5. Expression analysis of canonical Wnt pathway genes
5.1 Introduction
In an untiring effort to find a cure to cancer, researchers have tried to understand the underlying molecular mechanism causing cancer. With advances in technology, elaborated works are being done to identify the signaling pathways, molecular mechanisms, genetics and epigenetics that control the development of a normal tissue and aberrant activity of which one of these could possibly cause cancer. Most of these pathways and mechanisms are involved in normal tissue growth and development. What causes a physiologic pathway behave pathological, is yet to be thoroughly understood. One such key pathway that has drawn significant attention of researchers is the Wnt signal
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The present study utilized 29 tumor tissue and 29 matched normal tissue as controls for RNA analysis. Tissues were divided into three parts. The first part was collected in sample collection tubes containing 3 ml of RNA later (RNA stabilization reagent, Sigma, USA). The second part was collected in normal saline for protein analysis. The third major remaining part of the entire specimen was collected in 10% formalin for histopathological confirmation and evaluation for surgical margin clearance. The samples were then transported to the laboratory on gel ice pack and stored appropriately for further analysis.
5.2.3 Sample processing for RNA isolation : Tissues collected in RNA later solution (Sigma, USA) were cut into smaller pieces (~100 mg) and stored in RNA later over night at 4°C for percolation. After 18-24 hours, RNA later solution from the tubes was decanted and tissues were frozen at –20°C.
5.2.3.1Total RNA isolation from tumor tissues : Tissues penetrated with RNA later solution were thawed on ice and the crystals formed were blotted out with sterile tissue paper. To ~100 mg of tissue 1 ml of RNAzol RT and DEPC treated autoclaved Zirconium beads (2 Nos.) were added and homogenized in bead based homogenizer (Tomy Digital Biology, Japan). The homogenizing procedure was carried out in a pulsating manner with 3500 rpm for 30 seconds (3-4 times) with intermediate incubations on ice for 5
If the APC protein were to experience a nonsense mutation, the most common mutation in regards to this specific genetic disease, the destruction complex would not perform correctly and the wnt-signaling pathway would be stimulated. Problems begin to arise when “the Wnt/Beta-catenin pathway is activated [by] a Wnt ligand [binding] to seven-pass transmembrane Frizzled receptor and its co-receptor, low-density lipoprotein related protein 6 (LRP6) or its close relative LRP5” (MacDonald, et. al 2009). Once the wnt-signaling pathway is stimulated, a Wnt-Fz-LRP6 complex forms and takes in the Dishevelled (Dvl) protein, resulting in the phosphorylation and activation of the recruitment of the axin complex, destruction complex, to the receptors. (MacDonald, et al 2009). Due to the phosphorylation within the Wnt-Fz-LRP6 complex, the axin complex is not able to phosphorylate Beta-Catenin, which leads to the excessive accumulation of the protein in the cytoplasm. Researchers witnessed the development of numerous intestinal adenomas in transgenic mice with stabilized mutant Beta-catenin, therefore the results suggest that dysregulation of Beta-catenin is a key oncogenic event that follows the loss of APC function. (Tarapore, et. al 2011). The loss of the destruction complex’s normal activities results in elevated levels of Beta-catenin and downstream effectors such as CCND1,
The research in Dr. Langenfeld’s lab focuses on the genes that regulate lung cancer. The experiment looks closely at the non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) and immortalized bronchial epithelial cells. Careful study of the carcinoma and epithelial cells has revealed that the mRNA of bone morphogenetic proteins 2 and 4 (BMP-2/4) was highly expressed in the carcinoma. Past studies have shown that BMP-2/4 have certain properties that allow them to activate the differentiation, growth, and migration of cancerous cells in the embryo. After studying these morphogens in lung carcinoma is was revealed that the BMP-2, in its mature state, is significantly more expressed in NSCLC than BMP-4 in cancerous lung tissue, but did not show much effect in normal lung tissue or benign lung tumors. The BMP-2 that was exposed in vitro to the A549 and H7249 human lung cancer lines stimulated significant migration and invasiveness. In vivo trials showed that the growth of tumors of A549 cells in nude mice was highly enhanced. Tumor growth in NSCLC was attempted to be reduced with recombinant through the exposure to noggin or the anti-BMP-2 antibody. Results showed a significant reduction in the tumor growth[1].
RNA Isolation: First we will extract the total RNA from CML and MLL cell lines using 10 mLTrizol reagent (Invitrogen) according to the manufacturer's recommendations.
Total RNA was extracted from PBMCs using Direct-zol™ RNA MiniPrep supplied by (Zymo Research, U.S.A.) [17] (Zhang et al., 2013) according to the manufacturer's instructions. Nanodrop 2000 (Thermofisher scientific, USA) was used for assessment of purity and concentration of the extracted RNA. Extracted RNA was then stored at -80°C for further processing.
Interest in cancer has grown recently as it has been one of the most fatal causes of death yet; there has only recently been an advance in the understanding the cellular basis of cancer. Due to today’s understanding of cancer it has been acknowledges that the disease disregards the rules of normal cell division, as a group of abnormal cells grow uncontrollably. Cancer is described as being the unnecessary development of cells within the body. Individual’s genetic tendency contains a significant role in the cancerous growths, as the genetic information of an individual can’t be controlled. In order to understand the cellular basis of cancerous cells and there difference between normal cells, there are certain aspects in which need to be addressed that being; DNA replication and translation, oncogenes and protogenes, tumor suppression genes, how tumour cells work, apoptosis and cell death, blood vessel growth (angiogenesis) and metastasis.
DNA isolation is a process of DNA purification through physical and chemical means. DNA was protected within the nuclear membrane of B. rapa, which was surrounded by a cell membrane and cell wall. Mechanical and chemical lysis of the cell was necessary to break open the cells and solubilize the membranes to isolate the DNA. Mechanical lysis, which consisted of grinding the leaves with a pestle, broke down the cell wall. Chemical lysis, through the use of lysis solution, broke down the lipid-base membranes. The lysate was placed inside the Zymo-spin IV spin filter to remove chunks of debris from the solubilized cell components. A binding buffer was added to the collection tube that held DNA,
The iScript reverse transcription supermix kit for RT-qPCR (Bio-Rad) was used for cDNA synthesis. Master mix was prepared on ice by adding 4 µl 5x RT supermix (iScript RNase H+ MMLV reverse transcriptase, RNase inhibitor, dNTPs, oligo(dT), random primers, buffer, MgCl2, and stabilizers) and 8 µl nuclease-free water for a single reaction. RNA sample was vortexed and 8 µl was added to each PCR tube. Master mix was thoroughly mixed and 16 µl of master mix was added to each PCR tube. PCR tubes containing 20 µl reaction mix were placed in a thermal cycler and reaction protocol was set as follows: Priming for 5 minutes at 25oC, reverse transcription for 30 minutes at 42oC, reverse transcriptase for 5 minutes at 85oC, and hold for a ∞ time at 4oC.
The cells were harvested, centrifuged at 250 x g for 10 min. Slides were prepared by centrifuging the cells using a Cytospin (Thermo Shandon, U.K). 250 μl of cell suspension was loaded in each block of cyto-funnel and centrifuged at 250 x g for 8 min. Two slides (two dots on one slide from each replicate culture) were prepared for each concentration. The slides were air dried, fixed in chilled methanol (90%) for 5 min, and stored at room temperature until stained (Figure 2.15).
Through the use of plasmid removal and cloning, bone marrow cell culture, localization microscopy, and analysis of
Gel purification allows us to isolate and purify DNA fragments based on size. The DNA bands from the agarose gel are cut out and purified using some procedure. The band was extracted by using the QIAgen gel extraction protocol. The DNA bands after purification for CD01 and CD02 were shown in Figure 4.3. This steps also considered to be vital components in molecular biology technique as it can help determine the success or failure of the downstream
Wnt3a is highly expressed in human scirrhous gastric carcinoma 44As3 cells with highly metastatic derivatives, advanced prostate cancer cells, and activating transcription factor (ATF3)-induced mammary tumors. Wnt3a expression is higher in oral squamous cell carcinoma compared with control non-malignant tissues (He et al, 2015). A study reports that the canonical Wnt signaling pathway and DPAGT1 function in a positive feedback loop. Previously, they have shown that both β catenin and γ- catenins bind to the DPGAT1 promoter and hence DPAGT1 was a target of the canonical Wnt signaling pathway (Sengupta et al, 2010). Two cell lines and five OSCC tissue samples with paired adjacent normal epithelia were analysed. The OSCC tissues over expressed DPGAT1 three to four fold when compared to normal tissues with β and γ- catenins bound to the DPGAT1 promoter. There was an increased expression of Wnt 3 and decreased expression of Dkk 1, with down regulation of E cadherin and activation of a positive feedback loop between Wnt signaling and DPGAT1(Jamal et al, 2012).
Genetic material is the same in all cells of the body but differ in which genes are active; hence the products been made differ. The use of mRNA as a means of isolating the gene therefore narrows down this problem. Messenger RNA extracted can be incubated with an enzyme reverse transcriptase which catalyses the conversion of mRNA to DNA.
The fragments were amplified using Phusion High-Fidelity DNA polymerase with standard reaction conditions and either genomic or plasmid templates. All fragments shown on the gel are of the expected size indicating the correct fragment has been amplified. The expected sizes are indicated on the gel with mCherry 737 bp, TtrpC 589 bp, noxA 1976 bp, mssD 3097 bp and PgpdA 2338 bp. After gel extraction and purification mCherry was shown to be of very low concentration 13.5 ng/L by the nanodrop. This was not sufficient for successful Gibson assembly of the plasmid. The other fragments had sufficient amplification with TtrpC containing 82.3 ng/L, noxA containing 51.2 ng/L and PgpdA containing 160.1 ng/L. From the initial PCR protocol mssD was not
Once incubation is complete the viral DNA plasmid will be extracted from the cultures using a mini-prep protocol as follows. Cells will be washed twice with PBS and lysed in lysis solution (20 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0), 100 mM NaCl, 10 mM EDTA, and 0.2% SDS) for total genomic DNA extraction. The cell lysates will treated overnight with proteinase K (0.2 μg/ml), extracted with phenol-chloroform and precipitated with 2 volumes of 96% ethanol. DNA pellets will be dissolved in TE buffer containing 20 μg/ml RNase A and incubated for 1 hour at 37°C. The DNA will
Quantitative RT-PCR results show that expression levels of miR-206 are obviously lower in TNBC cell lines than those in non-TNBC cell lines (Fig. 1A). Similarly, TNBC tissues express prominently lower levels of miR-206 compared to non-TNBC tissue samples and normal breast tissues (Fig. 1B). It is worth noting that non-TNBC tissues expressed lower miR-206 compared to normal breast tissues but miR-206 levels in non-TNBC tissues were higher than those in TNBC tissues (Fig. 1B). Furthermore, we analyzed the expression levels of VEGF protein determined by immunohistochemical staining in breast cancer tissue samples. VEGF expression levels were inversely correlated with those of miR-206 in breast cancer tissues (Fig. 1C). These results demonstrate that expression levels of miR-206 are predominantly downregulated in TNBC tissues in comparison to non-TNBC tissues and normal breast tissue samples inversely correlated with the levels of VEGF.