Project description:The spine is a remarkably specialized skeletal structure, exhibiting distinct anatomical phenotypes across different spinal regions. With this understanding in mind, we hypothesized that skeletal stem cells (mSSCs) originating from various spinal regions (cervical, thoracic, and lumbar) might display varying genotypic signatures that may dictate their skeletal tissue formation and shape. We also analyzed femur SSCs as an additional control.
Project description:Over expression of MHC Class l protein in skeletal muscle causes myositis. Phenotype after expression in young mice is more severe. We performed gene expression profiling on young and adult mice after over expression of self MHC class l protein in skeletal muscle
Project description:Over expression of MHC Class l protein in skeletal muscle causes myositis. Phenotype after expression in young mice is more severe. We performed gene expression profiling on young and adult mice after over expression of self MHC class l protein in skeletal muscle Muscle from young ( early) , adult (Late) and cntrol (control) mice , n=3 each group, was used for gene expression profiling
Project description:Aging animals undergo a variety of changes in molecular processes. Among these, the cellular circadian clock has been shown to change as animals age. Moreover, there is evidence that also core circadian clock proteins could influence the ageing behavior of vertebrates. To investigate the interplay between aging and the circadian clock, we studied circadian mRNA expression in skeletal muscles from young (8 weeks) and aged (80 weeks) mice. In order to detect differences in circadian patterns, we used microarray-based transcriptome-wide time series of mRNA expression, containing 16 independent measurements for both young and aged animals. Each individual time point consists of total RNA from hind limb skeletal muscles from 3 different animals. Young and aged mice where entrained to 12 hr/12 hr light-dark conditions. From these mice, hind limb skeletal muscles were extracted at different times of day, in order to measure circadian mRNA expression patterns.
Project description:Sea urchins (echinoids) are common model organisms for research in developmental biology and for their transition from a bilateral larva into their post-metamorphic adult with pentaradial body symmetry. The adult also has a calcareous endoskeleton with a multimetameric pattern of continuously added elements, among them the namesake of this phylum, spines. Nearly all echinoids have both large primary spines, and an associated set of smaller secondary spines.We hypothesize that the secondary spines of the tropical variegated urchin species, Lytechinus variegatus, are morphologically and molecularly distinct structures from primary spines and not just small spines. To test this premise, we examined both spine types using light microscopy, micro-CT imaging, lectin labeling, transcriptomics, and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH). Our findings reveal basic similarities between the two types in mineral and cellular anatomy, but with clear differences in growth patterns, genes expressed, and in the location of gene expression within the two types of spines. In particular, secondary spines have non-overlapping, longitudinally concentrated growth bands that lead to a blunt and straight profile, and a distinct transcriptome involving the upregulation in many genes in comparison to the primary spines. Neural, ciliary, and extracellular matrix interacting factors are implicated in the differentially expressed gene (DEG) dataset, including two genes - ONECUT2 and an uncharacterized discoidin- and thrombospondin-containing protein - that show spine type- specific localizations in FISH, and may be of interest to ongoing work in urchin spine patterning.These results demonstrate that primary and secondary spines have overlapping but distinct molecular and biomineralized characteristics, suggesting unique developmental and regenerative mechanisms, and devotion to this spiny dermal phylum.
Project description:We report RNA-seq of skeletal muscle (quadriceps) of young (6-month), old (24-month), and senolytic (Dasatinib + quercetin) treated mice