Project description:Langerhans cells (LCs) populate the mucosal epithelium, a major entry portal for pathogens, yet their ontogeny remains unclear. In contrast to skin LCs originating from self-renewing radioresistant embryonic precursors, we found that oral mucosal LCs derive from circulating radiosensitive precursors. Mucosal LCs can be segregated into CD103+CD11blow (CD103+LCs) and CD11b+CD103- (CD11b+LCs) subsets. We further demonstrated that similar to non-lymphoid dendritic cells (DCs), CD103+LCs originate from pre-DCs, whereas CD11b+LCs differentiate from both pre-DCs and monocytic precursors. Despite this ontogenetic discrepancy between skin and mucosal LCs, transcriptomic signature and immunological function of oral LCs highly resemble those of skin LCs but not DCs. These findings, along with their epithelial position, morphology and expression of LC-associated phenotype strongly suggest that oral mucosal LCs are genuine LCs. Collectively, in a tissue-dependent manner, murine LCs differentiate from at least three distinct precursors (embryonic, pre-DCs and monocytic) in steady state The following cells were isolated from mice (2-4 replicates): Lung DCs, mucosal CD103+ LC, mucosal CD11b+ LC, Skin LC. Transcriptome analysis was performed.
Project description:Wound healing within the oral mucosa results in minimal scar formation compared to wounds within the skin. We have recently demonstrated distinct differences in the ageing profiles of cells (oral mucosal and patient-matched skin fibroblasts) isolated from these tissues. We hypothesize that the increased replicative potential of oral mucosal fibroblasts may confer upon them preferential wound healing capacities. Passage-matched early cultures of oral mucosal fibroblasts and skin fibroblasts demonstrated distinct gene expression profiles with a number of genes linked to wound healing/tissue repair. We analyzed the gene expression profiles of oral mucosal and patient-matched skin fibroblasts for multiple patients both prior to (0h) and (6h) following a wounding stimulus. Differences in the gene expression profiles of oral mucosal and patient-matched skin fibroblasts were anlazyed for multiple patients both prior to (0h) and (6h) following a wounding stimulus. Serum starvation and subsequent stimulation provides a model for wounding and RNA extracted at 0h and 6h following this stimulus was hybridized to Affymetrix microarrays for analysis. We sought to compare the expression profiles both between oral and normal fibroblasts, in both serum depleted and stimulated conditions and also compare differences between patients.
Project description:Wound healing within the oral mucosa results in minimal scar formation compared to wounds within the skin. We have recently demonstrated distinct differences in the ageing profiles of cells (oral mucosal and patient-matched skin fibroblasts) isolated from these tissues. We hypothesize that the increased replicative potential of oral mucosal fibroblasts may confer upon them preferential wound healing capacities. Passage-matched early cultures of oral mucosal fibroblasts and skin fibroblasts demonstrated distinct gene expression profiles with a number of genes linked to wound healing/tissue repair. We analyzed the gene expression profiles of oral mucosal and patient-matched skin fibroblasts for multiple patients both prior to (0h) and (6h) following a wounding stimulus.
Project description:While skin and oral mucosa share many morphological similarities, oral mucosal wounds heal more rapidly than skin wounds. Epithelial cells from oral mucosa exhibit increased migratory and proliferative capacities when compared to cells from skin, suggesting that the improved repair of mucosa may involve intrinsic differences in epithelial cells. This is an exploratory experiment to define the differential microRNA expression of baseline unwounded skin and oral mucosa epithelium.
Project description:On going efforts are directed at understanding the mutualism between the gut microbiota and the host in breast-fed versus formula-fed infants. Due to the lack of tissue biopsies, no investigators have performed a global transcriptional (gene expression) analysis of the developing human intestine in healthy infants. As a result, the crosstalk between the microbiome and the host transcriptome in the developing mucosal-commensal environment has not been determined. In this study, we examined the host intestinal mRNA gene expression and microbial DNA profiles in full term 3 month-old infants exclusively formula fed (FF) (n=6) or breast fed (BF) (n=6) from birth to 3 months. Host mRNA microarray measurements were performed using isolated intact sloughed epithelial cells in stool samples collected at 3 months. Microbial composition from the same stool samples was assessed by metagenomic pyrosequencing. Both the host mRNA expression and bacterial microbiome phylogenetic profiles provided strong feature sets that clearly classified the two groups of babies (FF and BF). To determine the relationship between host epithelial cell gene expression and the bacterial colony profiles, the host transcriptome and functionally profiled microbiome data were analyzed in a multivariate manner. From a functional perspective, analysis of the gut microbiota's metagenome revealed that characteristics associated with virulence differed between the FF and BF babies. Using canonical correlation analysis, evidence of multivariate structure relating eleven host immunity / mucosal defense-related genes and microbiome virulence characteristics was observed. These results, for the first time, provide insight into the integrated responses of the host and microbiome to dietary substrates in the early neonatal period. Our data suggest that systems biology and computational modeling approaches that integrate “-omic” information from the host and the microbiome can identify important mechanistic pathways of intestinal development affecting the gut microbiome in the first few months of life. KEYWORDS: infant, breast-feeding, infant formula, exfoliated cells, transcriptome, metagenome, multivariate analysis, canonical correlation analysis 12 samples, 2 groups
Project description:Langerhans cells (LCs) populate the mucosal epithelium, a major entry portal for pathogens, yet their ontogeny remains unclear. In contrast to skin LCs originating from self-renewing radioresistant embryonic precursors, we found that oral mucosal LCs derive from circulating radiosensitive precursors. Mucosal LCs can be segregated into CD103+CD11blow (CD103+LCs) and CD11b+CD103- (CD11b+LCs) subsets. We further demonstrated that similar to non-lymphoid dendritic cells (DCs), CD103+LCs originate from pre-DCs, whereas CD11b+LCs differentiate from both pre-DCs and monocytic precursors. Despite this ontogenetic discrepancy between skin and mucosal LCs, transcriptomic signature and immunological function of oral LCs highly resemble those of skin LCs but not DCs. These findings, along with their epithelial position, morphology and expression of LC-associated phenotype strongly suggest that oral mucosal LCs are genuine LCs. Collectively, in a tissue-dependent manner, murine LCs differentiate from at least three distinct precursors (embryonic, pre-DCs and monocytic) in steady state
Project description:<p>Mucosal melanoma is a deadly disease that carries the worst prognosis amongst subtypes of melanoma. Like all melanomas, mucosal melanomas are frequently driven by activating mutations in the MAPK and/or PI3K pathways; however, unlike melanomas that arise on sun-exposed skin, mucosal melanomas harbor few point mutations. Instead, most somatic alterations involve structural alterations, which appear early during tumor progression. Molecular studies in mucosal melanoma generally only profile point mutations without interrogating copy number alterations, and pathogenic mutations are only found in 30% of cases. We sequenced 38 mucosal melanomas, and in addition to profiling point mutations, we looked for copy number alterations that amplify oncogenes or delete tumor suppressors.</p>
Project description:When compared to skin, oral mucosal wounds heal rapidly and with reduced scar formation. This study used an Affymetrix microarray platform to compare the transcriptomes of oral mucosa and skin wounds in order to identify critical differences in the healing response at these two sites. Using microarrays, we explored the differences in gene expression in skin and oral mucosal wound healing in a murine model of paired equivalent-sized wounds. Samples were examined from day 0 to day 10 and spanned all stages of the wound healing process. Unwounded matched tissue was used as a control. Tissue samples collected at each post-wounding time point, as well as control samples, were represented by 3 biological replicates.