Project description:Intestinal epithelia are protected by a layer of mucin secreted by goblet cells against mechanical and chemical injuries, potent causes of inflammation, and the most abundant secreted intestinal mucin is encoded by the Muc2 gene. Genetic deletion of Muc2 causes intestinal inflammation in early stage and tumors after 3 months. The underlying mechanisms are not clear, but epigenetic alterations, particularly, up- and down-regulated microRNAs are involved in the malignant transformation from colitis to cancer. We used miRNA array to profile the differential expression of the miRNAs in Muc2-/- mouse colonic epithelial lin comparison with those in wild-type mice. Total RNA were extracted from mouse colonic epithelial cells and Muc2-/- and +/+, and the RNA were hybridized on Affymetrix miRNA microarray to determine the alterations of miRNAs during colitis development and its malignant transformation from colitis to cancer. To the end, we found miRNA were differential expressed in the Muc2-/- mice, among them 20 miRNAs were significantly downregulated and 71 miRNAs were significantly upregulated in Muc2-/- mice, in comparison with Muc2+/+ mice (change fold >2 or <0.5; T<0.01, p value< 0.05, q value< 0.05).
Project description:Intestinal epithelia are protected by a layer of mucin secreted by goblet cells against mechanical and chemical injuries, potent causes of inflammation, and the most abundant secreted intestinal mucin is encoded by the Muc2 gene. Genetic deletion of Muc2 causes intestinal inflammation in early stage and tumors after 3 months. The underlying mechanisms are not clear, but epigenetic alterations, particularly, up- and down-regulated microRNAs are involved in the malignant transformation from colitis to cancer. We used miRNA array to profile the differential expression of the miRNAs in Muc2-/- mouse colonic epithelial lin comparison with those in wild-type mice.
Project description:PURPOSE: To provide a detailed gene expression profile of the normal postnatal mouse cornea. METHODS: Serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) was performed on postnatal day (PN)9 and adult mouse (6 week) total corneas. The expression of selected genes was analyzed by in situ hybridization. RESULTS: A total of 64,272 PN9 and 62,206 adult tags were sequenced. Mouse corneal transcriptomes are composed of at least 19,544 and 18,509 unique mRNAs, respectively. One third of the unique tags were expressed at both stages, whereas a third was identified exclusively in PN9 or adult corneas. Three hundred thirty-four PN9 and 339 adult tags were enriched more than fivefold over other published nonocular libraries. Abundant transcripts were associated with metabolic functions, redox activities, and barrier integrity. Three members of the Ly-6/uPAR family whose functions are unknown in the cornea constitute more than 1% of the total mRNA. Aquaporin 5, epithelial membrane protein and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) omega-1, and GST alpha-4 mRNAs were preferentially expressed in distinct corneal epithelial layers, providing new markers for stratification. More than 200 tags were differentially expressed, of which 25 mediate transcription. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to providing a detailed profile of expressed genes in the PN9 and mature mouse cornea, the present SAGE data demonstrate dynamic changes in gene expression after eye opening and provide new probes for exploring corneal epithelial cell stratification, development, and function and for exploring the intricate relationship between programmed and environmentally induced gene expression in the cornea. Keywords: other
Project description:To investigate the differences in microRNA expression profiles between fibrotic and normal livers, we performed microRNA microarrays for total RNA extracts isolated from mouse livers treated with carbontetrachloride (CCl4) or corn-oil for 10 weeks (n=3/group). MicroRNAs were considered to have significant differences in expression level when the expression difference showed more than two-fold change between the experimental and control groups at p<0.05. We found that 12 miRNAs were differentially expressed in CCl4-induced fibrotic liver.