Identification of valid housekeeping genes for quantitative RT-PCR analysis of cardiosphere-derived cells preconditioned under hypoxia or with prolyl-4-hydroxylase inhibitors

Infarction irreversibly damages the heart, with formation of an akinetic scar that may lead to heart failure. Endogenous cardiac stem cells (CSCs) are a promising candidate cell source for restoring lost tissue and thereby preventing heart failure. CSCs may be isolated in vitro, via the formation of cardiospheres, to give cardiosphere-derived cells (CDCs). Although qRT-PCR analyses of CDCs have been performed, no justification for the selection of the housekeeping gene has been published. Here, we evaluated the most suitable housekeeping gene for RNA expression analysis in CDCs cultured under normoxia, hypoxia or with prolyl-4-hydroxylase inhibitors (PHDIs), from both neonatal and adult rats, to determine the effects of ageing and different culture conditions on the stability of the housekeeping gene for CDCs. Six candidate housekeeping genes, [glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), beta-actin (Actb), hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase 1 (HPRT-1), beta-2-microtubulin (β2M), 60S acidic ribosomal protein large P1 (RPLP-1) and TATA box binding protein (Tbp)] were evaluated in this study. Analysis using geNorm and NormFinder revealed that GAPDH was the most constant housekeeping gene among all genes tested under normoxia for both neonatal and adult CDCs, whereas Actb was the most stable housekeeping gene under hypoxia. For the PHDI-treated CDCs, overall, GADPH, Actb and β2M were more consistently expressed, whereas HPRT-1, RPLP-1 and Tbp showed unstable expression. The ranking for β2M, HPRT-1 and RPLP-1 stability was different for neonatal and adult cells, indicating that expression of these genes was age-dependent. Lastly, independent of age or culture conditions, Tbp was the least stable housekeeping gene. In conclusion, a combination of Actb and GADPH gave the most reliable normalization for comparative analyses of gene transcription in neonatal and adult rat CDCs preconditioned by hypoxia or PHDIs

Regulatory (pan-)genome of an obligate intracellular pathogen in the PVC superphylum.

Like other obligate intracellular bacteria, the Chlamydiae feature a compact regulatory genome that remains uncharted owing to poor genetic tractability. Exploiting the reduced number of transcription factors (TFs) encoded in the chlamydial (pan-)genome as a model for TF control supporting the intracellular lifestyle, we determined the conserved landscape of TF specificities by ChIP-Seq (chromatin immunoprecipitation-sequencing) in the chlamydial pathogen Waddlia chondrophila. Among 10 conserved TFs, Euo emerged as a master TF targeting >100 promoters through conserved residues in a DNA excisionase-like winged helix-turn-helix-like (wHTH) fold. Minimal target (Euo) boxes were found in conserved developmentally-regulated genes governing vertical genome transmission (cytokinesis and DNA replication) and genome plasticity (transposases). Our ChIP-Seq analysis with intracellular bacteria not only reveals that global TF regulation is maintained in the reduced regulatory genomes of Chlamydiae, but also predicts that master TFs interpret genomic information in the obligate intracellular α-proteobacteria, including the rickettsiae, from which modern day mitochondria evolved

Evaluation of aspirin metabolites as inhibitors of hypoxia-inducible factor hydroxylases.

Known and potential aspirin metabolites were evaluated as inhibitors of oxygen-sensing hypoxia-inducible transcription factor (HIF) hydroxylases; some of the metabolites were found to stabilise HIF-alpha in cells