Goran Boskovic

Regulation of expression and activity of four PKC isozymes in confluent and mechanically stimulated UMR-108 osteoblastic cells

The transcript (mRNA), protein levels, enzyme activity, and cellular localization of four protein kinase C (PKC) isozymes identified in rat osteogenic sarcoma cells (UMR‐108) were studied at confluent density and during mechanical stress (cyclic stretch). Western blot analysis indicated that growth to confluent density significantly increased the protein levels of cPKC‐α (11.6‐fold), nPKC‐δ (5.3‐fold), and nPKC‐ϵ (22.0‐fold) but not aPKC‐ζ. Northern blot analysis indicated a significant (2.3‐fold) increase in the 10 kb transcript of cPKC‐α, a slight (1.3‐fold) increase in that of nPKC‐ϵ but no detectable change in that of the remaining isozymes. Enzyme activity assays of the individually immunoprecipitated isozymes yielded detectable kinase activity only for PKC‐α, PKC‐δ, and PKC‐ϵ and only in confluent cells, corroborating the selective increase of these isozymes at confluent density. The UMR‐108 cells showed a dramatic orientation response to mechanical stress with cell reshaping and alignment of the cell long axis perpendicular to the axis of force, remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton, and the appearance of multiple peripheral sites which stained for actin, vinculin, and PKC in separate experiments. Longer term mechanical stress beyond 24 h, however, resulted in no significant change in the mRNA level, protein level, or enzyme activity of any of the four PKC isozymes investigated. The results indicate that there are isozyme‐selective increases in the protein levels of PKC isozymes of osteoblastic UMR‐108 cells upon growth to confluence which may be regulated at the transcriptional or the post‐transcriptional level. The results from UMR‐108 cells support the earlier proposal (Carvalho RS, Scott JE, Suga DM, Yen EH. 1994 . J Bone Miner Res 9(7):999–1011) that PKC could be involved in the early phase of mechanotransduction in osteoblasts through the activation of focal adhesion assembly/disassembly and the remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton.

Proteomic and genomic analysis of PITX2 interacting and regulating networks

MINT‐6823902: YB‐1 (uniprotkb:P67809) physically interacts (MI:0218) with PITX2 (uniprotkb: Q99697) by anti bait coimmunoprecipitation (MI:0006)

Retinoic acid-induced AP-1 transcriptional activity regulates B16 mouse melanoma growth inhibition and differentiation

Retinoic acid (RA) inhibits growth and induces differentiation of B16 mouse melanoma cells. These effects are accompanied by a large increase in PKCα mRNA and protein levels and surprisingly an increase in activating protein‐1 (AP‐1) transcriptional activity. To further investigate the RA‐induced AP‐1 activity we established clones of B16 cells stably expressing an AP‐1‐luciferase reporter gene. Treatment of these clones with phorbol dibutyrate increased AP‐1 activity which peaked at 2–4 h and returned to baseline level by 24 h. In contrast, RA treatment resulted in a slow increase in AP‐1 activity that reached a maximum level at 48 h and was maintained for the duration of the treatment. We tested the importance of the RA‐induced AP‐1 activity by establishing clones which stably express a dominant negative fos gene (A‐fos) and have greatly diminished AP‐1 activity. Growth rates of untreated A‐fos expressing cells were similar to wt B16 and clones not expressing A‐fos. However, clones expressing the dominant‐negative fos had a markedly decreased sensitivity to RA‐induced inhibition of anchorage‐dependent and ‐independent growth. Treatment of wt B16 cells for 48 h with RA increased melanin production by two to fourfold, but this effect was completely lost in the A‐fos clones. The ability of RA to induce RARβ and PKCα expression was retained in A‐fos clones, suggesting that A‐fos was not interfering with RAR transcription activation functions. We tested whether the RA‐induced AP‐1 activity might be mediated by the ERK1/2 MAPK pathway. Inhibition of ERK1/2 phosphorylation stimulated AP‐1 activity, which was not additive to that induced by RA. This finding raises the possibility that this MAPK pathway may be a target of retinoid action. Our observations suggest that AP‐1 transcriptional activity induced by RA likely plays an important role in the biological changes mediated by this retinoid in B16 melanoma cells.

High throughput DNA sequencing to detect differences in the subgingival plaque microbiome in elderly subjects with and without dementia.

BackgroundTo investigate the potential association between oral health and cognitive function, a pilot study was conducted to evaluate high throughput DNA sequencing of the V3 region of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene for determining the relative abundance of bacterial taxa in subgingival plaque from older adults with or without dementia.MethodsSubgingival plaque samples were obtained from ten individuals at least 70 years old who participated in a study to assess oral health and cognitive function. DNA was isolated from the samples and a gene segment from the V3 portion of the 16S bacterial ribosomal RNA gene was amplified and sequenced using an Illumina HiSeq1000 DNA sequencer. Bacterial populations found in the subgingival plaque were identified and assessed with respect to the cognitive status and oral health of the participants who provided the samples.ResultsMore than two million high quality DNA sequences were obtained from each sample. Individuals differed greatly in the mix of phylotypes, but different sites from different subgingival depths in the same subject were usually similar. No consistent differences were observed in this small sample between subjects separated by levels of oral health, sex, or age; however a consistently higher level of Fusobacteriaceae and a generally lower level of Prevotellaceae was seen in subjects without dementia, although the difference did not reach statistical significance, possibly because of the small sample size.ConclusionsThe results from this pilot study provide suggestive evidence that alterations in the subgingival microbiome are associated with changes in cognitive function, and provide support for an expanded analysis of the role of the oral microbiome in dementia.

Chmp 1A is a mediator of the anti-proliferative effects of All-trans Retinoic Acid in human pancreatic cancer cells

BackgroundWe recently have shown that Charged multivesicular protein/Chromatin modifying protein1A (Chmp1A) functions as a tumor suppressor in human pancreatic tumor cells. Pancreatic cancer has the worst prognosis of all cancers with a dismal 5-year survival rate. Preclinical studies using ATRA for treating human pancreatic cancer suggest this compound might be useful for treatment of pancreatic cancer patients. However, the molecular mechanism by which ATRA inhibits growth of pancreatic cancer cells is not clear. The objective of our study was to investigate whether Chmp1A is involved in ATRA-mediated growth inhibition of human pancreatic tumor cells.ResultsWe performed microarray studies using HEK 293T cells and discovered that Chmp1A positively regulated Cellular retinol-binding protein 1 (CRBP-1). CRBP-1 is a key regulator of All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) through ATRA metabolism and nuclear localization. Since our microarray data indicates a potential involvement of Chmp1A in ATRA signaling, we tested this hypothesis by treating pancreatic tumor cells with ATRA in vitro. In the ATRA-responsive cell lines, ATRA significantly increased the protein expression of Chmp1A, CRBP-1, P53 and phospho-P53 at serine 15 and 37 position. We found that knockdown of Chmp1A via shRNA abolished the ATRA-mediated growth inhibition of PanC-1 cells. Also, Chmp1A silencing diminished the increase of Chmp1A, P53 and phospho-P53 protein expression induced by ATRA. In the ATRA non-responsive cells, ATRA did not have any effect on the protein level of Chmp1A and P53. Chmp1A over-expression, however, induced growth inhibition of ATRA non-responsive cells, which was accompanied by an increase of Chmp1A, P53 and phospho-P53. Interestingly, in ATRA responsive cells Chmp1A is localized to the nucleus, which became robust upon ATRA treatment. In the ATRA-non-responsive cells, Chmp1A was mainly translocated to the plasma membrane upon ATRA treatment.ConclusionCollectively our data provides evidence that Chmp1A mediates the growth inhibitory activity of ATRA in human pancreatic cancer cells via regulation of CRBP-1. Our results also suggest that nuclear localization of Chmp1A is important in mediating ATRA signaling.

Effect of receptor-selective retinoids on growth and differentiation pathways in mouse melanoma cells

Treatment of B16 mouse melanoma cells with all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) results in inhibition of cell proliferation and induction of differentiation. Accompanying these events is an induction of retinoic acid receptor beta (RARbeta) expression, an increase in protein kinase Calpha (PKCalpha) expression, and enhanced activator protein-1 (AP-1) transcriptional activity. These cells express nuclear RARalpha and RARgamma and nuclear retinoid X receptors (RXR) alpha and beta constitutively. We tested the ability of receptor-selective retinoids to induce the biochemical changes found in ATRA-treated melanoma cells and also tested their effectiveness in decreasing anchorage-dependent and -independent growth. The RXR-selective ligand (2E,4E)-6-(5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-3,5,5,8, 8-pentamethyl-2-naphthalenyl)-3,7-dimethyl-2,4,6-octatrienoic acid (SR11246) was most effective at inhibiting anchorage-dependent growth, whereas the RARgamma-selective ligand 6-[(5,6,7, 8-tetrahydro-5,5,8, 8-tetramethyl-2-naphthalenyl)(hydroxyimino)methyl]-2-naphthalen ecarbo xylic acid (SR11254) was most potent at inhibiting anchorage-independent growth. In contrast, 4-(5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-5,5, 8,8-tetramethyl-2-naphthalenecarboxamido)-benzoic acid (Am580), an RARalpha-selective ligand, was the most effective receptor-selective agonist for inducing RARbeta mRNA and increasing the amount of PKCalpha protein. All of the retinoids induced a concentration-dependent increase in AP-1 transcriptional activity, with little difference in effectiveness among the receptor-selective retinoids. A synergistic increase in the amount of PKCalpha was found when an RAR-selective agonist was combined with an RXR-selective agonist. One possible explanation for this result is that an RXR-RAR heterodimer in which both receptors are liganded is required for maximum expression of this critical component of the ATRA-induced differentiation pathway. Our data suggest that synthetic retinoids can activate different growth and differentiation pathways preferentially in B16 melanoma cells, due, most likely, to their ability to activate a different subset of receptors.

Inhibition of nuclear factor kappa B activation in early-stage chronic lymphocytic leukemia by omega-3 fatty acids.

Targeting the nuclear factor kappa B (NFκB) pathway is proposed as therapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). We hypothesized that an omega-3 fatty acids (n-3) supplement would suppress NFκB activation in lymphocytes of Rai Stage 0–1 CLL patients. The initial dose of 2.4 g n-3/day was gradually increased to 7.2 g n-3/day. After n-3 consumption: 1) plasma n-3 increased; 2) NFκB activation was suppressed in lymphocytes; 3) in vitro sensitivity of lymphocytes to doxorubicin was increased; and 4) expression of 32 genes in lymphocytes was significantly decreased.

Endogenous aryl hydrocarbon receptor promotes basal and inducible expression of tumor necrosis factor target genes in MCF-7 cancer cells.

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) is a ligand-activated transcription factor that upon activation by the toxicant 2,3,7,8 tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) stimulates gene expression and toxicity. AHR is also important for normal mouse physiology and may play a role in cancer progression in the absence of environmental toxicants. The objective of this report was to identify AHR-dependent genes (ADGs) whose expression is regulated by AHR in the absence of toxicants. RNA-Seq analysis revealed that AHR regulated the expression of over 600 genes at an FDR<10% in MCF-7 breast cancer cells upon knockdown with short interfering RNA. Pathway analysis revealed that a significant number of ADGs were components of TCDD and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) pathways. We also demonstrated that siRNA knockdown of AHR modulated TNF induction of MNSOD and cytotoxicity in MCF-7 cells. Collectively, the major new findings of this report are: (1) endogenous AHR promotes the expression of xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes even in the absence of toxicants and drugs, (2) AHR by modulating the basal expression of a large fraction of TNF target genes may prime them for TNF stimulation and (3) AHR is required for TNF induction of MNSOD and the cellular response to cytotoxicity in MCF-7 cells. This latter result provides a potentially new role for AHR in MCF-7 cancer progression as a mediator of TNF and antioxidant responses.

Identification of the Early VIP-Regulated Transcriptome and its Associated Interactome in Resting and Activated Murine CD4 T Cells

More than 40 years after the discovery of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), its transcriptome in the immune system has still not been completely elucidated. In an attempt to understand the biological role of this neuropeptide in immunity, we chose CD4 T cells as a cellular system. Agilent Mouse Whole Genome microarrays were hybridized with fluorescently labeled total RNA isolated from resting CD4 T cells cultured +/-10(-7)M VIP for 5h or PMA/ionomycin activated CD4 T cells cultured +/-10(-7)M VIP for 5h. These VIP-regulated transcriptomes were analyzed by Significance Analysis of Microarrays (SAM) and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) software to identify relevant signaling pathways modulated by VIP in the absence and presence of T cell activation. In resting CD4 T cells, VIP-modulated 368 genes, ranging from 3.49 to -4.78-fold. In the PMA/ionomycin activated CD4 T cells, 326 gene expression levels were changed by VIP, ranging from 2.94 to -1.66-fold. IPA analysis revealed that VIP exposure alters cellular function through EGFR signaling in resting CD4 T cells, and modulates immediate early genes, Fos and CREM/ICER, in activated CD4 T cells. These gene expression changes are suggested to explain at a molecular level how VIP can regulate T cell homing to the gut and induce regulatory T cell generation.

Bone Marrow Osteoblast Damage by Chemotherapeutic Agents

Hematopoietic reconstitution, following bone marrow or stem cell transplantation, requires a microenvironment niche capable of supporting both immature progenitors and stem cells with the capacity to differentiate and expand. Osteoblasts comprise one important component of this niche. We determined that treatment of human primary osteoblasts (HOB) with melphalan or VP-16 resulted in increased phospho-Smad2, consistent with increased TGF-β1 activity. This increase was coincident with reduced HOB capacity to support immature B lineage cell chemotaxis and adherence. The supportive deficit was not limited to committed progenitor cells, as human embryonic stem cells (hESC) or human CD34+ bone marrow cells co-cultured with HOB pre-exposed to melphalan, VP-16 or rTGF-β1 had profiles distinct from the same populations co-cultured with untreated HOB. Functional support deficits were downstream of changes in HOB gene expression profiles following chemotherapy exposure. Melphalan and VP-16 induced damage of HOB suggests vulnerability of this critical niche to therapeutic agents frequently utilized in pre-transplant regimens and suggests that dose escalated chemotherapy may contribute to post-transplantation hematopoietic deficits by damaging structural components of this supportive niche.