Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a class of fatty acids found in beef and dairy products, has been shown to inhibit tumorigenesis in a variety of cancer model systems. Based on previously well-documented anti-tumor activity of CLA in rodent models of breast cancer, a pilot study was initiated to examine the effect of dietary CLA in a well-established transgenic model of breast cancer. Western blots were performed for the detection of AKT, c-Src, ERK1/2, and Cdc24. CLA significantly increased tumor burden (p<0.1) independent of an increase in oncogenic signaling. Mammary gland whole mounts indicated a loss of mammary adipose and extensive epithelial expansion in CLA-treated animals. Microarray analysis indicated a significant reduction in cytoskeletal related genes with at least a two-fold decrease in five out of six CLA-fed animals compared to untreated controls. Reduction of Cdc42, a key regulator of cell adhesion and cytoskeletal arrangements, was confirmed at the protein level by western blot (p<0.01). These findings suggest that dietary CLA may advance the malignant phenotype by promoting a loss of cell polarity and adhesion in the mammary gland epithelium. This action may have serious clinical implications for a subset high-risk population and warrants further investigation.
Pilot study on the effects of dietary conjugated linoleic acid on tumorigenesis and gene expression in PyMT transgenic mice.
Sex, Age, Specimen part
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Dynamic changes in 5-hydroxymethylation signatures underpin early and late events in drug exposed liver.
Sex, Specimen part, Treatment, Time
View Samples29-32 days old male mice where either treated with Phenobarbital or untreated
Dynamic changes in 5-hydroxymethylation signatures underpin early and late events in drug exposed liver.
Sex, Specimen part, Treatment, Time
View SamplesThe QSi5 inbred strain of mice was established from an outbred Quackenbush-Swiss strain by full-sib inbreeding and selection on the basis of increased litter size and shortened inter-litter interval in the Department of Veterinary Physiology (later REPROGEN) , University of Sydney (Holt et al., 2004). The strain has an average litter size of more than 13 pups, and females commonly nurse up to 18 pups with greater than 90% survival to weaning. Along with an increased body weight (BW), these traits are clearly indicative of enhanced lactation performance (Knight et al., 1986). Indeed lactation performance, assessed by a weigh-suckle-weigh method, was 3-fold greater in QSi5 mice than the CBA strain (Riley et al., 2006). In this study, we utilize the divergent phenotypes of QSi5 and CBA/CaH mice to identify genes associated with enhanced mammary gland capacity.
Transcriptome analysis identifies pathways associated with enhanced maternal performance in QSi5 mice.
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View Samples5,6-Dimethylxanthenone-4-acetic acid (DMXAA), a tumor vascular disrupting agent, is shown here to have substantial activity as a single agent against human A375 melanoma xenografts in nude mice (94 % hemorrhagic necrosis after 24 h, and 26 days growth delay following single dose at 25 mg/kg). CD45+ cells in tumor tissue increased 5-fold over the first 3 days after treatment, which was due largely to an influx of CD11b+ Ly6G+ neutrophils. Using murine and human multiplex cytokine assays to dissect the cytokines produced by host stromal cells or by the melanoma cells, it was shown that both the stromal cells and the A375 melanoma cells produced cytokines capable of attracting neutrophils into the tumor. The same xenografts were also analyzed using human and mouse Affymetrix microarrays to separately identify tumor cell-specific (human) and stromal cell-specific (mouse) gene expression changes. DMXAA induced numerous stromal cytokine mRNAs, including IP-10, IL-6, MIP-1/, MIP-2, KC, RANTES, MIG, MCP-1 and IL-1, many of which were also elevated at the protein level. Numerous human cytokine mRNAs were also induced including MCP-1, IL-8, GRO, VEGF, GM-CSF and IL-6, which again was in line with our protein data. Pathway analysis indicated that significant numbers of the stromal mRNAs induced by DMXAA are regulated downstream of TNF-, interferon- and NFB. Our results suggest that DMXAA may have utility in combination therapy for human melanoma through the activation of pro-inflammatory signalling pathways and cytokine expression from both stromal and tumor cells, leading to haemorrhagic necrosis, neutrophil influx and growth inhibition.
Dissection of stromal and cancer cell-derived signals in melanoma xenografts before and after treatment with DMXAA.
Specimen part, Cell line
View SamplesThe transcriptional repressor Zbtb20 is essential for specification of hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons. Moreover, ectopic expression of Zbtb20 is sufficient to transform subicular and retrosplenial areas of D6/Zbtb20S mice to CA1. We used microarrays to identify genes that are repressed by Zbtb20 in developing CA1 pyramidal neurons in the CA1-transformed cortex of D6/Zbtb20S mice.
Zbtb20 defines a hippocampal neuronal identity through direct repression of genes that control projection neuron development in the isocortex.
Specimen part
View SamplesPtf1a was identified as the essential transcription factor which controls pancreatic exocrine enzyme expression. With lineage tracing eperiments Ptf1a was recognized as an important pancreatic progenitor transcription factor and Ptf1a null mice do not develop a pancreas.
RNA profiling and chromatin immunoprecipitation-sequencing reveal that PTF1a stabilizes pancreas progenitor identity via the control of MNX1/HLXB9 and a network of other transcription factors.
Specimen part
View SamplesThe process for evaluating chemical safety is inefficient, costly, and animal intensive. There is growing consensus that the current process of safety testing needs to be significantly altered to improve efficiency and reduce the number of untested chemicals. In this study, the use of short-term gene expression profiles was evaluated for predicting the increased incidence of mouse lung tumors. Animals were exposed to a total of 26 diverse chemicals with matched vehicle controls over a period of three years. Upon completion, significant batch-related effects were observed. Adjustment for batch effects significantly improved the ability to predict increased lung tumor incidence. For the best statistical model, the estimated predictive accuracy under honest five-fold cross-validation was 79.3% with a sensitivity and specificity of 71.4 and 86.3%, respectively. A learning curve analysis demonstrated that gains in model performance reached a plateau at 25 chemicals, indicating that the size of the current data set was sufficient to provide a robust classifier. The classification results showed a small subset of chemicals contributed disproportionately to the misclassification rate. For these chemicals, the misclassification was more closely associated with genotoxicity status than efficacy in the original bioassay. Statistical models were also used to predict dose-response increases in tumor incidence for methylene chloride and naphthalene. The average posterior probabilities for the top models matched the results from the bioassay for methylene chloride. For naphthalene, the average posterior probabilities for the top models over-predicted the tumor response, but the variability in predictions were significantly higher. The study provides both a set of gene expression biomarkers for predicting chemically-induced mouse lung tumors as well as a broad assessment of important experimental and analysis criteria for developing microarray-based predictors of safety-related endpoints.
Use of short-term transcriptional profiles to assess the long-term cancer-related safety of environmental and industrial chemicals.
Sex, Age, Specimen part, Disease, Subject
View SamplesGenomic, proteomic, and metabolomic technologies continue to receive increasing interest from environmental toxicologists. This interest is due to the great potential of these technologies to identify detailed modes of action and to provide assistance in the evaluation of a contaminant’s risk to aquatic organisms. Our experimental model is the zebrafish (Danio rerio) exposed to reference endocrine disrupting compounds in order to investigate compound-induced changes in gene transcript profiles. Adult, female zebrafish were exposed to 0, 15, 40, and 100 ng/L of 17 alpha-ethynylestradiol (EE2) and concentration and time-dependent changes in hepatic gene expression were examined using Affymetrix GeneChip® Zebrafish Genome Microarrays. At 24, 48, and 168 hours, fish were sacrificed and liver mRNA was extracted for gene expression analysis (24 and 168 hours only). In an effort to link gene expression changes to effects on higher levels of biological organization, body and ovary weights were measured and blood was collected for measurement of plasma steroid hormones (17 beta-estradiol (E2), testosterone (T)) and vitellogenin (VTG) using ELISA. EE2 exposure significantly affected GSI, E2, T, VTG and gene expression. We observed 1575 genes that were significantly affected (up- or down-regulated by at least 1.5-fold (p ? 0.001) in a concentration-dependent manner by EE2 exposure at either 24 or 168 hours. EE2 exposure altered transcription of genes involved in steroid hormone homeostasis, cholesterol homeostasis, retinoic acid metabolism, and cell growth and proliferation. Plasma VTG was significantly increased at 24, 48, and 168 hours (p<0.05) at 40 and 100 ng/L and at 15 ng/L at 168 hours. E2 and T were significantly reduced following EE2 exposure at 48 and 168 hours. GSI was decreased in a dose-dependent manner at 168 hours. In this study, we identified genes involved in a variety of biological functions that have the potential to be used as markers of exposure to estrogenic substances. Future work will evaluate the use of these genes in zebrafish exposed to weak estrogens to determine if these genes are indicative of exposure to estrogens with varying potencies.
Hepatic gene expression profiling using Genechips in zebrafish exposed to 17alpha-ethynylestradiol.
Sex, Specimen part, Compound, Time
View SamplesCells undergoing malignant transformation often shift their cellular metabolism from primarily oxidative phosphorylation to aerobic glycolysis (the Warburg effect). Energy restriction-mimetic agents (ERMAs), such as 2-deoxyglucose and resveratrol, that target this shift in cellular metabolism have been effective in inhibiting cancer cell growth in vitro, and xenograft tumor growth in vivo.
Suppression of prostate epithelial proliferation and intraprostatic progrowth signaling in transgenic mice by a new energy restriction-mimetic agent.
Specimen part
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