5.9
CiteScore
5.9
Impact Factor

2012 Vol. 39, No. 12

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Original research
Shared Gene Regulation during Human Somatic Cell Reprogramming
Xiang Wang, Xuesong Chen, Huijun Zhang, Wenyi Qin, Yan Xue, Fanyi Zeng
2012, 39(12): 613-623. doi: 10.1016/j.jgg.2012.09.002
Abstract (71) HTML PDF (1)
Abstract:
Human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have the ability to differentiate into all somatic cells and to maintain unlimited self-renewal. Therefore, they have great potential in both basic research and clinical therapy for many diseases. To identify potentially universal mechanisms of human somatic cell reprogramming, we studied gene expression changes in three types of cells undergoing reprogramming. The set of 570 genes commonly regulated during induction of iPS cells includes known embryonic stem (ES) cell markers and pluripotency related genes. We also identified novel genes and biological categories which may be related to somatic cell reprogramming. For example, some of the down-regulated genes are predicted targets of the pluripotency microRNA cluster miR302/367, and the proteins from these putative target genes interact with the stem cell pluripotency factor POU5F1 according to our network analysis. Our results identified candidate gene sets to guide research on the mechanisms operating during somatic cell reprogramming.
Gene–Gene Interaction between PPARδ and PPARγ Is Associated with Abdominal Obesity in a Chinese Population
Yi Ding, Zhi-Rong Guo, Ming Wu, Qiu Chen, Hao Yu, Wen-Shu Luo
2012, 39(12): 625-631. doi: 10.1016/j.jgg.2012.08.005
Abstract (66) HTML PDF (0)
Abstract:
The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) -α, -δ/β and -γ are the ligand-activated transcription factors that function as the master regulators of glucose, fatty acid and lipoprotein metabolism, energy balance, cell proliferation and differentiation, inflammation, and atherosclerosis. The objective of the current study was to examine the main and interactive effect of seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of PPARδ/γ in contribution to abdominal obesity. A total of 820 subjects were randomly selected and no individuals were related. The selected SNPs in PPARδ (rs2016520 and rs9794) and PPARγ (rs10865710, rs1805192, rs709158, rs3856806, and rs4684847) were genotyped. Mean difference and 95% confident interval were calculated. Interactions were explored by the method of generalized multifactor dimensionality reduction. After adjustment for gender, age, and smoking status, it was found that the carriers of the C allele (TC + CC) of rs2016520 were associated with a decreased risk of abdominal obesity compared to the carriers of the TT genotype (mean difference = −2.63, 95% CI = −3.61–−1.64, P < 0.0001). A significant two-locus model (P = 0.0107) involving rs2016520 and rs10865710 and a significant three-locus model (P = 0.0107) involving rs2016520, rs9794, and rs1805192 were observed. Overall, the three-locus model had the highest level of testing accuracy (59.85%) and showed a better cross-validation consistency (9/10) than two-locus model. Therefore, for abdominal obesity defined by waist circumference, we chose the three-locus model as the best interaction model. In conclusion, the C allele in rs2016520 was significantly associated with a lower abdominal obesity. Moreover, an interaction among rs2016520, rs1805192, and rs9794 on incident abdominal obesity could be demonstrated.
Method
The Three-Dimensional Collagen Scaffold Improves the Stemness of Rat Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells
Sufang Han, Yannan Zhao, Zhifeng Xiao, Jin Han, Bing Chen, Lei Chen, Jianwu Dai
2012, 39(12): 633-641. doi: 10.1016/j.jgg.2012.08.006
Abstract (84) HTML PDF (0)
Abstract:
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) show the great promise for the treatment of a variety of diseases because of their self-renewal and multipotential abilities. MSCs are generally cultured on two-dimensional (2D) substratein vitro. There are indications that they may simultaneously lose their stemness and multipotentiality as the result of prolonged 2D culture. In this study, we used three-dimensional (3D) collagen scaffolds as rat MSCs carrier and compared the properties of MSCs on 3D collagen scaffolds with monolayer cultured MSCs. The results demonstrated that collagen scaffolds were suitable for rat MSCs adherence and proliferation. More importantly, compared to MSCs under 2D culture, 3D MSCs significantly maintained higher expression levels of stemness genes (Oct4, Sox2, Rex-1 and Nanog), yielded high frequencies of colony-forming units-fibroblastic (CFU-F) and showed enhanced osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation efficiency upon induction. Thus, 3D collagen scaffolds may be beneficial for expanding rat MSCs while maintaining the stem cell properties in vitro.
Generation of Tripotent Neural Progenitor Cells from Rat Embryonic Stem Cells
Zhenkun Wang, Chao Sheng, Tianda Li, Fei Teng, Lisi Sang, Fenglin Cao, Ziwei Wang, Wanwan Zhu, Wei Li, Xiaoyang Zhao, Zhonghua Liu, Liu Wang, Qi Zhou
2012, 39(12): 643-651. doi: 10.1016/j.jgg.2012.07.013
Abstract (100) HTML PDF (0)
Abstract:
Rat is a valuable model for pharmacological and physiological studies. Germline-competent rat embryonic stem (rES) cell lines have been successfully established and the molecular networks maintaining the self-renewing, undifferentiated state of rES cells have also been well uncovered. However, little is known about the differentiation strategies and the underlying mechanisms of how these authentic rat pluripotent stem cells give rise to specific cell types. The aim of this study is to investigate the neural differentiation capacity of rES cells. By means of a modified procedure based on previous publications – combination of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) inhibitors (two inhibitors, “2i”) with feeder-conditioned medium, we successfully obtained high-quality rat embryoid bodies (rEBs) from rES cells and then differentiated them to tripotent neural progenitors. These rES cell-derived neural progenitor cells (rNPCs) were capable of self-renewing and giving rise to all three neural lineages, including astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and neurons. Besides, these rES cell-derived neurons stained positive for γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH). In summary, we develop an experimental system for differentiating rES cells to tripotent neural progenitors, which may provide a powerful tool for pharmacological test and a valuable platform for studying the pathogenesis of many neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease and the development of rat nervous system.
Letter to the Editor
Clue to a New Deafness Gene: A Large Chinese Nonsyndromic Hearing Loss Family Linked to DFNA4
Liang Zong, Chunye Lu, Yali Zhao, Qian Li, Dongyi Han, Weiyan Yang, Yan Shen, Qingyin Zheng, Qiuju Wang
2012, 39(12): 653-657. doi: 10.1016/j.jgg.2012.11.002
Abstract (79) HTML PDF (1)
Abstract: