Project description:Mind-body practices that elicit the relaxation response (RR) have been used worldwide for millennia to prevent and treat disease. The RR is believed to be the counterpart to stress response and is characterized by decreased oxygen consumption, increased exhaled nitric oxide, and reduced psychological distress. Individuals experiencing chronic psychological stress have the opposite pattern of physiology and a characteristic transcriptional profile. We hypothesized that consistent, long-term practice of RR techniques results in characteristic changes in gene expression. We tested this hypothesis by assessing the transcriptional profile of whole blood in healthy, long-term practitioners of daily RR practice (group M) in comparison to healthy controls (group N1). The signature obtained has been validated on new subject data. Keywords: time course
Project description:Mind-body practices that elicit the relaxation response (RR) have been used worldwide for millennia to prevent and treat disease. The RR is believed to be the counterpart to stress response and is characterized by decreased oxygen consumption, increased exhaled nitric oxide, and reduced psychological distress. Individuals experiencing chronic psychological stress have the opposite pattern of physiology and a characteristic transcriptional profile. We hypothesized that consistent, long-term practice of RR techniques results in characteristic changes in gene expression. We tested this hypothesis by assessing the transcriptional profile of whole blood in healthy, long-term practitioners of daily RR practice (group M) in comparison to healthy controls (group N1). The signature obtained has been validated on new subject data. Experiment Overall Design: In the study, the gene expression profiling was performed on individuals with a long-term RR practice (group M; n=19) or those with no prior RR experience; novice (group N1; n=19). Group N1 novices, furthermore, underwent 8-weeks of RR training (Group N2; n=20) for the prospective analysis.As a validation of results , we developed an independent validation sets that includes gene expression profiling on 4 N1, 4 N2 and 6 M subjects.
Project description:Analysis of ex vivo isolated lymphatic endothelial cells from the dermis of patients to define type 2 diabetes-induced changes. Results preveal aberrant dermal lymphangiogenesis and provide insight into its role in the pathogenesis of persistent skin inflammation in type 2 diabetes. The ex vivo dLEC transcriptome reveals a dramatic influence of the T2D environment on multiple molecular and cellular processes, mirroring the phenotypic changes seen in T2D affected skin. The positively and negatively correlated dLEC transcripts directly cohere to prolonged inflammatory periods and reduced infectious resistance of patients´ skin. Further, lymphatic vessels might be involved in tissue remodeling processes during T2D induced skin alterations associated with impaired wound healing and altered dermal architecture. Hence, dermal lymphatic vessels might be directly associated with T2D disease promotion.
Project description:Gene expression profiling of immortalized human mesenchymal stem cells with hTERT/E6/E7 transfected MSCs. hTERT may change gene expression in MSCs. Goal was to determine the gene expressions of immortalized MSCs.
Project description:Patients with chronic illnesses such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) or Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) often have reduced quality of life. IBS is characterized by abdominal pain/discomfort associated with altered bowel function, such as diarrhea or constipation, without gross structural changes or inflammation [1]; IBD is characterized by gross inflammation in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract which can result in symptoms such as abdominal pain, cramping, diarrhea and bloody stools. IBS and IBD can profoundly affect quality of life and are influenced by stress and resiliency.The impact of mind-body interventions (MBIs) on IBS and IBD patients has not previously been examined. In this study IBS and IBD patients were enrolled in a 9-week relaxation response based mind-body group intervention (RR-MBI), focusing on elicitation of the RR and cognitive skill building. We performed Peripheral blood transcriptome analysis to identify genomic correlates of the RR-MBI.
Project description:Analysis of ex vivo isolated lymphatic endothelial cells from the dermis of patients to define type 2 diabetes-induced changes. Results preveal aberrant dermal lymphangiogenesis and provide insight into its role in the pathogenesis of persistent skin inflammation in type 2 diabetes. The ex vivo dLEC transcriptome reveals a dramatic influence of the T2D environment on multiple molecular and cellular processes, mirroring the phenotypic changes seen in T2D affected skin. The positively and negatively correlated dLEC transcripts directly cohere to prolonged inflammatory periods and reduced infectious resistance of patients´ skin. Further, lymphatic vessels might be involved in tissue remodeling processes during T2D induced skin alterations associated with impaired wound healing and altered dermal architecture. Hence, dermal lymphatic vessels might be directly associated with T2D disease promotion. Global gene expression profile of normal dermal lymphatic endothelial cells (ndLECs) compared to dermal lymphatic endothelial cells derived from type 2 diabetic patients (dLECs).Quadruplicate biological samples were analyzed from human lymphatic endothelial cells (4 x diabetic; 4 x non-diabetic). subsets: 1 disease state set (dLECs), 1 control set (ndLECs)