Project description:During pregnancy, the myometrium remains quiescent but at term, switches to a state capable of producing a series of coordinated contractions for the delivery of the fetus. Myometrial contractions of labour signify the normal physiological end-point of pregnancy but the biochemical onset of labour may occur at or before term via a series of changes in expression of labour associated genes that are responsible for controlling the activity of the uterus during pregnancy and parturition. There is increasing evidence that components of the cAMP-signalling pathway are up-regulated in the human myometrium during pregnancy to promote the relaxation of the myometrium until term. Our aim was to determine which cAMP-associated genes are important during pregnancy and parturition by exposing myometrial cells to forskolin and performing an a gene array. We then plan to study the trend of the cAMP-associated genes at different stages of gestation and during labour. In this study, we used microarrays to elucidate forskolin responsive genes in human myometrium. These data may provide a broader view of gene networks and cellular functions regulated by forskolin in human myometrial cells. In our future study, this will also help us understand the role of cAMP in human parturition.
Project description:During pregnancy, the myometrium remains quiescent but at term, switches to a state capable of producing a series of coordinated contractions for the delivery of the fetus. Myometrial contractions of labour signify the normal physiological end-point of pregnancy but the biochemical onset of labour may occur at or before term via a series of changes in expression of labour associated genes that are responsible for controlling the activity of the uterus during pregnancy and parturition. There is increasing evidence that components of the cAMP-signalling pathway are up-regulated in the human myometrium during pregnancy to promote the relaxation of the myometrium until term. Our aim was to determine which cAMP-associated genes are important during pregnancy and parturition by exposing myometrial cells to forskolin and performing an a gene array. We then plan to study the trend of the cAMP-associated genes at different stages of gestation and during labour. In this study, we used microarrays to elucidate forskolin responsive genes in human myometrium. These data may provide a broader view of gene networks and cellular functions regulated by forskolin in human myometrial cells. In our future study, this will also help us understand the role of cAMP in human parturition. Primary cultures of human myometrial cells were grown from myometrial biopsies obtained at the time of elective caesarean section at term. Cells were exposed to forskolin (100 µM) for 48 hours, and then total RNA were extracted from each culture. Two comparisons were carried out including: 1. Control 2. Forksolin
Project description:Timely control of parturition is crucial for maternal and fetal health. Failures on this biological process often result in pregnancy complications including preterm birth, labor dystocia, and health disorders on newborn babies. The myometrium is the muscular structure of the uterus maintaining uterine structural integrity and providing contractile force for parturition. The myometrial structure changes in adaptation to the pregnancy via stage-specific transcriptomic profiles. Data from the mouse model indicate that changes of myometrial epigenomic landscape precedes the adoption of stage-specific gene expression pattern at term. The present study documents the transcriptomic profile and epigenomic landscape of term pregnant myometrial tissues and functionally characterize a subset of putative enhancers to further understand the enhancer-gene interaction in human the myometrium.
Project description:Timely control of parturition is crucial for maternal and fetal health. Failures on this biological process often result in pregnancy complications including preterm birth, labor dystocia, and health disorders on newborn babies. The myometrium is the muscular structure of the uterus maintaining uterine structural integrity and providing contractile force for parturition. The myometrial structure changes in adaptation to the pregnancy via stage-specific transcriptomic profiles. Data from the mouse model indicate that changes of myometrial epigenomic landscape precedes the adoption of stage-specific gene expression pattern at term. The present study documents the transcriptomic profile and epigenomic landscape of term pregnant myometrial tissues and functionally characterize a subset of putative enhancers to further understand the enhancer-gene interaction in human the myometrium.
Project description:Knee osteoarthritis (KOA), as a degenerative multifactorial disease, affects the quality of life and mental health of patients, and also brings a huge socioeconomic burden. Treating synovitis have shown promise as anti-inflammatory therapeutics in mitigating OA symptoms and disease progression. Here, by analysing synovial single-cell sequencing (scRNA-seq) data from KOA, we found that synovial fibroblasts (FLS) in OA synovium showed a distinct pro-inflammatory phenotype. We collected synovial tissue from patients with clinical OA as well as from healthy donors, and histological examination was consistent with findings in scRNA-seq. Inspired by recent cross-tissue fibroblast lineage studies, we identified by sequencing that healthy FLS in synovial tissues share transcriptome-level similarities with dermal fibroblasts (DFb). Subsequently, we revealed the local as well as systemic distribution of intra-articular injected DFbs by constructing/extracting two types of rat fibroblasts (luciferase DFbs as well as GFP DFbs). The results demonstrate that DFbs can be locally retained in the synovium for up to three weeks following targeted engrafting on it. And intra-articular injection does not result in DFbs migration to vital organs or the occurrence of histological changes in these organs. A rat model of KOA was constructed by anterior cruciate ligament transection (ACLT) in order to study the therapeutic effect of DFbs on KOA. After injection, the rats showed improvement in painful gait. In addition, histological as well as imaging results showed reduced synovitis and improvement in articular cartilage. Finally we verified the protective effect of DFbs on cytokine-stimulated chondrocytes in a co-culture system.
Project description:Timely control of parturition is crucial for maternal and fetal health. Failures on this biological process often result in pregnancy complications including preterm birth, labor dystocia, and health disorders on newborn babies. The myometrium is the muscular structure of the uterus maintaining uterine structural integrity and providing contractile force for parturition. The myometrial structure changes in adaptation to the pregnancy via stage-specific transcriptomic profiles. Data from the mouse model indicate that changes of myometrial epigenomic landscape precedes the adoption of stage-specific gene expression pattern at term. The present study documents the chromatin interaction profiles in the term pregnant not in labor human myometrial tissues at a genome-wide scale.
Project description:Timely control of parturition is crucial for maternal and fetal health. Failures on this biological process often result in pregnancy complications including preterm birth, labor dystocia, and health disorders on newborn babies. The myometrium is the muscular structure of the uterus maintaining uterine structural integrity and providing contractile force for parturition. The myometrial structure changes in adaptation to the pregnancy via stage-specific transcriptomic profiles. Data from the mouse model indicate that changes of myometrial epigenomic landscape precedes the adoption of stage-specific gene expression pattern at term. The present study documents the transcriptomic profile and putative enhancer landscape of term pregnant myometrial tissues.
Project description:Timely control of parturition is crucial for maternal and fetal health. Failures on this biological process often result in pregnancy complications including preterm birth, labor dystocia, and health disorders on newborn babies. The myometrium is the muscular structure of the uterus maintaining uterine structural integrity and providing contractile force for parturition. The myometrial structure changes in adaptation to the pregnancy via stage-specific transcriptomic profiles. Progesterone signaling plays a crucial role in myometrial remodeling. The present study profiles the transcriptome of human myometrial specimens that are expected to manifest a wide spectrum of progesterone signaling via the RNAseq assay.