Global reorganization of the nuclear landscape in senescent cells.

Cellular senescence has been implicated in tumor suppression, development, and aging and is accompanied by large-scale chromatin rearrangements, forming senescence-associated heterochromatic foci (SAHF). However, how the chromatin is reorganized during SAHF formation is poorly understood. Furthermore, heterochromatin formation in senescence appears to contrast with loss of heterochromatin in Hutchinson-Gilford progeria. We mapped architectural changes in genome organization in cellular senescence using Hi-C. Unexpectedly, we find a dramatic sequence- and lamin-dependent loss of local interactions in heterochromatin. This change in local connectivity resolves the paradox of opposing chromatin changes in senescence and progeria. In addition, we observe a senescence-specific spatial clustering of heterochromatic regions, suggesting a unique second step required for SAHF formation. Comparison of embryonic stem cells (ESCs), somatic cells, and senescent cells shows a unidirectional loss in local chromatin connectivity, suggesting that senescence is an endpoint of the continuous nuclear remodelling process during differentiation

Genetic determinants of ulcerative colitis include the ECM1 locus and five loci implicated in Crohn's disease.

We report results of a nonsynonymous SNP scan for ulcerative colitis and identify a previously unknown susceptibility locus at ECM1. We also show that several risk loci are common to ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease (IL23R, IL12B, HLA, NKX2-3 and MST1), whereas autophagy genes ATG16L1 and IRGM, along with NOD2 (also known as CARD15), are specific for Crohn's disease. These data provide the first detailed illustration of the genetic relationship between these common inflammatory bowel diseases

Transcriptomics and methylomics of CD4-positive T cells in arsenic-exposed women

Arsenic, a carcinogen with immunotoxic effects, is a common contaminant of drinking water and certain food worldwide. We hypothesized that chronic arsenic exposure alters gene expression, potentially by altering DNA methylation of genes encoding central components of the immune system. We therefore analyzed the transcriptomes (by RNA sequencing) and methylomes (by target-enrichment next-generation sequencing) of primary CD4-positive T cells from matched groups of four women each in the Argentinean Andes, with fivefold differences in urinary arsenic concentrations (median concentrations of urinary arsenic in the lower- and high-arsenic groups: 65 and 276 μg/l, respectively). Arsenic exposure was associated with genome-wide alterations of gene expression; principal component analysis indicated that the exposure explained 53% of the variance in gene expression among the top variable genes and 19% of 28,351 genes were differentially expressed (false discovery rate 80% methylation) than the lower-arsenic group. Differentially methylated regions that were hyper-methylated in the high-arsenic group showed enrichment for immune-related gene ontologies that constitute the basic functions of CD4-positive T cells, such as isotype switching and lymphocyte activation and differentiation. In conclusion, chronic arsenic exposure from drinking water was related to changes in the transcriptome and methylome of CD4-positive T cells, both genome wide and in specific genes, supporting the hypothesis that arsenic causes immunotoxicity by interfering with gene expression and regulation