Project description:Purpose: In order to explore the mechanism of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in treating vitiligo. We report the application of transcriptome profiling (RNA-seq) in human vitiligo melanocytes cell line PIG3V after HCQ treatment. Methods: The PIG3V cells were divided randomly in two groups: HCQ treatment (1 μg/mL, 24 hours) and the cells without treatment (only medium). RNA samples extracted from PIG3V cells were quantified by NanoDrop and Bioanalyzer. After 2 rounds of purification Poly A RNA was extracted then from total RNA by using Dynabeads Oligo. Small pieces of Poly A RNA were returned through Magnesium RNA Fragmentation Module under the condition of 94℃ for 5 minutes. Subsequently, SuperScript Reverse Transcriptase was used to reverse-transcribe the cleaved RNA pieces into cDNA. Then, U-labeled second-stranded DNAs was synthesized. After adding of A-base to each strand, preparing for indexed adapters, and heat-labile UDG enzyme treatment, PCR amplification was performed under (1) 95℃, 3 minutes; (2) 98℃, 15 seconds for 8 cycles; (3) 60℃, 15 seconds, 72℃, 5 minutes. Ultimately, RNA sequencing was performed according to protocol of Illumina Novaseq™ 6000 (LC-Bio Technology CO., Ltd., Hangzhou, China). After calculation, differential expressed genes were screened by fold change (FC)>2 or FC<0.5 and p value<0.05. Results: Using an optimized data analysis workflow, we mapped about 30 million sequence reads per sample and identified 60612 genes and 229420 transcripts. Approximately 0.3% of the genes showed differential expression between the HCQ treated PIG3V cells and the cells without HCQ, with a fold change>2 or<0.5 , p value<0.05. Conclusions: Our research showed the first detailed transcriptome analysis of human vitiligo melanocytes PIG3V, with or without HCQ treatment. We conclude that RNA-seq based transcriptome characterization would expedite genetic network analyses and permit the dissection of complex biologic mechanisms of HCQ in treating vitiligo.
Project description:Vitiligo, an acquired disorder characterized by depigmented skin patches, results from loss of epidermal melanocytes. Etiology of vitiligo is not clearly understood but environmental, biochemical, genetic, and immune factors play a role in its pathogenesis. There is evidence that melanocyte death is perpetuated by an autoimmune response that causes lesions to spread. 4-tertiary butyl phenol (4TBP) and monobenzyl ether of hydroquinone (MBEH) are phenolic compounds that are known as environmental causes of vitiligo. We used microarray to detail the global gene expression that occurs following exposure of melanocytes to 4-TBP or MBEH to identified distinct classes of up-regulated genes that may contribute to melanocyte loss in vitiligo. We show that human melanocytes exposed to 4-TBP and MBEH show increased production of some inflammatory cytokines. Interleukin-6 (IL6) and IL8, in particular, are expressed at the periphery of vitiligo lesions and may contribute to recruitment of immune components to the areas, perpetuating melanocyte loss. Cultured human epidermal melanocytes were treated with 4TBP or MBEH for 3, 6, or 24 hours and gene expression were compared with untreated cells.
Project description:Vitiligo is a common autoimmune depigmented dermatology due to the destruction of melanocytes. Much evidence suggests that vitiligo is associated with systemic immune activation. Previous studies have focused on immune cell infiltration in and around lesion areas, while few studies have investigated the cell types and function of circulating immune cells in peripheral blood. We collected peripheral blood from five patients with progressive non-segmental vitiligo (PV) and three healthy controls (HC).Single-cell RNA sequencing(scRNA-seq) is used to investigate the mechanisms of peripheral immune responses in vitiligo patients.
Project description:Vitiligo, an acquired disorder characterized by depigmented skin patches, results from loss of epidermal melanocytes. Etiology of vitiligo is not clearly understood but environmental, biochemical, genetic, and immune factors play a role in its pathogenesis. There is evidence that melanocyte death is perpetuated by an autoimmune response that causes lesions to spread. 4-tertiary butyl phenol (4TBP) and monobenzyl ether of hydroquinone (MBEH) are phenolic compounds that are known as environmental causes of vitiligo. We used microarray to detail the global gene expression that occurs following exposure of melanocytes to 4-TBP or MBEH to identified distinct classes of up-regulated genes that may contribute to melanocyte loss in vitiligo. We show that human melanocytes exposed to 4-TBP and MBEH show increased production of some inflammatory cytokines. Interleukin-6 (IL6) and IL8, in particular, are expressed at the periphery of vitiligo lesions and may contribute to recruitment of immune components to the areas, perpetuating melanocyte loss.
Project description:Vitiligo is an acquired depigmentation of the skin inducing a marked alteration of the quality of life of affected individuals. Halting the disease progression and repigmenting the lesional skin represent the two faces of the therapeutic challenge in vitiligo. So far, none of them has been successfully addressed. Oxidative stress and immune system in genetically predisposed individuals participate to the complex pathophysiology of vitiligo. We performed a transcriptome and proteomic analysis on lesional, perilesional and non-depigmented skin of vitiligo patients compared to matched skin controls of healthy subjects. Our results show that the WNT pathway, implicated in melanocytes differentiation, was found to be altered in vitiligo skin. We demonstrated that the oxidative stress decreases WNT expression/activation in keratinocytes and in melanocytes. We developed an ex vivo skin model that remains functional up to 15 days. We then confirmed the decreased activation of the WNT pathway in human skin subjected to oxidative stress. Finally, using pharmacological agents that activate the WNT pathway, we treated the ex vivo depigmented skins from vitiligo patients and successfully induced the differentiation of resident stem cells into pre-melanocytes supporting further exploration of WNT activators to repigment vitiligo lesions. Total of 40 chips. 10 patients (3 biospies per patient: 1 lesional , 1 perilesional and 1 non lesional) ; 10 healthy volunteers (1biopsy in matched anatomical areas)
Project description:Vitiligo is an acquired depigmentation of the skin inducing a marked alteration of the quality of life of affected individuals. Halting the disease progression and repigmenting the lesional skin represent the two faces of the therapeutic challenge in vitiligo. So far, none of them has been successfully addressed. Oxidative stress and immune system in genetically predisposed individuaLesionalparticipate to the complex pathophysiology of vitiligo. We performed a transcriptome and proteomic analysis on lesional, perilesional and non-depigmented skin of vitiligo patients compared to matched skin controLesionalof healthy subjects. Our results show that the WNT pathway, implicated in melanocytes differentiation, was found to be altered in vitiligo skin. We demonstrated that the oxidative stress decreases WNT expression/activation in keratinocytes and in melanocytes. We developed an ex vivo skin model that remains functional up to 15 days. We then confirmed the decreased activation of the WNT pathway in human skin subjected to oxidative stress. Finally, using pharmacological agents that activate the WNT pathway, we treated the ex vivo depigmented skins from vitiligo patients and successfully induced the differentiation of resident stem celLesionalinto pre-melanocytes supporting further exploration of WNT activators to repigment vitiligo lesions.
Project description:Vitiligo is a common acquired skin disorder caused by immune-mediated destruction of epidermal melanocytes. Systemic glucocorticoids (GCs) have been used to prevent the progression of active vitiligo, with 8.2%–56.2% of patients insensitive to this therapy. Currently, there is a lack of biomarkers that can accurately predict and evaluate treatment responses. The goal of this study was to identify candidate urinary protein biomarkers to predict the efficacy of GCs treatment in active vitiligo patients and monitor the disease. In the present study, we aimed to identify urinary biomarkers that could predict and monitor the efficacy of steroid treatment. Urine samples were collected from the treatment-resistance group and treatment-effective group before and after GCs treatment and randomly divided into a discovery group and validation group. Differentially expressed proteins were determined using proteomic analysis.
Project description:Immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors is an efficient treatment for metastatic melanoma. Development of vitiligo upon immunotherapy represents a specific immune-related adverse event (irAE) diagnosed in 15% of patients and associated with a positive clinical response. Therefore, a detailed characterization of immune cells during vitiligo onset in melanoma patients would give insight into the immune mechanisms mediating both this irAE and the anti-tumor response. To better understand these aspects, we analyzed T cell subsets from peripheral blood of metastatic melanoma patients undergoing treatment with anti-programmed cell death protein (PD)-1 antibodies. Stratification of patients for developing or not developing vitiligo during therapy revealed an association between blood reduction of mucosal associated invariant T (MAIT), T helper (h) 17, natural killer (NK) CD56bright, and T regulatory (T-reg) cells and vitiligo onset. To deeply characterize the tumoral T cell response concomitant to vitiligo onset, we analyzed T cell content in skin biopsies collected from melanoma patients who developed vitiligo. Consistently with the observed blood reduction of Th17 cells in melanoma patients developing vitiligo during immunotherapy, we found an enrichment of Th17 cells in the vitiligo skin biopsy, suggesting a migration of Th17 cells from the blood into the autoimmune lesion. To further characterize T cells in vitiligo skin lesion of melanoma patients, we sequenced T cell receptor (TCR) of cells derived from biopsies of vitiligo and primary melanoma of the same patient. Interestingly, we found different TCR sequences between vitiligo and primary melanoma lesions, except for a few cases showing the same TCR sequences. In contrast, shared TCR sequences were identified between vitiligo and metastatic tissues of the same patient. These data indicate that T cell response against normal melanocytes, which is involved in vitiligo onset, is not mainly mediated by the reactivation of specific T cell clones infiltrating primary melanoma but may be elicited by T cell clones targeting metastatic tissues. Altogether, our data indicate that anti-PD-1 therapy induces a de novo immune response, composed of different T cell subtypes, whose role may be related to the development of vitiligo and the response against metastatic tumor.
Project description:Melanocytes are pigment-producing cells of neural crest origin responsible for protecting the skin against UV-irradiation. Melanocyte dysfunction leads to pigmentation defects including albinism, vitiligo, and piebaldism and is a key feature of systemic pathologies such as Hermansky-Pudlak (HP) and Chediak-Higashi (CH) Syndromes. Pluripotent stem cell technology offers a novel approach for studying human melanocyte development and disease. Here we report that timed exposure to activators of WNT, BMP and EDN3 signaling triggers the sequential induction of neural crest and melanocyte precursor fates under dual-SMAD inhibition conditions. Using a SOX10::GFP hESC reporter line, we demonstrate that the temporal onset of WNT activation is particularly critical for human neural crest induction. Surprisingly, suppression of BMP signaling does reduce neural crest yield. Subsequent differentiation of hESC-derived melanocyte precursors under defined conditions yields pure populations of pigmented cells matching the molecular and functional properties of adult melanocytes. Melanocytes from patient-specific iPSCs faithfully reproduce the ultrastructural features of the HP- and CH-specific pigmentation defects with minimal variability across lines. Our data define a highly specific requirement for WNT signaling during neural crest induction and enable the generation of pure populations of hiPSC-derived melanocytes for faithful modeling of human pigmentation disorders. Total RNA obtained from embryonic stem cells (ESCs), ESC-derived melanocyte progenitors, ESC-derived mature melanocytes, primary melanocytes, and disease-specific induced pluripotent stem cell-derived melanocytes.