thymus of pre-diabetic NOD mice.