Altered Trophoblast Proliferation is Insufficient to Account for Placental Dysfunction in Egfr Null Embryos

Homozygosity for the Egfrtm1Mag null allele in mice leads to genetic background dependent placental abnormalities and embryonic lethality. Molecular mechanisms or genetic modifiers that differentiate strains with surviving versus non-surviving Egfr nullizygous embryos have yet to be identified. Egfr transcripts in wildtype placenta was quantified by ribonuclease protection assay (RPA) and the lowest level of Egfr mRNA expression was found to coincide with Egfrtm1Mag homozygous lethality. Immunohistochemical analysis of ERBB family receptors, ERBB2, ERBB3, and ERBB4, showed similar expression between Egfr wildtype and null placentas indicating that Egfr null trophoblast do not up-regulate these receptors to compensate for EGFR deficiency. Significantly fewer numbers of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) positive trophoblast were observed in Egfr nullizygous placentas and Cdc25a and Myc, genes associated with proliferation, were significantly down-regulated in null placentas. However, strains with both mild and severe placental phenotypes exhibit reduced proliferation suggesting that this defect alone does not account for strain-specific embryonic lethality. Consistent with this hypothesis, intercrosses generating mice null for cell cycle checkpoint genes (Trp53, Rb1, Cdkn1a, Cdkn1b or Cdkn2c) in combination with Egfr deficiency did not increase survival of Egfr nullizygous embryos. Since complete development of the spongiotrophoblast compartment is not required for survival of Egfr nullizygous embryos, reduction of this layer that is commonly observed in Egfr nullizygous placentas likely accounts for the decrease in proliferation

Loss of receptor activity-modifying protein 3 exacerbates cardiac hypertrophy and transition to heart failure in a sex-dependent manner

Sex differences exist in the hypertrophic response, cardiac remodeling, and transition to heart failure of hypertensive patients, and while some of these differences are likely influenced by estrogen, the genetic pathways downstream of estrogen that impact on cardioprotection have yet to be fully elucidated. We have previously shown that the cardioprotective effects of adrenomedullin (AM), an emerging clinical biomarker for cardiovascular disease severity, vary with sex in mouse models. AM signaling during cardiovascular stress is strongly modulated by receptor activity-modifying protein 3 (RAMP3) via its interaction with the G protein-coupled receptor calcitonin receptor-like receptor (CLR). Like AM, RAMP3 expression is potently regulated by estrogen, and so we sought to determine the consequences of genetic Ramp3 loss on cardiac adaptation to chronic hypertension, with a particular focus on characterizing potential sex differences. We generated and bred RAMP3−/− mice to RenTgMK mice that consistently display severe angiotensin II-mediated CV disease and compared CV disease progression in RenTgMK to that of RenTgMK:RAMP3−/− offspring. As expected, RAMP3 gene expression was higher in cardiovascular tissues of RenTgMK mice and more strongly up-regulated in female RenTgMK mice relative to wildtype controls. RAMP3 loss did not affect the development of hypertension or the presence and severity of perivascular and interstitial fibrosis in the left ventricle (LV). However, echocardiography revealed that while RenTgMK mice developed concentric cardiac hypertrophy with sustained systolic function, male RenTgMK:RAMP3−/− mice showed evidence of LV chamber dilatation and depressed systolic function, suggestive of cardiac decompensation. Consistent with these measures of heart failure, male RenTgMK:RAMP3−/− mice had increased cardiac apoptosis and elevated activation of Akt. These phenotypes were not present in female RenTgMK:RAMP3−/− mice. Collectively, these data demonstrate a sex-dependant, cardioprotective role of RAMP3 in the setting of chronic hypertension

The role of ubiquitination and hepatocyte growth factor-regulated tyrosine kinase substrate in the degradation of the adrenomedullin type I receptor

Calcitonin receptor-like receptor (CLR) and the receptor activity-modifying protein 2 (RAMP2) comprise a receptor for adrenomedullin (AM). Although it is known that AM induces internalization of CLR•RAMP2, little is known about the molecular mechanisms that regulate the trafficking of CLR•RAMP2. Using HEK and HMEC-1 cells, we observed that AM-induced activation of CLR•RAMP2 promoted ubiquitination of CLR. A mutant (CLRΔ9KR), lacking all intracellular lysine residues was functional and trafficked similar to the wild-type receptor, but was not ubiquitinated. Degradation of CLR•RAMP2 and CLRΔ9KR•RAMP2 was not dependent on the duration of AM stimulation or ubiquitination and occurred via a mechanism that was partially prevented by peptidase inhibitors. Degradation of CLR•RAMP2 was sensitive to overexpression of hepatocyte growth factor-regulated tyrosine kinase substrate (HRS), but not to HRS knockdown, whereas CLRΔ9KR•RAMP2 degradation was unaffected. Overexpression, but not knockdown of HRS, promoted hyperubiquitination of CLR under basal conditions. Thus, we propose a role for ubiquitin and HRS in the regulation of AM-induced degradation of CLR•RAMP2

A genome-wide association study of anorexia nervosa.

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a complex and heritable eating disorder characterized by dangerously low body weight. Neither candidate gene studies nor an initial genome-wide association study (GWAS) have yielded significant and replicated results. We performed a GWAS in 2907 cases with AN from 14 countries (15 sites) and 14 860 ancestrally matched controls as part of the Genetic Consortium for AN (GCAN) and the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 3 (WTCCC3). Individual association analyses were conducted in each stratum and meta-analyzed across all 15 discovery data sets. Seventy-six (72 independent) single nucleotide polymorphisms were taken forward for in silico (two data sets) or de novo (13 data sets) replication genotyping in 2677 independent AN cases and 8629 European ancestry controls along with 458 AN cases and 421 controls from Japan. The final global meta-analysis across discovery and replication data sets comprised 5551 AN cases and 21 080 controls. AN subtype analyses (1606 AN restricting; 1445 AN binge-purge) were performed. No findings reached genome-wide significance. Two intronic variants were suggestively associated: rs9839776 (P=3.01 × 10(-7)) in SOX2OT and rs17030795 (P=5.84 × 10(-6)) in PPP3CA. Two additional signals were specific to Europeans: rs1523921 (P=5.76 × 10(-)(6)) between CUL3 and FAM124B and rs1886797 (P=8.05 × 10(-)(6)) near SPATA13. Comparing discovery with replication results, 76% of the effects were in the same direction, an observation highly unlikely to be due to chance (P=4 × 10(-6)), strongly suggesting that true findings exist but our sample, the largest yet reported, was underpowered for their detection. The accrual of large genotyped AN case-control samples should be an immediate priority for the field

A genome-wide association study of anorexia nervosa

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a complex and heritable eating disorder characterized by dangerously low body weight. Neither candidate gene studies nor an initial genome wide association study (GWAS) have yielded significant and replicated results. We performed a GWAS in 2,907 cases with AN from 14 countries (15 sites) and 14,860 ancestrally matched controls as part of the Genetic Consortium for AN (GCAN) and the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 3 (WTCCC3). Individual association analyses were conducted in each stratum and meta-analyzed across all 15 discovery datasets. Seventy-six (72 independent) SNPs were taken forward for in silico (two datasets) or de novo (13 datasets) replication genotyping in 2,677 independent AN cases and 8,629 European ancestry controls along with 458 AN cases and 421 controls from Japan. The final global meta-analysis across discovery and replication datasets comprised 5,551 AN cases and 21,080 controls. AN subtype analyses (1,606 AN restricting; 1,445 AN binge-purge) were performed. No findings reached genome-wide significance. Two intronic variants were suggestively associated: rs9839776 (P=3.01×10−7) in SOX2OT and rs17030795 (P=5.84×10−6) in PPP3CA. Two additional signals were specific to Europeans: rs1523921 (P=5.76×10−6) between CUL3 and FAM124B and rs1886797 (P=8.05×10−6) near SPATA13. Comparing discovery to replication results, 76% of the effects were in the same direction, an observation highly unlikely to be due to chance (P= 4×10−6), strongly suggesting that true findings exist but that our sample, the largest yet reported, was underpowered for their detection. The accrual of large genotyped AN case-control samples should be an immediate priority for the field

Adrenomedullin and tumour microenvironment

Adrenomedullin (AM) is a regulatory peptide whose involvement in tumour progression is becoming more relevant with recent studies. AM is produced and secreted by the tumour cells but also by numerous stromal cells including macrophages, mast cells, endothelial cells, and vascular smooth muscle cells. Most cancer patients present high levels of circulating AM and in some cases these higher levels correlate with a worst prognosis. In some cases it has been shown that the high AM levels return to normal following surgical removal of the tumour, thus indicating the tumour as the source of this excessive production of AM. Expression of this peptide is a good investment for the tumour cell since AM acts as an autocrine/paracrine growth factor, prevents apoptosis-mediated cell death, increases tumour cell motility and metastasis, induces angiogenesis, and blocks immunosurveillance by inhibiting the immune system. In addition, AM expression gets rapidly activated by hypoxia through a HIF-1α mediated mechanism, thus characterizing AM as a major survival factor for tumour cells. Accordingly, a number of studies have shown that inhibition of this peptide or its receptors results in a significant reduction in tumour progression. In conclusion, AM is a great target for drug development and new drugs interfering with this system are being developed

A common biological basis of obesity and nicotine addiction

J. Kaprio ja J. Tuomilehto työryhmien jäseniä (yht. 281).Peer reviewe

Mining the human phenome using allelic scores that index biological intermediates

J. Kaprio ja M-L. Lokki työryhmien jäseniä.It is common practice in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to focus on the relationship between disease risk and genetic variants one marker at a time. When relevant genes are identified it is often possible to implicate biological intermediates and pathways likely to be involved in disease aetiology. However, single genetic variants typically explain small amounts of disease risk. Our idea is to construct allelic scores that explain greater proportions of the variance in biological intermediates, and subsequently use these scores to data mine GWAS. To investigate the approach's properties, we indexed three biological intermediates where the results of large GWAS meta-analyses were available: body mass index, C-reactive protein and low density lipoprotein levels. We generated allelic scores in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, and in publicly available data from the first Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium. We compared the explanatory ability of allelic scores in terms of their capacity to proxy for the intermediate of interest, and the extent to which they associated with disease. We found that allelic scores derived from known variants and allelic scores derived from hundreds of thousands of genetic markers explained significant portions of the variance in biological intermediates of interest, and many of these scores showed expected correlations with disease. Genome-wide allelic scores however tended to lack specificity suggesting that they should be used with caution and perhaps only to proxy biological intermediates for which there are no known individual variants. Power calculations confirm the feasibility of extending our strategy to the analysis of tens of thousands of molecular phenotypes in large genome-wide meta-analyses. We conclude that our method represents a simple way in which potentially tens of thousands of molecular phenotypes could be screened for causal relationships with disease without having to expensively measure these variables in individual disease collections.Peer reviewe

Loss of receptor activity-modifying protein 3 exacerbates cardiac hypertrophy and transition to heart failure in a sex-dependent manner

Sex differences exist in the hypertrophic response, cardiac remodeling, and transition to heart failure of hypertensive patients, and while some of these differences are likely influenced by estrogen, the genetic pathways downstream of estrogen that impact on cardioprotection have yet to be fully elucidated. We have previously shown that the cardioprotective effects of adrenomedullin (AM), an emerging clinical biomarker for cardiovascular disease severity, vary with sex in mouse models. AM signaling during cardiovascular stress is strongly modulated by receptor activity-modifying protein 3 (RAMP3) via its interaction with the G protein-coupled receptor calcitonin receptor-like receptor (CLR). Like AM, RAMP3 expression is potently regulated by estrogen, and so we sought to determine the consequences of genetic Ramp3 loss on cardiac adaptation to chronic hypertension, with a particular focus on characterizing potential sex differences. We generated and bred RAMP3(−/−) mice to RenTgMK mice that consistently display severe angiotensin II-mediated CV disease and compared CV disease progression in RenTgMK to that of RenTgMK:RAMP3(−/−) offspring. As expected, RAMP3 gene expression was higher in cardiovascular tissues of RenTgMK mice and more strongly up-regulated in female RenTgMK mice relative to wildtype controls. RAMP3 loss did not affect the development of hypertension or the presence and severity of perivascular and interstitial fibrosis in the left ventricle (LV). However, echocardiography revealed that while RenTgMK mice developed concentric cardiac hypertrophy with sustained systolic function, male RenTgMK:RAMP3(−/−) mice showed evidence of LV chamber dilatation and depressed systolic function, suggestive of cardiac decompensation. Consistent with these measures of heart failure, male RenTgMK:RAMP3(−/−) mice had increased cardiac apoptosis and elevated activation of Akt. These phenotypes were not present in female RenTgMK:RAMP3(−/−) mice. Collectively, these data demonstrate a sex-dependant, cardioprotective role of RAMP3 in the setting of chronic hypertension