Project description:Microarray analysis of peripheral blood monocytes from patients with Alzheimer's disease or mild cognitive impairment and healthy individuals
Project description:A current paradigm states that monocytes circulate freely and patrol blood vessels, but differentiate irreversibly into dendritic cells or macrophages upon tissue entry. Here we show that bona fide undifferentiated monocytes reside in the spleen and outnumber their equivalents in circulation. The reservoir monocytes are relatively immotile, assemble in clusters in the cords of the subcapsular red pulp, and are distinct from macrophages and dendritic cells. In response to ischemic myocardial injury, splenic monocytes increase their motility, exit the spleen en masse, accumulate in injured tissue and participate in wound healing. These observations uncover a role for the spleen as a site for storage and rapid deployment of monocytes, and identify the splenic monocyte reservoir as a resource that the body exploits to regulate inflammation. The goal of this gene expression study was to compare the gene expression of Ly-6C hi inflammatory monocytes residing in the spleen and their circulating counterparts in the blood.
Project description:A current paradigm states that monocytes circulate freely and patrol blood vessels, but differentiate irreversibly into dendritic cells or macrophages upon tissue entry. Here we show that bona fide undifferentiated monocytes reside in the spleen and outnumber their equivalents in circulation. The reservoir monocytes are relatively immotile, assemble in clusters in the cords of the subcapsular red pulp, and are distinct from macrophages and dendritic cells. In response to ischemic myocardial injury, splenic monocytes increase their motility, exit the spleen en masse, accumulate in injured tissue and participate in wound healing. These observations uncover a role for the spleen as a site for storage and rapid deployment of monocytes, and identify the splenic monocyte reservoir as a resource that the body exploits to regulate inflammation. The goal of this gene expression study was to compare the gene expression of Ly-6C hi inflammatory monocytes residing in the spleen and their circulating counterparts in the blood. Monocyte subsets of a group of four mice (C57BL/6, 8-12 weeks) were isolated by fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS Aria, BD biosciences) as CD11bhi (CD90/B220/CD49b/NK1.1/Ly-6G)lo (F4/80/I-Ab/CD11c)lo Ly-6Chi (all antibodies BD biosciences) cells. Samples of 1,000 Ly-6Chi blood and Ly-6Chi splenic monocytes of each mouse were collected directly into 20 M-BM-5l lysis buffer of the PicoPure RNA isolation kit (Arcturus). RNA extraction was subsequently performed according to the manufacturerM-bM-^@M-^Ys instructions (Arcturus). RNA quality was assessed using RNA pico lab chips on the Agilent Bioanalyzer. For all samples a RIN above 8 could be achieved. All further steps were performed at the UCSF Shared Microarray Core Facilities according to standard protocols (http://www.arrays.ucsf.edu and http://www.agilent.com).
Project description:Introgressed variants from other species can be an important source of genetic variation because they may arise rapidly, can include multiple mutations on a single haplotype, and have often been pretested by selection in the species of origin. Although introgressed alleles are generally deleterious, several studies have reported introgression as the source of adaptive alleles-including the rodenticide-resistant variant of Vkorc1 that introgressed from Mus spretus into European populations of Mus musculus domesticus. Here, we conducted bidirectional genome scans to characterize introgressed regions into one wild population of M. spretus from Spain and three wild populations of M. m. domesticus from France, Germany, and Iran. Despite the fact that these species show considerable intrinsic postzygotic reproductive isolation, introgression was observed in all individuals, including in the M. musculus reference genome (GRCm38). Mus spretus individuals had a greater proportion of introgression compared with M. m. domesticus, and within M. m. domesticus, the proportion of introgression decreased with geographic distance from the area of sympatry. Introgression was observed on all autosomes for both species, but not on the X-chromosome in M. m. domesticus, consistent with known X-linked hybrid sterility and inviability genes that have been mapped to the M. spretus X-chromosome. Tract lengths were generally short with a few outliers of up to 2.7 Mb. Interestingly, the longest introgressed tracts were in olfactory receptor regions, and introgressed tracts were significantly enriched for olfactory receptor genes in both species, suggesting that introgression may be a source of functional novelty even between species with high barriers to gene flow.
Project description:Translational research is commonly performed in the C57B6/J mouse strain, chosen for its genetic homogeneity and phenotypic uniformity. Here, we evaluate the suitability of the white-footed deer mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) as a model organism for aging research, offering a comparative analysis against C57B6/J and diversity outbred (DO) Mus musculus strains. Our study includes comparisons of body composition, skeletal muscle function, and cardiovascular parameters, shedding light on potential applications and limitations of P. leucopus in aging studies. Notably, P. leucopus exhibits distinct body composition characteristics, emphasizing reduced muscle force exertion and a unique metabolism, particularly in fat mass. Cardiovascular assessments showed changes in arterial stiffness, challenging conventional assumptions and highlighting the need for a nuanced interpretation of aging-related phenotypes. Our study also highlights inherent challenges associated with maintaining and phenotyping P. leucopus cohorts. Behavioral considerations, including anxiety-induced responses during handling and phenotyping assessment, pose obstacles in acquiring meaningful data. Moreover, the unique anatomy of P. leucopus necessitates careful adaptation of protocols designed for Mus musculus. While showcasing potential benefits, further extensive analyses across broader age ranges and larger cohorts are necessary to establish the reliability of P. leucopus as a robust and translatable model for aging studies.
Project description:BackgroundCopy number variation is an important dimension of genetic diversity and has implications in development and disease. As an important model organism, the mouse is a prime candidate for copy number variant (CNV) characterization, but this has yet to be completed for a large sample size. Here we report CNV analysis of publicly available, high-density microarray data files for 351 mouse tail samples, including 290 mice that had not been characterized for CNVs previously.ResultsWe found 9634 putative autosomal CNVs across the samples affecting 6.87% of the mouse reference genome. We find significant differences in the degree of CNV uniqueness (single sample occurrence) and the nature of CNV-gene overlap between wild-caught mice and classical laboratory strains. CNV-gene overlap was associated with lipid metabolism, pheromone response and olfaction compared to immunity, carbohydrate metabolism and amino-acid metabolism for wild-caught mice and classical laboratory strains, respectively. Using two subspecies of wild-caught Mus musculus, we identified putative CNVs unique to those subspecies and show this diversity is better captured by wild-derived laboratory strains than by the classical laboratory strains. A total of 9 genic copy number variable regions (CNVRs) were selected for experimental confirmation by droplet digital PCR (ddPCR).ConclusionThe analysis we present is a comprehensive, genome-wide analysis of CNVs in Mus musculus, which increases the number of known variants in the species and will accelerate the identification of novel variants in future studies.