The rockefeller university

Several independent groups question the reliability of an antibody-based method that is used to isolate oogonial stem cells from the ovaries of adult humans, nonhuman primates and mice.

Protein noise measurements are increasingly used to elucidate biophysical parameters. Unfortunately noise analyses are often at odds with directly measured parameters. Here we show that these inconsistencies arise from two problematic analytical choices: (i) the assumption that protein translation rate is invariant for different proteins of different abundances, which has inadvertently led to (ii) the assumption that a large constitutive extrinsic noise sets the low noise limit in gene expression. While growing evidence suggests that transcriptional bursting may set the low noise limit, variability in translational bursting has been largely ignored. We show that genome-wide systematic variation in translational efficiency can-and in the case of E. coli does-control the low noise limit in gene expression. Therefore constitutive extrinsic noise is small and only plays a role in the absence of a systematic variation in translational efficiency. These results show the existence of two distinct expression noise patterns: (1) a global noise floor uniformly imposed on all genes by expression bursting; and (2) high noise distributed to only a select group of genes.

MicroRNAs play a crucial role in the regulation of cell growth and differentiation. Mice with genetic deletion of miR-375 exhibit impaired glycemic control due to decreased beta-cell and increased a-cell mass and function. The relative importance of these processes for the overall phenotype of miR375K0 mice is unknown. Here, we show that mice overexpressing miR-375 exhibit noinial beta-cell mass and function. Selective re-expression of miR-375 in beta-cells of miR375K0 mice normalizes both, alpha- and 1 beta-cell phenotypes as well as glucose metabolism. Using this model, we also analyzed the contribution of beta-cells to the total plasma miR-375 levels. Only a small proportion z1 A) of circulating miR-375 originates from beta-cells. Furthermore, acute and profound 3cell destruction is sufficient to detect elevations of miR-375 levels in the blood. These findings are supported by higher miR-375 levels in the circulation of type I diabetes TI D) subjects but not mature onset diabetes of the young MODY) and type 2 diabetes T2D) patients. Together, our data support an essential role for miR-375 in the maintenance of beta-cell mass and provide in vivo evidence for release of miRNAs from pancreatic beta-cells. The small contribution of beta-cells to total plasma miR-375 levels make this miRNA an unlikely biomarker for beta-cell function but suggests a utility for the detection of acute beta-cell death for autoimmune diabetes.

Different dendritic cell (DC) subsets co-exist in humans and coordinate the immune response. Having a short life, DCs must be constantly replenished from their progenitors in the bone marrow through hematopoiesis. Identification of a DC-restricted progenitor in mouse has improved our understanding of how DC lineage diverges from myeloid and lymphoid lineages. However, identification of the DC-restricted progenitor in humans has not been possible because a system that simultaneously nurtures differentiation of human DCs, myeloid and lymphoid cells, is lacking. Here we report a cytokine and stromal cell culture that allows evaluation of CD34(+) progenitor potential to all three DC subsets as well as other myeloid and lymphoid cells, at a single cell level. Using this system, we show that human granulocyte macrophage progenitors are heterogeneous and contain restricted progenitors to DCs. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Constraints on the lifetime and width of the Higgs boson are obtained from H -> ZZ -> 4l events using data recorded by the CMS experiment during the LHC run 1 with an integrated luminosity of 5.1 and 19.7 fb(-1) at a center-of-mass energy of 7 and 8 TeV, respectively. The measurement of the Higgs boson lifetime is derived from its flight distance in the CMS detector with an upper bound of tau(H) < 1.9 x 10(-13) s at the 95% confidence level (C.L.), corresponding to a lower bound on the width of Gamma(H) > 3.5 x 10(-9) MeV. The measurement of the width is obtained from an off-shell production technique, generalized to include anomalous couplings of the Higgs boson to two electroweak bosons. From this measurement, a joint constraint is set on the Higgs boson width and a parameter f(Lambda Q) that expresses an anomalous coupling contribution as an on-shell cross-section fraction. The limit on the Higgs boson width is Gamma(H) < 46 MeV with f(Lambda Q) unconstrained and Gamma(H) < 26 MeV for f(Lambda Q) = 0 at the 95% C.L. The constraint f(Lambda Q) < 3.8 x 10(-3) at the 95% C.L. is obtained for the expected standard model Higgs boson width.

Early diagnosis of cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL) is difficult and takes on average 6 years after presentation, in part because the clinical appearance and histopathology of CTCL can resemble that of benign inflammatory skin diseases. Detection of a malignant T cell clone is critical in making the diagnosis of CTCL, but the T cell receptor g (TCRg) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis in current clinical use detects clones in only a subset of patients. High-throughput TCR sequencing (HTS) detected T cell clones in 46 of 46 CTCL patients, was more sensitive and specific than TCRg PCR, and successfully discriminated CTCL from benign inflammatory diseases. HTS also accurately assessed responses to therapy and facilitated diagnosis of disease recurrence. In patients with new skin lesions and no involvement of blood by flow cytometry, HTS demonstrated hematogenous spread of small numbers of malignant T cells. Analysis of CTCL TCRg genes demonstrated that CTCL is a malignancy derived from mature T cells. There was a maximal T cell density in skin in benign inflammatory diseases that was exceeded in CTCL, suggesting that a niche of finite size may exist for benign T cells in skin. Last, immunostaining demonstrated that the malignant T cell clones in mycosis fungoides and leukemic CTCL localized to different anatomic compartments in the skin. In summary, HTS accurately diagnosed CTCL in all stages, discriminated CTCL from benign inflammatory skin diseases, and provided insights into the cell of origin and location of malignant CTCL cells in skin.

In recent years an extensive effort has been made to elucidate the molecular pathways involved in metabolic signaling in health and disease. Here we show, surprisingly, that metabolic regulation and the heat-shock/stress response are directly linked. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1 alpha (PGC-1 alpha), a critical transcriptional coactivator of metabolic genes, acts as a direct transcriptional repressor of heat-shock factor 1 (HSF1), a key regulator of the heat-shock/stress response. Our findings reveal that heat-shock protein (HSP) gene expression is suppressed during fasting in mouse liver and in primary hepatocytes dependent on PGC-1 alpha. HSF1 and PGC-1 alpha associate physically and are colocalized on several HSP promoters. These observations are extended to several cancer cell lines in which PGC-1 alpha is shown to repress the ability of HSF1 to activate gene-expression programs necessary for cancer survival. Our study reveals a surprising direct link between two major cellular transcriptional networks, highlighting a previously unrecognized facet of the activity of the central metabolic regulator PGC-1 alpha beyond its well-established ability to boost metabolic genes via its interactions with nuclear hormone receptors and nuclear respiratory factors. Our data point to PGC-1 alpha as a critical repressor of HSF1-mediated transcriptional programs, a finding with possible implications both for our understanding of the full scope of metabolically regulated target genes in vivo and, conceivably, for therapeutics.

Neuroinflammation is the response of the central nervous system (CNS) to disturbed homeostasis and typifies all neurological diseases. The main reactive components of the CNS include microglial cells and infiltrating myeloid cells, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and the blood-brain barrier, cytokines, and cytokine signaling. Neuroinflammatory responses may be helpful or harmful, as mechanisms associated with neuroinflammation are involved in normal brain development, as well as in neuropathological processes. This review examines the roles of various cell types that contribute to the immune dysregulation associated with neuroinflammation. Microglia enter the CNS very early in embryonic development and, as such, play an essential role in both the healthy and diseased brain. B-cell diversity contributes to CNS disease through both antibody-dependent and antibody-independent mechanisms. The influences of these B-cell mechanisms on other cell types, including myeloid cells and T cells, are reviewed in relationship to antibody-mediated CNS disorders, paraneoplastic neurological diseases, and multiple sclerosis. New insights into neuroinflammation offer exciting opportunities to investigate potential therapeutic targets for debilitating CNS diseases.

Improved treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD) remains elusive because of the limited understanding of its underlying biological mechanisms. It is likely that stress-induced maladaptive transcriptional regulation in limbic neural circuits contributes to the development of MDD, possibly through epigenetic factors that regulate chromatin structure. We establish that persistent upregulation of the ACF (ATP-utilizing chromatin assembly and remodeling factor) ATP-dependent chromatin-remodeling complex, occurring in the nucleus accumbens of stress-susceptible mice and depressed humans, is necessary for stress-induced depressive-like behaviors. We found that altered ACF binding after chronic stress was correlated with altered nucleosome positioning, particularly around the transcription start sites of affected genes. These alterations in ACF binding and nucleosome positioning were associated with repressed expression of genes implicated in susceptibility to stress. Together, our findings identify the ACF chromatin-remodeling complex as a critical component in the development of susceptibility to depression and in regulating stress-related behaviors.

The CD4 binding site (CD4bs) on the envelope glycoprotein is a major site of vulnerability that is conserved among different HIV-1 isolates. Many broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) to the CD4bs belong to the VRC01 class, sharing highly restricted origins, recognition mechanisms and viral escape pathways. We sought to isolate new anti-CD4bs bNAbs with different origins and mechanisms of action. Using a gp120 2CC core as bait, we isolated antibodies encoded by IGVH3-21 and IGVL3-1 genes with long CDRH3s that depend on the presence of the N-linked glycan at position-276 for activity. This binding mode is similar to the previously identified antibody HJ16, however the new antibodies identified herein are more potent and broad. The most potent variant, 179NC75, had a geometric mean IC80 value of 0.42 mu g/ml against 120 Tier-2 HIV-1 pseudoviruses in the TZM.bl assay. Although this group of CD4bs glycan-dependent antibodies can be broadly and potently neutralizing in vitro, their in vivo activity has not been tested to date. Here, we report that 179NC75 is highly active when administered to HIV-1-infected humanized mice, where it selects for escape variants that lack a glycan site at position-276. The same glycan was absent from the virus isolated from the 179NC75 donor, implying that the antibody also exerts selection pressure in humans.