Project description:Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is an acute gut inflammatory disorder that mainly affects preterm neonates. A large proportion of NEC survivors develop neuronal deficits later in life, however the effect of early stages of NEC on the developing brain is unknown. Using preterm pigs as a NEC-sensitive animal model, we profiled the hippocampal gene expression in response to severe NEC lesions. The NEC-induced differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the hippocampus segregated the piglets suffering from small intestinal NEC (Si-NEC) from those showing NEC lesions only in the colon (Co-NEC). Only when NEC lesions were observed in the small intestine, did piglets show reduced physical activity together with up-regulation of hippocampal genes related to inflammation and hypoxia, which was further verified by qPCR. Cluster analyses revealed key hippocampal NEC–related DEGs for Si-NEC (23 genes, including S100A8, PDK4, EDN1, IER3, Opalin, TXNIP) and Co-NEC (3 genes: GSTM3, TF, and S100A1). Both NEC phenotypes showed only two down-regulated DEGs (TMEM 167, HBB) and were devoid of any histological signs of microglia activation. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from NEC-positive pigs contained elevated levels of several inflammatory proteins and in vitro exposure of immature hippocampal neurons to NEC-related CSF promoted neuritogenesis. Further in vitro experiments with neurite outgrowth indicated that VEGF, CINC-3, S100A9 and S100A8/S100A9 may play a role in NEC effects on hippocampal development. In conclusion, NEC lesions, especially when involving the small intestine, alter hippocampal gene expression with potential neuroinflammation and effects on neural circuit formation. Our results demonstrated that gut lesions affect the immature brain at early stages of disease progression. Thus, supportive care is important for preterm infants experienced with NEC to lessen possible later neurological dysfunctions.
Project description:Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC) is an inflammation causing injury to the bowel in newborns. This project uses a rodent model that mimics the intestinal pathological changes seen in NEC to study the effect of formula feeding and hypoxia on NEC development
Project description:Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is the most frequent life-threatening gastrointestinal disease experienced by premature infant occuring in neonatal intensive care units. NEC is associated with severe intestinal inflammation, intestinal perforation leading to mortality. The challenge for neonatologists is to detect early clinical manifestations of NEC. Therefore, one of the strategies to prevent or treat NEC would be to develop an early diagnostic tool allowing identification of preterm infants either at risk of developing NEC or at the onset of the disease. Illumina’s deep sequencing technology (RNA-seq) was used to establish the gene expression profile between resected ileal healthy preterm (control, n=5) and NEC diagnosed preterm infant (NEC, n=9) and analyzed by IPA Core analysis system. IPA analysis indicated that the most significant functional pathways overrepresented in NEC neonates were associated with innate immune functions, such as altered T and B cell signaling, B cell development, and the role of pattern recognition receptors in recognition of bacteria and viruses. Among genes that were strongly modulated in NEC neonates, we observed a high degree of similarity with those linked to the development of IBD. By comparing gene expression patterns between NEC and Crohn’s disease, we identified several new potential protein targets for helping to predict and/or diagnose NEC in preterm infant. Gene expression profile revealed an uncontrolled innate immune response in the intestine of NEC neonates. Moreover, comparative analysis between NEC and Crohn’s disease evidenced high degree of similarity between these two inflammatory diseases and allowed us to identify several new potential NEC biomarkers.
Project description:Background: Autophagy plays an essential role in the occurrence and progression of Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). We purposed to carry out the identification and validation of the probable autophagy-related genes of NEC via bioinformatics methods and experiment trials. Methods: The autophagy-related differentially expressed genes (arDEGs) of NEC were identified by analyzing the RNA sequencing data of experiment neonatal mouse model and dataset GSE46619. Protein-protein interactions (PPI), gene-ontology (GO) enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis were used for the arDEGs. Then, co-expressed autophagy-related genes in two datasets were identified by Venn analysis and verified by qRT-PCR in experimental NEC. Results: Autophagy increased in experimental NEC and 47 arDEGs were identified in experimental NEC by RNA-sequencing. The PPI results proclaimed those genes interplayed with each other. The GO and KEGG enrichment results of arDEGs reported some certain enriched pathways related to autophagy and macroautophagy. Furthermore, 22 arDEGs were identified in human NEC from dataset GSE46619. The GO and KEGG enrichment analysis of these genes showed similar enriched terms with the results in experimental NEC. Finally, HIF-1a, VEGFA, ITGA3, ITGA6, ITGB4 and NAMPT were identified as co-expressed autophagy-related genes by Venn analysis in human NEC from dataset GSE46619 and experimental NEC. The result of qRT-PCR revealed the expression levels of HIF-1a and ITGA3 upregulated, VEGFA and ITGB4 downregulated in experimental NEC. Conclusion: We identified 47 arDEGs in experimental NEC and 22 arDEGs in human NEC via bioinformatics analysis. HIF-1a, ITGA3, VEGFA and ITGB4 may have effects on the progression of NEC through modulating autophagy.
Project description:Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is the most common and lethal gastrointestinal disease affecting preterm infants. NEC develops suddenly and is characterized by gut barrier destruction, an inflammatory response, intestinal necrosis and multi-system organ failure. There is currently no method for early NEC detection, and the pathogenesis of NEC remains unclear.
Project description:Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a severe gut disorder in preterm infants, is difficult to predict due to poor specificity and sensitivity of clinical signs and biomarkers. Using preterm piglets as a model, we hypothesized that early development of NEC affects blood gene expression, potentially related to early systemic immune responses. In this animal model, variable severity of gut NEC lesions were detected in 5d-old piglets with limited clinical signs. NEC (n=20) and control piglets (CON, n=19) were analyzed for whole blood transcriptome, revealing 344 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between NEC and CON piglets. Co-expression network analyses and qPCR suggested AOAH, FKBP5, PAK2 as three NEC-specific genes associated with severe gut lesions. These results suggest that whole blood gene expressions are affected in preterm piglets when clinical symptoms of NEC are minimal. Blood transcriptome may be a novel tool to identify early biomarkers of NEC.
Project description:Classical necrotizing enterocolitis (classical NEC) is a devastating gastrointestinal disease of the neonatal period, and cardiac NEC is a subset of the disease occurring in infants with comorbid congenital heart disease. Despite nearly identical symptomatology, the two NEC subtypes may represent etiologically distinct diseases. We used spatial transcriptomics and network analyses to compare tissue regions of interest derived from surgically resected ileum of patients with cardiac and classical NEC, finding evidence classical and cardiac NEC may arise from differing etiologies.
Project description:To further explore the role of HDAC8 in NEC, we analyzed the signaling pathways that were altered in mice with NEC. We then performed gene expression profiling analysis using data obtained from RNA-seq of intestinal tissues (control group, NEC group).
Project description:Comparisons between the sample groups (normal elderly control (NEC) and Alzheimer disease (AD)) allowed the identification of genes with disease expression patterns associated with the glutathione S-transferase M3 single nucleotide polymorphism rs7483. Keywords: biological repeat Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (BMC) were obtained from normal elderly control (NEC) and Alzheimer disease (AD) subjects. Targets from biological replicates of NEC (n=18) and AD (n=16) were generated and the expression profiles were determined using the NIA Human MGC cDNA microarray.
Project description:Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC) is an inflammation causing injury to the bowel in newborns. This project uses a rodent model that mimics the intestinal pathological changes seen in NEC to study the effect of formula feeding and hypoxia on NEC development Keywords: time series, diet, hypoxia