Cardiomyocyte overexpression of miR-27b induces cardiac hypertrophy and dysfunction in mice

Recent studies have begun to reveal critical roles of microRNAs (miRNAs) in the pathogenesis of cardiac hypertrophy and dysfunction. In this study, we tested whether a transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β)-regulated miRNA played a pivotal role in the development of cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure (HF). We observed that miR-27b was upregulated in hearts of cardiomyocyte-specific Smad4 knockout mice, which developed cardiac hypertrophy. In vitro experiments showed that the miR-27b expression could be inhibited by TGF-β1 and that its overexpression promoted hypertrophic cell growth, while the miR-27b suppression led to inhibition of the hypertrophic cell growth caused by phenylephrine (PE) treatment. Furthermore, the analysis of transgenic mice with cardiomyocyte-specific overexpression of miR-27b revealed that miR-27b overexpression was sufficient to induce cardiac hypertrophy and dysfunction. We validated the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPAR-γ) as a direct target of miR-27b in cardiomyocyte. Consistently, the miR-27b transgenic mice displayed significantly lower levels of PPAR-γ than the control mice. Furthermore, in vivo silencing of miR-27b using a specific antagomir in a pressure-overload-induced mouse model of HF increased cardiac PPAR-γ expression, attenuated cardiac hypertrophy and dysfunction. The results of our study demonstrate that TGF-β1-regulated miR-27b is involved in the regulation of cardiac hypertrophy, and validate miR-27b as an efficient therapeutic target for cardiac diseases

Generation of NERCe003-A-3, a p53 compound heterozygous mutation human embryonic stem cell line, by CRISPR/Cas9 editing

p53 is a tumor suppressor gene involved mainly in the regulation of the G1/S cell cycle phase, DNA repair, and senescence. Although p53 is frequently altered in human cancer, the consequences of its depletion in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are unknown. We generated NERCe003-A-3, a p53 knockout hESC line, from the normal NERCe003-A hESC line by using CRISPR/Cas9 editing. This cell line maintained a normal 46, XY karyotype. Further analysis suggested that the cells expressed pluripotency-related markers and had the capacity to differentiate in vitro into derivatives of all three germ layers

Genetic polymorphism of 29 STR loci in the Hunan Han population from China

Genetic polymorphism of 29 STR loci in the Hunan Han population from Chin

Image3_The application of short and highly polymorphic microhaplotype loci in paternity testing and sibling testing of temperature-dependent degraded samples.PNG

Paternity testing and sibling testing become more complex and difficult when samples degrade. But the commonly used genetic markers (STR and SNP) cannot completely solve this problem due to some disadvantages. The novel genetic marker microhaplotype proposed by Kidd’s research group combines the advantages of STR and SNP and is expected to become a promising genetic marker for kinship testing in degraded samples. Therefore, in this study, we intended to select an appropriate number of highly polymorphic SNP-based microhaplotype loci, detect them by the next-generation sequencing technology, analyze their ability to detect degraded samples, calculate their forensic parameters based on the collected 96 unrelated individuals, and evaluate their effectiveness in paternity testing and sibling testing by simulating kinship relationship pairs, which were also compared to 15 STR loci. Finally, a short and highly polymorphic microhaplotype panel was developed, containing 36 highly polymorphic SNP-based microhaplotype loci with lengths smaller than 100 bp and Ae greater than 3.00, of which 29 microhaplotype loci could not reject the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and linkage equilibrium after the Bonferroni correction. The CPD and CPE of these 29 microhaplotype loci were 1-2.96E-26 and 1-5.45E-09, respectively. No allele dropout was observed in degraded samples incubated with 100°C hot water for 40min and 60min. According to the simulated kinship analysis, the effectiveness at the threshold of 4/−4 reached 98.39% for relationship parent-child vs. unrelated individuals, and the effectiveness at the threshold of 2/−2 for relationship full-sibling vs. unrelated individuals was 93.01%, which was greater than that of 15 STR loci (86.75% for relationship parent-child vs. unrelated individuals and 81.73% for relationship full-sibling vs. unrelated individuals). After combining our 29 microhaplotype loci with other 50 short and highly polymorphic microhaplotype loci, the effectiveness values at the threshold of 2/−2 were 82.42% and 90.89% for relationship half-sibling vs. unrelated individuals and full-sibling vs. half-sibling. The short and highly polymorphic microhaplotype panel we developed may be very useful for paternity testing and full sibling testing in degraded samples, and in combination with short and highly polymorphic microhaplotype loci reported by other researchers, may be helpful to analyze more distant kinship relationships.</p

Revisiting the male genetic landscape of China: a multi-center study of almost 38,000 Y-STR haplotypes

China has repeatedly been the subject of genetic studies to elucidate its prehistoric and historic demography. While some studies reported a genetic distinction between Northern and Southern Han Chinese, others showed a more clinal picture of small differences within China. Here, we investigated the distribution of Y chromosome variation along administrative as well as ethnic divisions in the mainland territory of the People's Republic of China, including 28 administrative regions and 19 recognized Chinese nationalities, to assess the impact of recent demographic processes. To this end, we analyzed 37,994 Y chromosomal 17-marker haplotype profiles from the YHRD database with respect to forensic diversity measures and genetic distance between groups defined by administrative boundaries and ethnic origin. We observed high diversity throughout all Chinese provinces and ethnicities. Some ethnicities, including most prominently Kazakhs and Tibetans, showed significant genetic differentiation from the Han and other groups. However, differences between provinces were, except for those located on the Tibetan plateau, less pronounced. This discrepancy is explicable by the sizeable presence of Han speakers, who showed high genetic homogeneity all across China, in nearly all studied provinces. Furthermore, we observed a continuous genetic North-South gradient in the Han, confirming previous reports of a clinal distribution of Y chromosome variation and being in notable concordance with the previously observed spatial distribution of autosomal variation. Our findings shed light on the demographic changes in China accrued by a fast-growing and increasingly mobile population