Project description:Analysis of LBNF1 rat testes from controls, containing both somatic and all germ cell types and from irradiated rats in which all cells germ cells except type A spermatgogonia are eliminated. Results provide insight into distinguishing germ and somatic cell genes and identification of somatic cell genes that are upregulated after irradiation.
Project description:Analysis of hormone effects on irradiated LBNF1 rat testes, which contain only somatic cells except for a few type A spermatgogonia. Rats were treated for 2 weeks with either sham treatment (group X), hormonal ablation (GnRH antagonist and the androgen receptor antagonist flutamide, group XAF), testosterone supplementation (GnRH antagonist and testosterone, group XAT), and FSH supplementation ((GnRH antagonist, androgen receptor antagonist, and FSH, group XAFF). Results provide insight into identifying genes in the somatic testis cells regulated by testosterone, LH, or FSH.
Project description:High dose level dibutyl phthalate (DBP) exposure of fetal rat testes in vivo inhibits testosterone production (i.e. endocrine disruption). Here, fetal testis mRNA levels were profiled following exposure to a DBP dose level that did not significantly reduce testosterone levels. The goal was to identify the constellation of gene expression changes that do not correlate with endocrine disruption.
Project description:In rodent models, phthalate exposure alters both the fetal and pubertal testis, but the resulting histopathological changes are divergent. This suggests that the underlying molecular and cellular phthalate mechanism may be age-dependent. Using genome-wide expression profiling of acutely-exposed rats, the initial molecular response in pubertal rat testis following in vivo phthalate exposure was determined. For this study, postnatal day 28 rats were exposed to a single dose of 1 g/kg mono-(2-ethyl)hexyl phthalate (MEHP) and assayed at 1, 2, 3, 6, and 12 hrs thereafter using Affymetrix Rat Genome 230 2.0 Arrays. Experiment Overall Design: At each timepoint, testes from 3 treated and 3 control (corn oil gavage) were analzyed.
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.