Project description:CCAAT/Enhancer Binding Protein D (CEBPD) is a transcription factor that regulates genes involved in immune and inflammatory responses. Based on our previous observation that CEBPD expression increases in airway smooth muscle (ASM) with glucocorticoid exposure, we sought to better understand its role in the ASM transcriptomic response to glucocorticoids via knockdown experiments. Primary human airway smooth muscle (ASM) cells from four non-asthma donors were transfected with 25pmol of siRNA non-targeting control or siCEBPD SMARTpool using RNAiMax. Three days after transfection, cells were treated with 100nM Budesonide, 10ng/ml TNF-alpha, or both for 18 hours. RNA-Seq libraries were prepared with the Kapa mRNA HyperPrep Illumina Library kit. An Illumina HiSeq 2500 instrument was used to generate 125 base pair paired-end reads. STAR was used to align sequencing reads to the hg38 reference genome, and HTSeq was used to quantify transcript levels. DESeq2 was used to perform differential expression analysis.
Project description:Glucocorticoids, which activate glucocorticoid receptor signaling and thus modulate gene expression, are widely used to treat asthma. Glucocorticoids exert their therapeutic effects in part through modulating airway smooth muscle structure and function. However, the effects of genes that are regulated by GCs on airway function are not fully understood. Here, we used transcription profiling to characterize the effects of a potent glucocorticoid, dexamethasone, on cultured human airway smooth muscle gene expression at 4 and 24 hours. This study examined differential gene expression induced by treatment of cultured human airway smooth muscle cells with dexamethasone. There were 3 groups of samples and each group had 4 biological replicates. Group 1 was no treatment, Group 2 was dexamethasone (dex) treatment for 4 hours, Group 3 was dex treatment for 24 hours. Cultures were synchronized so harvest occurred at the same time for all three groups. 2 samples are not included in this analysis (based on unsupervised clustering of samples and diagnostic plots).
Project description:Glucocorticoids, which activate glucocorticoid receptor signaling and thus modulate gene expression, are widely used to treat asthma. Glucocorticoids exert their therapeutic effects in part through modulating airway smooth muscle structure and function. However, the effects of genes that are regulated by GCs on airway function are not fully understood. Here, we used transcription profiling to characterize the effects of a potent glucocorticoid, dexamethasone, on cultured human airway smooth muscle gene expression at 4 and 24 hours.
Project description:Asthma is a chronic inflammatory respiratory disease affecting over 300 million people around the world. Some asthma patients remain poorly controlled by conventional therapies and experience more life-threatening exacerbations. While patients with severe, refractory disease represent a heterogeneous group, a feature shared by most includes glucocorticoid insensitivity. We sought to characterize differences in the airway smooth muscle transcriptome response to glucocorticoids in fatal asthma vs. non-asthma donors. RNA-Seq was used to measure airway smooth muscle transcript expression differences between 9 donors with fatal asthma and 8 non-asthma donors. Cells from each donor were treated with budesonide or with vehicle control. Poly(A)-selected RNA-Seq libraries were prepared with the Illumina TruSeq method. An Illumina HiSeq 2500 instrument was used to generate 125 base pair paired-end reads.
Project description:Rationale: Asthma is a chronic inflammatory airway disease. The most common medications used for its treatment are β2-agonists and glucocorticosteroids, and one of the primary tissues that these drugs target in the treatment of asthma is the airway smooth muscle. We used RNA-Seq to characterize the human airway smooth muscle (HASM) transcriptome at baseline and under three asthma treatment conditions. Methods: The Illumina TruSeq assay was used to prepare 75bp paired-end libraries for HASM cells from four white male donors under four treatment conditions: 1) no treatment; 2) treatment with a β2-agonist (i.e. Albuterol, 1μM for 18h); 3) treatment with a glucocorticosteroid (i.e. Dexamethasone (Dex), 1μM for 18h); 4) simultaneous treatment with a β2-agonist and glucocorticoid, and the libraries were sequenced with an Illumina Hi-Seq 2000 instrument. The Tuxedo Suite Tools were used to align reads to the hg19 reference genome, assemble transcripts, and perform differential expression analysis using the protocol described in https://github.com/blancahimes/taffeta mRNA profiles obtained via RNA-Seq for four primary human airway smooth muscle cell lines that were treated with dexamethasone, albuterol, dexamethasone+albuterol or were left untreated.
Project description:We previously demonstrated that the transcription factor, KLF15, is a glucocorticoid-regulated gene that represses primary human airway smooth muscle (ASM) proliferation. Here, we show that KLF15 also represses ASM hypertrophy. To uncover the mechanistic basis for these effects, we integrated transcriptome data from KLF15 over-expression with genome-wide analysis of RNA Polymerase II (RNAPII) and glucocorticoid receptor (GR) occupancy (i.e. ChIP-seq). This led us to identify PLCD1 as both a KLF15-regulated gene and a repressor of ASM hypertrophy.
Project description:Smooth muscle differentiation has been proposed to sculpt airway epithelial branches in mammalian lungs. Serum response factor (SRF) acts with its cofactor myocardin to promote the expression of contractile smooth muscle markers. However, smooth muscle cells exhibit a variety of phenotypes beyond contractile that are independent of SRF-myocardin-induced transcription. To determine whether airway smooth muscle exhibits phenotypic plasticity during embryonic development, we deleted Srf from the pulmonary mesenchyme. Srf-mutant lungs branch normally, and the mesenchyme exhibits normal cytoskeletal features and patterning. scRNA-seq revealed an Srf-null smooth muscle cluster wrapping the airways of mutant lungs that lacks contractile smooth muscle markers but retains many features of control smooth muscle. Srf-null airway smooth muscle exhibits a synthetic phenotype, compared to the contractile phenotype of wildtype airway smooth muscle. Our findings reveal plasticity in mesenchymal differentiation during lung development and demonstrate that a synthetic smooth muscle layer is sufficient for airway branching morphogenesis.
Project description:Human airway smooth muscle cells were co-cultured with BEAS-2B epithelial cells (or Control). Airway smooth muscle RNA was extracted and sent for Illumina HT-12 micro-array to examine gene expression.
Project description:Rationale: Asthma is a chronic inflammatory airway disease. The most common medications used for its treatment are β2-agonists and glucocorticosteroids, and one of the primary tissues that these drugs target in the treatment of asthma is the airway smooth muscle. We used RNA-Seq to characterize the human airway smooth muscle (HASM) transcriptome at baseline and under three asthma treatment conditions. Methods: The Illumina TruSeq assay was used to prepare 75bp paired-end libraries for HASM cells from four white male donors under four treatment conditions: 1) no treatment; 2) treatment with a β2-agonist (i.e. Albuterol, 1μM for 18h); 3) treatment with a glucocorticosteroid (i.e. Dexamethasone (Dex), 1μM for 18h); 4) simultaneous treatment with a β2-agonist and glucocorticoid, and the libraries were sequenced with an Illumina Hi-Seq 2000 instrument. The Tuxedo Suite Tools were used to align reads to the hg19 reference genome, assemble transcripts, and perform differential expression analysis using the protocol described in https://github.com/blancahimes/taffeta
Project description:Persistent severe asthma is associated with hyper-contractile airways and structural changes in the airway wall, including an increased airway smooth muscle (ASM) mass. This study used gene expression profiles from asthmatic and healthy airway smooth muscle cells grown in culture to identify novel receptors and pathways that potentially contributed to asthma pathogenesis. We used microarrays to compare the gene expression between asthmatic and healthy airway smooth muscle cells to understand the underlying pathway contributing the differences in cellular phenotypes