Project description:Genome wide DNA methylation profiling of normal and ART newborn. The Illumina Infinium 450k Human DNA methylation Beadchip was used to obtain DNA methylation profiles across approximately 450,000 CpGs. Samples included 6 normal newborn heelblood, 6 ART newborn heelblood.
Project description:Children conceived using Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) have a higher incidence of growth and birth defects, attributable in part to epigenetic perturbations. Both ART and germline defects associated with parental infertility could interfere with epigenetic reprogramming events in germ cells or early embryos. Mouse models indicate that the placenta is more susceptible to the induction of epigenetic abnormalities than the embryo, and thus the placental methylome may provide a sensitive indicator of ‘at risk’ conceptuses. Our goal was to use genome-wide profiling to examine the extent of epigenetic abnormalities in matched placentas from an ART/infertility group and control singleton pregnancies (n=44/group) from a human prospective longitudinal birth cohort, the 3D Study. Principal component analysis revealed a group of ART outliers. The ART outlier group was enriched for females and a subset of placentas showing loss of methylation of several imprinted genes including GNAS, SGCE, KCNQT1OT1 and BLCAP/NNAT. Within the ART group, placentas from pregnancies conceived with IVF/ICSI showed distinct epigenetic profiles as compared to those conceived with less invasive procedures (ovulation induction, intrauterine insemination). Male factor infertility and paternal age further differentiated the IVF/ICSI group, suggesting an interaction of infertility and techniques in perturbing the placental epigenome. Together, the results suggest that the human placenta is sensitive to the induction of epigenetic defects by ART and/or infertility, and we stress the importance of considering both sex and paternal factors and that some but not all ART conceptuses will be susceptible.
Project description:This SMAART cohort study uses bulk total RNA-sequencing to assses the impact of mode of conception on first trimester human placenta gene expression [PMID: 30611556]. Pregnancies were singleton, gestational age 10-14 weeks, normal karyotype, fetal race Caucasian or biracial Caucasian/Asian, and conceived either with fertility treatments (IVF=in vitro fertilization, NIFT=non-IVF fertility treatment) or without fertility treatments (spontaneous, also called unassisted). Pregnancies were balanced for fetal sex. Chorionic villi tissue leftover after clinical genetic testing was collected for research with informed consent and stored in RNAlater RNA Stabilization Reagent (QIAGEN) at -80C until RNA isolation with the AllPrep DNA/RNA Mini Kit (QIAGEN). RNA-seq libraries of >200 nt were constructed with Illumina TruSeq Stranded Total RNA with Ribo-Zero Gold sample prep kits (Illumina) and depleted of cytoplasmic and mitochondrial ribosomal RNAs. After quality check with FastQC, transcript abundances were quantified against the human reference genome (Ensembl build GRCh38) using Kallisto. Differential expression analysis with DESeq2 was performed to compare mode of conception, adjusted for fetal sex and RNA-seq dataset. The dataset adjustment corrected for batch effects from RNA isolation and/or sequencing runs. There were N=141 subjects total, including 74 spontaneous, 33 non-IVF (NIFT), and 34 IVF pregnancies. The subject columns at the end of the DESeq2 files are counts normalized for sequencing depth.
Project description:A paired analysis of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) isolated before and after antiretroviral therapy (ART) from a robust number of HIV-infected patients (N=36). Results identify a total of 4,157 DEGs following ART in HIV-infected participants and the transition from a period of active virus replication before ART to one of viral suppression This study evaluated PBMC gene expression in cells from 36 (4 dropped from analysis) recently HIV-infected individuals to identify differentially expressed genes following 48 weeks of ART
Project description:Toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are ubiquitous throughout bacterial and archaeal genomes. TA systems consist of a stable toxin that inhibits growth and a labile antitoxin that prevents toxicity of the toxin. Here we made an artificial TA system (arT/arA) and performed a DNA microarray study for overproduction of the toxin. arT was overexpressed in Escherichia coli BW25113 and compared to the empty vector.
Project description:The development of biomarkers that can predict viral rebound following discontinuation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in HIV-1-infected humans would be an important advance in HIV-1 cure research. In a prior study, we initiated ART in 20 rhesus macaques on days 0, 1, 2, and 3 following SIVmac251 infection prior to plasma viremia1. Following 6 months of suppressive ART, we discontinued ART and observed viral rebound in 9 of 20 animals. Here we show that transcriptomic and proteomic signatures of inflammation and immune activation in peripheral blood during ART suppression predicted viral rebound following ART discontinuation. Higher levels of proinflammatory and cellular immune activation pathways, including TNF, IL-1, IL-6, monocyte, and T cell activation signaling pathways, correlated with viral rebound following ART discontinuation. Immune modulatory IL-10 and TGF-b signaling also correlated with viral rebound. We then validated these candidate biomarkers of viral rebound in a second cohort of SIV-infected, ART-suppressed macaques. Taken together, these data suggest that persistent upregulation of inflammatory and immune activation pathways despite suppressive ART may represent a peripheral blood biomarker signature of the rebound-competent viral reservoir. The development of interventions that target the viral reservoir and modulate this signature may open new avenues in HIV-1 cure research.
Project description:Next generation sequencing was perfomed to identify differentially expressed gene in Placental tissue samples from IVF-ET assisted or natural conceived pregnancies
Project description:The androgen receptor (AR) directs diverse biological processes through interaction with coregulators such as androgen receptor trapped clone-27 (ART-27). The impact of ART-27 on genome-wide transcription was examined. The studies indicate that loss of ART-27 enhances expression of many androgen-regulated genes, suggesting that ART-27 inhibits gene expression. Surprisingly, classes of genes that are upregulated upon ART-27 depletion include regulators of DNA damage checkpoint and cell cycle progression, suggesting that ART-27 functions to keep expression levels of these genes low. Experiment Overall Design: Steroid-deprived LNCaP cells were transfected with control or ART-27 siRNA and stimulated with ethanol vehicle or 10 nM R1881 for 18 hrs. 8 samples, 4 conditions, 2 replicates per condition.
Project description:Next generation sequencing was perfomed to identify differentially expressed micro-RNA in Placental tissue samples from IVF-ET assisted or natural conceived pregnancies