Project description:There are concerns regarding possible reproductive toxicity from consumption of soy including an increased risk of endometriosis and endometrial cancer. We used global uterine gene expression profiles in adult ovariectomized (OVX) female rats assessed by RNAseq to examine the estrogenicity of soy protein isolate (SPI) and the potential for feeding SPI to alter estrogen signaling in the uterus. Rats were fed AIN93G diets made with casein (CAS) or SPI from postnatal day (PND) 30. Rats were OVX on PND 50 and infused with 17 beta-estradiol (E2) or vehicle. E2 increased uterine wet weight (P<0.05) and significantly altered expression of 2084 uterine genes. In contrast, SPI feeding had no effect on uterine weight and only altered expression of 177 genes. Overlap between E2 and SPI genes was limited to 69 genes (3%). GO analysis indicated significant differences in uterine biological processes affected by E2 and SPI and little evidence for recruitment of ER alpha to the promoters of ER-responsive genes after SPI feeding. The major E2 up-regulated uterine pathways were cancer pathways and extracellular organization. SPI feeding up-regulated uterine PPAR signaling and fatty acid metabolism. The combination of E2 and SPI feeding resulted in significant regulation of 715 fewer genes relative to E2 alone. In a separate experiment, the combination of E2 and SPI reversed the ability of E2 to induce uterine proliferation in response to the carcinogen dimethybenz(a)anthracene (DMBA). These data suggest SPI does not act as a weak estrogen in the uterus but appears to be a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) interacting with a small sub-set of E2-regulated genes and to be anti-estrogenic in the presence of endogenous estrogens. Rat uterus mRNA of ovariectomized adult female rats subject to four different diets (Caseine, Caseine + E2, Soy and Soy+E2 ) were sequenced, in triplicate, in an Illumina GAIIx sequencer.
Project description:Male Sprague-Dawley rats were used to establish exhausted-exercise model by motorized rodent treadmill. Yu-Ping-Feng-San at doses of 2.18 g/kg was administrated by gavage before exercise training for 10 consecutive days. Quantitative proteomics was performed for assessing the related mechanism of Yu-Ping-Feng-San.
Project description:Chemotherapy can potentially impair fertility in premenopausal cancer patients. Female fertility preservation has been mainly focused on the ovarian aspects and benefited greatly from assisted reproductive technologies, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF). The rate-limiting step for the success of IVF is embryo implantation in the uterus. Doxorubicin (DOX) is a widely used chemotherapeutic agent with ovarian toxicity. It remains unknown if the uterus is a direct target of DOX. To circumvent the indirect uterine effect from ovarian toxicity of DOX and to investigate potential long-term impact of DOX on the uterus, young adult ovariectomized CD-1 mice were given an intraperitoneal injection once with PBS or DOX (10 mg/kg, a human relevant chemotherapeutic dose), and 30 days later, each set of mice was randomly assigned into three groups and subcutaneously injected with oil, 17β-estradiol (E2, for 6 hours), and progesterone (P4, for 54 hours), respectively. Uterine transcriptomic profiles were determined using RNA-seq. Principal component analysis of the uterine transcriptomes revealed four clusters from the six treatment groups: PBS-oil & DOX-oil, PBS-P4 & DOX-P4, PBS-E2, and DOX-E2, indicating that DOX treatment did not affect the overall uterine transcriptomic profiles in the oil and P4-treated mice but altered uterine responses to E2 treatment. These data demonstrate that DOX can directly target the uterus and has a long-term impact on uterine responses to E2.
Project description:The study determined whether there were gender differences in the <br>expression of hippocampal genes in adult rats in association with dissimilarity <br>in their behavior, and how these were affected by prenatal stress. Pregnant <br>Wistar rats were subjected to varied stress once daily on days 14-20 of <br>gestation.<br>
Project description:A study of rat femoral fracture healing in young (6 weeks old at fracture), adult (26 weeks old at fracture), and old (52 weeks old at fracture) rats. Samples were collected at time of surgery (intact controls) and at 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, and 6 weeks after fracture. Samples were the mid third of the femoral length including the external callus, cortical bone and marrow elements. Fracture was stabilized with an intramedullary rod prior to fracture with a Bonnarens and Einhorn device.
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.
Project description:There are concerns regarding possible reproductive toxicity from consumption of soy including an increased risk of endometriosis and endometrial cancer. We used global uterine gene expression profiles in adult ovariectomized (OVX) female rats assessed by RNAseq to examine the estrogenicity of soy protein isolate (SPI) and the potential for feeding SPI to alter estrogen signaling in the uterus. Rats were fed AIN93G diets made with casein (CAS) or SPI from postnatal day (PND) 30. Rats were OVX on PND 50 and infused with 17 beta-estradiol (E2) or vehicle. E2 increased uterine wet weight (P<0.05) and significantly altered expression of 2084 uterine genes. In contrast, SPI feeding had no effect on uterine weight and only altered expression of 177 genes. Overlap between E2 and SPI genes was limited to 69 genes (3%). GO analysis indicated significant differences in uterine biological processes affected by E2 and SPI and little evidence for recruitment of ER alpha to the promoters of ER-responsive genes after SPI feeding. The major E2 up-regulated uterine pathways were cancer pathways and extracellular organization. SPI feeding up-regulated uterine PPAR signaling and fatty acid metabolism. The combination of E2 and SPI feeding resulted in significant regulation of 715 fewer genes relative to E2 alone. In a separate experiment, the combination of E2 and SPI reversed the ability of E2 to induce uterine proliferation in response to the carcinogen dimethybenz(a)anthracene (DMBA). These data suggest SPI does not act as a weak estrogen in the uterus but appears to be a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) interacting with a small sub-set of E2-regulated genes and to be anti-estrogenic in the presence of endogenous estrogens.