Project description:Organotypic in vitro culture is useful to model mammalian disease in numerous tissues. Normal epithelial differentiation and carcinogenesis both undergo in vivo regulation by stroma, but current culture methods exclude stroma. To mimic this in vivo environment, we developed and characterized a human 3D prostate organoid co-culture model that incorporates prostate stroma. Primary prostate stromal cells supported increased organoid formation and expressed growth factors and WNT-related genes involved in epithelial differentiation. Organoid branching occurred distal to physical contact with stromal cells, demonstrating non-random branching. Tumoroids derived from primary prostate cancer maintained differential expression of the prostate cancer marker AMACR only in the presence of stroma. Stroma-induced phenotypes were similar in all patients examined, yet maintained inter-patient heterogeneity in the degree of response. Addition of stroma to in vitro organoid culture recapitulated the in vivo microenvironment by inducing organization of benign organoids into branching structures and preserving prostate cancer phenotypes.
Project description:A Toxoplasma gondii infection during pregnancy can result in spontaneous abortion, preterm labor, or congenital fetal defects. The decidual immune system plays a critical role in regulating the immune micro-environment and in the induction of immune tolerance. To better understand the factors that mediate the decidual immune response associated with the T. gondii infection, a large-scale study employing TMT proteomics was conducted to characterize the differential decidual immune proteomes from infected and uninfected human decidual immune cells samples. The decidual immune cells from 105 human voluntary abortion tissues were purified, and of the 5510 unique proteins identified, 181 proteins were found to be differentially abundant (>1.2-fold cutoff, P<0.05) in the T. gondii-infected decidual immune cells. 11 proteins of 181 differentially expressed proteins associated with trophoblast invasion, placental development, intrauterine fetal growth, and immune tolerance were verified using a quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and western blotting. This systematic research identified a broad range of immune factors in human decidual immune cells, shedding a new insight into the decidual immune molecular mechanism for abnormal pregnancy outcomes associated with T. gondii infection.
Project description:Analysis of gene expression in SKOv3ip1 cells with and without co-culture of human primary adipocytes. Hypothesis is that adipocyte co-culure changes lipid metabolism pathways in ovarian cancer cells.
Project description:We previously established co-culture assay in which NPCs acquire phenotypic hallmarks of quiescence upon direct cell-cell contact with primary brain microvascular endothelial cells (bmvEC). Here, we used this in vitro assay to identify the mechanisms by which p53 enforces quiescence
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of human preadipocytes comparing preadipocytes cultured in control media vs co-culture with PBMC's after 3 days. Goal was to elucidate novel expression patterns in preadipocytes during exposure to human immune cells.
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of human preadipocytes comparing preadipocytes cultured in control media vs co-culture with PBMC's after 3 days. Goal was to elucidate novel expression patterns in preadipocytes during exposure to human immune cells. 2-condition experiment, Preadipocytes+Media vs Preadipocytes+PBMC. Biological replicates: 4 experimental replicates.