Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘microenvironment’

3D Imaging of Cancer Cells

Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Curator

LPBI

 

3D Imaging of Cancer Cells Could Lead to Improved Ability of Pathologists and Radiologists to Plan Cancer Treatments and Monitor Cell Interactions

Dark Daily Apr 8th 2016        Jon Stone

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3d-imaging-cancer-cells-could-lead-improved-ability-plan-joseph-colao

 

3D Imaging of Cancer Cells Could Lead to Improved Ability of Pathologists and Radiologists to Plan Cancer Treatments and Monitor Cell Interactions.

New technology from researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center enables the ability to study cancer cells in their native microenvironments.

Imaging research is one step closer to giving clinicians a way to do high-resolution scans of malignant cells in order to diagnose cancer and help identify useful therapies. If this technology were to prove successful in clinical studies, it might change how anatomic pathologists and radiologists diagnose and treat cancer.

Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center developed a way to create near-isotropic, high-resolution scans of cells within their microenvironments. The process involves utilizing a combination of two-photonBessel beams and specialized filtering.

New Imaging Approach Could be Useful to Both Pathologists and Radiologists

In a recent press release, senior author Reto Fiolka, PhD, said “there is clear evidence that the environment strongly affects cellular behavior—thus, the value of cell culture experiments on glass must at least be questioned. Our microscope is one tool that may bring us a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms that drive cancer cell behavior, since it enables high-resolution imaging in more realistic tumor.”

In a study in Developmental Cell, Erik S. Welf, PhD, et al, described the new microenvironmental selective plane illumination microscopy (meSPIM). When developing the technology, the team outlined three goals:

1. The microscope design must not prohibitively constrain microenvironmental properties.

2. Spatial and temporal resolution must match the cellular features of interest.

3. Spatial resolution must be isotropic to avoid spatial bias in quantitative measurements.

This new technology offers pathologists and medical laboratory scientists a new look at cancer cells and other diseases. The study notes that meSPIM eliminates the influence of stiff barriers, such as glass slide covers, while also allowing a level of control over both mechanical and chemical influences that was previously impossible.

Early meSPIM Research Reveals New Cell Behaviors

Early use of meSPIM in observing melanoma cells is already offering new insights into the relationship between the cell behavior of cellular- and subcellular-scale mechanisms and the microenvironment in which these cells exist. The study notes, “The ability to image fine cellular details in controllable microenvironments revealed morphodynamic features not commonly observed in the narrow range of mechanical environments usually studied in vitro.”

One such difference is the appearance of blebbing. Created by melanoma cells and lines, these small protrusions are thought to aid in cell mobility and survival. Using meSPIM, observers could follow the blebbing process in real-time. Formation of blebs on slides and within an extracellular matrix (ECM) showed significant differences in both formation and manipulation of the surrounding microenvironment.

The team is also using meSPIM to take a look at membrane-associated biosensor and cytosolic biosensor signals in 3D. They hope that investigation of proteins such as phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) and protein kinase C will help to further clarify the roles these signals play in reorientation of fibroblasts.

meSPIM combined with computer vision enables imaging, visualization, and quantification of how cells alter collagen fibers over large distances within an image volume measuring 100 mm on each side. (Photo Copyright: Welf and Driscoll et al.)

The research team believes this opens new possibilities for studying diseases at a subcellular level, saying, “Cell biology is necessarily restricted to studying what we can measure. Accordingly, while the last hundred years have yielded incredible insight into cellular processes, unfortunately most of these studies have involved cells plated onto flat, stiff surfaces that are drastically different from the in vivo microenvironment …

“Here, we introduce an imaging platform that enables detailed subcellular observations without compromising microenvironmental control and thus should open a window for addressing these fundamental questions of cell biology.”

Limitations of meSPIM

One significant issue associated with the use of meSPIM is the need to process the large quantity of data into useful information. Algorithms currently allow for automatic bleb detection. However, manual marking, while time consuming, still provides increased accuracy. Researchers believe the next step in improving the quality of meSPIM scans lie in computer platforms designed to extract and process the scan data.

Until this process is automated, user bias, sample mounting, and data handling will remain risks for introducing errors into the collected data. Yet, even in its early stages, meSPIM offers new options for assessing the state of cancer cells and may eventually provide pathologists and radiologists with additional information when creating treatment plans or assessments.

 

Seeing cancer cells in 3-D (w/ Video)

http://phys.org/news/2016-02-cancer-cells-d-video.html

 

Cancer in 3-D

http://cdn.phys.org/newman/csz/news/800/2016/cancerin3d.png

Extracted surfaces of two cancer cells. (Left) A lung cancer cell colored by actin intensity near the cell surface. Actin is a structural molecule that is integral to cell movement. (Right) A melanoma cell colored by PI3-kinase activity near the cell surface. PI3K is a signaling molecule that is key to many cell processes. Credit: Welf and Driscoll et al.

Cancer cells don’t live on glass slides, yet the vast majority of images related to cancer biology come from the cells being photographed on flat, two-dimensional surfaces—images that are sometimes used to make conclusions about the behaviour of cells that normally reside in a more complex environment. But a new high-resolution microscope, presented February 22 in Developmental Cell, now makes it possible to visualize cancer cells in 3D and record how they are signaling to other parts of their environment, revealing previously unappreciated biology of how cancer cells survive and disperse within living things.

“There is clear evidence that the environment strongly affects cellular behavior—thus, the value of cell culture experiments on glass must at least be questioned,” says senior author Reto Fiolka, an optical scientist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. “Our is one tool that may bring us a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms that drive cancer cell behavior, since it enables high-resolution imaging in more realistic tumor environments.”

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-02-cancer-cells-d-video.html#jCp

Read Full Post »

Understanding the Stem Cell Niche: A Webinar by The Scientist

Reporter: Stephen J. Williams, Ph.D.

 

The Scientist

nature stem cell

Schematic diagram showing some of the factors implicated in each process. Haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) bound to the bone-marrow niche are mobilized in response to granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) or cyclophosphamide, or after peripheral myeloablation following treatment with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). After extravasation from the bone-marrow cords into the microvasculature, HSCs enter the circulation and are distributed to peripheral tissues such as the spleen or liver. HSCs locate close to endothelial cells in the splenic red pulp. They home to the bone-marrow cords through the circulation, a process that is controlled by a number of adhesion molecules such as very late antigen 4 (VLA4), VLA5, lymphocyte function-associated antigen 1 (LFA1) or selectins. After entering the bone marrow, HSCs specifically lodge in the niche, a process requiring membrane-bound stem-cell factor (SCF), CXC-chemokine ligand 12 (CXCL12), osteopontin (OPN), hyaluronic acid, and their corresponding receptors. CXCR4, CXC-chemokine receptor 4; E-selectin, endothelial-cell selectin; P-selectin, platelet selectin; PSGL1, P-selectin glycoprotein ligand 1.

 

Understanding the Stem Cell Niche

  This presentation will begin on Tuesday, December 01, 2015 at 02:30 PM Eastern Standard Time.
   

Free Webinar
Tuesday December 1, 2015
2:30 – 4:00 PM EST

Stem cells provide an attractive model to study human physiology and disease. However, technical challenges persist in the biological characterization and manipulation of stem cells in their native microenvironment. The Scientist brings together a panel of experts to discuss interactions between stem cells and external cues, and the role of the stem cell niche in development and disease. Topics to be covered include the molecular mechanisms of hematopoietic stem cell niche interactions and techniques for engineering 3-D stem-cell microenvironments. Following the presentations, attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions concerning their specific applications and receive answers in real-time.

Speakers:

Dr. Jon Hoggatt, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Cancer Center and Center for Transplantation Sciences, Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Todd McDevitt, Senior Investigator, Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, Professor, Department of Bioengineering & Therapeutic Sciences, UCSF.

 

Understanding the Stem Cell Niche
Click Here To Watch The Video

To find out about our upcoming events follow us on Twitter @LabMgrEvents

 

Notes from Webinar:

Hematopoetic stem cells good model since now we have liquid biopsies (as a result field has skyrocketed).

Two processes involved with stem cells finding their niche

  1. Homing; CXCR4-SDK1 dependent process into the bone marrow.
  2. Mobilization: stem cells moving from bone into blood (found that GMCSF main factor responsible for this process)

Dr. Raymond Schofield was one of the first to propose the existence of this stem cell niche (each progenitor will produce a unique factor {possibly a therapeutic target} for example leptin+ receptor target perivascular cells so one target is good for only a small subset of stem cells)

Therefore it may be possible or advantageous to target the whole stem cell milieu. One such possible target they are investigating is CD26 (dipeptyl peptidase). The diabetes drug Januvia is an inhibitor of CD26.

It was also noticed if inhibit the GMCSF receptor complex can inhibit the whole stem cell niche.

Prostoglandins and stem cell niche

  • Indomethacin blocks the mobilization step
  • Prostaglandin E increases homing
  • GMCSF and malaxocam (COX2 inhibitor) flattens osteoblast cells and may be a mechanism how inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis blocks mobilization
  • Found that the PGE4 receptor is ultimately responsible for the NSAID effect

The niche after G-CSF

Dr. Hoggat found that macrophages are supplying the factors that support the niche. He will be presenting the findings at 2015 Hematology conference. (See information about his conference presentation here).

From the 57th Annual American Society of Hematology Meeting (2015) please see Dr. Hoggat’s moderated section Hematopoiesis and Stem Cells: Microenvironment, Cell Adhesion and Stromal Stem Cells: Hematopoietic Stem Cell Niche

 

Relevant articles from Dr. Hoggat

Anti-CD47 Therapy Is More Than a Dinner Bell October 19, 2015

Dr. Hoggatt looks at the therapeutic effects of blocking CD47 aside from alerting macrophages to devour tumor cells.

Hematopoietic Stem Cells Should Hold Their Breath August 12, 2015

Dr. Hoggatt and Hannah Rasmussen discuss new approaches to the use of hematopoietic stem cells considering observer effects that emerge due to our experimental systems for HSCs.

Prostaglandin E2 enhances hematopoietic stem cell homing, survival, and proliferation. Hoggatt J, Singh P, Sampath J, Pelus LM. Blood. 2009 May 28;113(22):5444-55. doi: 10.1182/blood-2009-01-201335. Epub 2009 Mar 26.

 

Prostaglandin E2 enhances long-term repopulation but does not permanently alter inherent stem cell competitiveness. Hoggatt J, Mohammad KS, Singh P, Pelus LM. Blood. 2013 Oct 24;122(17):2997-3000. doi: 10.1182/blood-2013-07-515288. Epub 2013 Sep 18.

 

Pharmacologic increase in HIF1α enhances hematopoietic stem and progenitor homing and engraftment. Speth JM, Hoggatt J, Singh P, Pelus LM. Blood. 2014 Jan 9;123(2):203-7. doi: 10.1182/blood-2013-07-516336. Epub 2013 Oct 28.

 

Blockade of prostaglandin E2 signaling through EP1 and EP3 receptors attenuates Flt3L-dependent dendritic cell development from hematopoietic progenitor cells. Singh P, Hoggatt J, Hu P, Speth JM, Fukuda S, Breyer RM, Pelus LM. Blood. 2012 Feb 16;119(7):1671-82. doi: 10.1182/blood-2011-03-342428. Epub 2011 Nov 22.

 

Recovery from hematopoietic injury by modulating prostaglandin E(2) signaling post-irradiation. Hoggatt J, Singh P, Stilger KN, Plett PA, Sampson CH, Chua HL, Orschell CM, Pelus LM. Blood Cells Mol Dis. 2013 Mar;50(3):147-53. doi: 10.1016/j.bcmd.2012.11.006. Epub 2012 Nov 30.

 

Pulse exposure of haematopoietic grafts to prostaglandin E2 in vitro facilitates engraftment and recovery. Pelus LM, Hoggatt J, Singh P. Cell Prolif. 2011 Apr;44 Suppl 1:22-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2184.2010.00726.x.

 

Pleiotropic effects of prostaglandin E2 in hematopoiesis; prostaglandin E2 and other eicosanoids regulate hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell function. Pelus LM, Hoggatt J. Prostaglandins Other Lipid Mediat. 2011 Nov;96(1-4):3-9. doi: 10.1016/j.prostaglandins.2011.06.004. Epub 2011 Jun 21. Review.

 

Differential stem- and progenitor-cell trafficking by prostaglandin E2. Hoggatt J, Mohammad KS, Singh P, Hoggatt AF, Chitteti BR, Speth JM, Hu P, Poteat BA, Stilger KN, Ferraro F, Silberstein L, Wong FK, Farag SS, Czader M, Milne GL, Breyer RM, Serezani CH, Scadden DT, Guise TA, Srour EF, Pelus LM. Nature. 2013 Mar 21;495(7441):365-9. doi: 10.1038/nature11929. Epub 2013 Mar 13.

 

Eicosanoid regulation of hematopoiesis and hematopoietic stem and progenitor trafficking.Hoggatt J, Pelus LM. Leukemia. 2010 Dec;24(12):1993-2002. doi: 10.1038/leu.2010.216. Epub 2010 Sep 30. Review.

 

Hematopoietic stem cell mobilization with agents other than G-CSF. Hoggatt J, Pelus LM. Methods Mol Biol. 2012;904:49-67. doi: 10.1007/978-1-61779-943-3_4.

 

Mobilization of hematopoietic stem cells from the bone marrow niche to the blood compartment. Hoggatt J, Pelus LM. Stem Cell Res Ther. 2011 Mar 14;2(2):13. doi: 10.1186/scrt54. Review.

 

Engineering 3D Pluripotent Stem Cell Microenvironments by Todd McDevitt, Ph.D.

In recent years, it has finally been shown how to produce centrally derived (self assembling) organoids (microtissues).

 

How to specifically deliver specific morphogens in 3D organoids

 

  1. Microparticle (MP)-mediated delivery (can do in mouse and human): reduces the amount needed to be delivered

 

 

What are other effects of introduced MP in ES (embryonic stem cell) aggregates?

  1. a) physiocomechanical changes –mechanical effects of materials
  2. b) how changes in local presentation of factors affect bioavailbility and binding properties

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »

Contributions to Cardiomyocyte Interactions and Signaling

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

and

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Introduction

This is Part II of the ongoing research in the Lee Laboratory, concerned with Richard T Lee’s dissection of the underlying problems that will lead to a successful resolution of myocardiocyte regeneration unhampered by toxicity, and having a suffuciently sustained effect for an evaluation and introduction to the clinic.  This would be a milestone in the treatment of heart failure, and an alternative to transplantation surgery.  This second presentation focuses on the basic science work underpinning the therapeutic investigations.  It is work that, if it was unsupported and did not occur because of insufficient funding, the Part I story could not be told.

Cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and degradation of connexin43 through spatially restricted autocrine/paracrine heparin-binding EGF

J Yoshioka, RN Prince, H Huang, SB Perkins, FU Cruz, C MacGillivray, DA Lauffenburger, and RT Lee *
Cardiovascular Division, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; and Biological Engineering Division, MIT, Cambridge, MA
PNAS 2005; 302(30):10622-10627.  http://pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0501198102

Growth factor signaling can affect tissue remodeling through autocrine/paracrine mechanisms. Recent evidence indicates that EGF receptor transactivation by heparin-binding EGF (HB-EGF) contributes to hypertrophic signaling in cardiomyocytes. Here, we show that HB-EGF operates in a spatially restricted circuit in the extracellular space within the myocardium, revealing the critical nature of the local microenvironment in intercellular signaling. This highly localized microenvironment of HB-EGF signaling was demonstrated with 3D morphology, consistent with predictions from a computational model of EGF signaling. HB-EGF secretion by a given cardiomyocyte in mouse left ventricles led to cellular hypertrophy and reduced expression of connexin43 in the overexpressing cell and in immediately adjacent cells but not in cells farther away. Thus, HB-EGF acts as an autocrine and local paracrine cardiac growth factor that leads to loss of gap junction proteins within a spatially confined microenvironment. These findings demonstrate how cells can coordinate remodeling with their immediate neighboring cells with highly localized extracellular EGF signaling. Within 3D tissues, cells must coordinate remodeling in response to stress or growth signals, and this communication may occur by direct contact or by secreted signaling molecules. Cardiac hypertrophy is a physiological response that enables the heart to adapt to an initial stress; however, hypertrophy can ultimately lead to the deterioration in cardiac function and an increase in cardiac arrhythmias. Although considerable progress has been made in elucidating the molecular pathogenesis of cardiac hypertrophy, the precise mechanisms guiding the hypertrophic process remain unknown. Recent evidence suggests that myocardial heparin-binding (HB)-epidermal growth factor participates in the hypertrophic response. In cardiomyocytes, hypertrophic stimuli markedly increase expression of the HB-EGF gene, suggesting that HB-EGF can act as an autocrine trophic factor that contributes to cellular growth. HB-EGF is first synthesized as a membrane-anchored form (proHB-EGF), and subsequent ectodo-main shedding at the cell surface releases the soluble form of HB-EGF. Soluble HB-EGF is a diffusible factor that can be captured by the receptors to activate the intracellular EGF receptor signaling cascade. Indeed, EGF receptor (EGFR) transactivation, triggered by shedding of HB-EGF from the cell surface, plays an important role in cardiac hypertrophy resulting from pressure overload in the aortic-banding model. EGFR activation can occur through autocrine and paracrine signaling. In autocrine signaling, a cell produces and responds to the same signaling molecules. Paracrine signaling molecules can target groups of distant cells or act as localized mediators affecting only cells in the immediate environment of the signaling cell. Thus, although locally produced HB-EGF may travel through the extra-cellular space, it may also be recaptured by the EGFR close to the point where it was released from the cell surface. The impact of spatially localized microenvironments of signaling could be extensive heterogeneous tissue remodeling, which can be particularly important in an electrically coupled tissue like myocardium. Interestingly, recent data suggest that EGF can regulate protea-some-dependent degradation of connexin43 (Cx43), a major trans-membrane gap junction protein, in liver epithelial cells, along with a rapid inhibition of cell–cell communication through gap junctions. One of the critical potential myocardial effects of HB-EGF could therefore be to increase degradation of Cx43 and reduce electrical stability of the heart. Reduced content of Cx43 is commonly observed in chronic heart diseases such as hypertrophy, myocardial infarction, and failure. Thus, we hypothesized that HB-EGF signals may operate in a spatially restricted local circuit in the extracellular space. We also hypothesized that HB-EGF secretion by a given cardiomyocyte could create a local remodeling microenvironment of decreased Cx43 within the myocardium. To explore whether HB-EGF signaling is highly spatially constrained, we took advantage of the nonuniform gene transfer to cardiac myocytes in vivo, normally considered a pitfall of gene therapy. We also performed computational modeling to predict HB-EGF dynamics and developed a 3D approach to measure cardiomyocyte hypertrophy.

Results

Autocrine HB-EGF and Cardiomyocyte Growth.

To assess the effects of gene transfer of HB-EGF on cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, cells were infected with adenoviral vectors expressing GFP alone (Ad-GFP) or HB-EGF and GFP (Ad-HB-EGF). At this level of infection, 99% of cardiomyocytes were transduced. The incidence of apoptotic cell death (sub-G1 fraction) was not different between Ad-GFP cells, suggesting that expression of GFP by the adenoviral vector was not cardiotoxic in these conditions. Western analysis by using an anti-HB-EGF antibody confirmed successful gene transfer of HB-EGF in cardiomyocytes (18 ± 5-fold, n = 4, P < 0.01); HB-EGF appeared electrophoretically as several bands from 15 to 30 kDa (Fig. 1A). The strongest band corresponds to the soluble 20-kDa form of HB-EGF. To confirm that Ad-HB-EGF results in cellular hypertrophy, cell size and protein synthesis were measured. Ad-HB-EGF enlarged cardiomyocytes compared with Ad-GFP-infected cells by phase-contrast microscopy (24 ± 10% increase in cell surface area, n = 27, P < 0.05) and with flow cytometry analysis (26 ± 10% increase of Ad-GFP infected cells, P < 0.01, Fig. 1B). Overexpression of HB-EGF increased total protein synthesis in cardiomyocytes as measured by [3H]leucine uptake (34 ± 6% of Ad-GFP, n = 6, P < 0.01, Fig. 1C). Uninfected cells within the same dish (and thus sharing the same culture media) did not develop hypertrophy. Additionally, medium from cultures previously infected with Ad-HB-EGF for 48 h was collected and applied to adenovirus-free cultures. Conditioned medium from Ad-HB-EGF-infected cardiomyocytes failed to stimulate hypertrophy in naive cardiomyocytes (Fig. 1C), and there were no significant differences in cell size between noninfected cells from Ad-GFP and Ad-HB-EGF dishes. These results suggest that HB-EGF acts primarily as an autocrine growth factor in cardiomyocytes in vitro.
Because the dilution factor in culture media is important for autocrine/paracrine signaling, we determined the concentration of soluble HB-EGF in the conditioned medium and the effective concentration to stimulate cardiomyocyte growth. HB-EGF levels in the conditioned medium from Ad-HB-EGF dishes were 258 ± 73 pg/ml (n = 4), whereas HB-EGF levels from Ad-GFP dishes (n = 8) were below the limit of detection (6.7 pg/ml). The addition of 300 pg/ml of exogenous recombinant HB-EGF into fresh media failed to stimulate hypertrophy in cardiomyocytes as measured by [3H]leucine uptake (-12 ± 5.0% compared with control, n = 5,P = not significant), but 2,000 pg/ml of recombinant HB-EGF did result in a significant effect (+24 ± 5.5% compared with control, n = 6, P < 0.05). This comparison implies that the local concentration of autocrine ligand is substantially greater than that indicated by a bulk measurement of conditioned media, consistent with previous experimental and theoretical studies.

Fig. 1. Effects of gene transfer of HB-EGF on rat neonatal cardiomyocyte growth.

(A) Cells were infected with adenoviral vectors expressing GFP (Ad-GFP), or HB-EGF and GFP (Ad-HB-EGF). Western analysis showed the successful gene transfer of HB-EGF. (8) FACS analysis of 5,000 cardiomyocytes demonstrated that overexpression of HB-EGF produced a 26 ± 10% increase in cell size that was significantly greater than the overex-pression of GFP. Bar graphs with errors represent mean ± SEM from three independent experiments. **, P < 0.01 vs. Ad-HB-EGF-nonin-fected cells and Ad-GFP nonin-fected cells. , P < 0.05 vs. Ad-GFP infected cells. (C) Overexpression of HB-EGF resulted in a 34 ± 6% increase in [3H]leucine uptake compared with Ad-GFP (n = 6), whereas conditioned medium from Ad-HB-EGF cells caused an only insignificant increase. **, P < 0.05 vs. Ad-GFP control and conditioned medium Ad-GFP.

 Effects of HB-EGF on Cx43 Content in Cultured Cardiomyocytes

Because EGF can induce degradation of the gap junction protein Cx43 in other cells, we then determined whether Cx43 is regulated by HB-EGF in cardiomyocytes. Fig. 2A shows a representative immunoblot from three separate experiments in which Cx43 migrated as three major bands at 46, 43, and 41 kDa, as reported in ref. 16. Overexpression of HB-EGF decreased total Cx43 content (27 ± 11% compared with Ad-GFP, n = 4, P < 0.05) without affecting the intercellular adhesion protein, N-cadherin. The phosphorylation of ERK1/2, an intracellular signaling kinase downstream of EGFR transactivation, was augmented by HB-EGF (3.2 ± 1.0-fold compared with Ad-GFP, n = 4, P < 0.05). Northern analysis showed that HB-EGF did not reduce Cx43 gene expression, suggesting that HB-EGF decreases Cx43 by posttranslational modification (Fig. 2B). AG 1478 (10 iLM), a specific inhibitor of EGFR tyrosine kinase, abolished the effect of HB-EGF on Cx43 (Fig. 2C), indicating that the decrease in Cx43 content depends on EGFR transactivation by HB-EGF. The conditioned medium from Ad-HB-EGF-infected cells did not change expression of Cx43 in naive cells, even though ERK1/2 was slightly activated by the conditioned medium (Fig. 1D). These data are consistent with the hypertrophy data presented above, demonstrating that HB-EGF can act as a predominantly autocrine factor both in hypertrophy and in the reduction of Cx43 content in cardiomyocytes.

Computational Analysis Predicts HB-EGF Autocrine/Paracrine Signaling in Vivo.

Although these in vitro experiments showed HB-EGF as a predominantly autocrine cardiac growth factor, HB-EGF signaling in vivo takes place in a very different environment. Therefore, we sought to determine the extent that soluble HB-EGF may travel in the interstitial space of the myocardium with a simple 2D model of HB-EGF diffusion (Fig. 3A). An approximate geometric representation of myocytes in cross-section is a square (15 x 15 iLm), with each of the corners occupied by a capillary (diameter 5 iLm). The cell shape was chosen so that the extracellular matrix width (0.5 iLm), in which soluble HB-EGF is free to diffuse, was constant around all tissue features. This model geometry is based on a square array of capillaries; although a hexagonal pattern of capillary distribution is commonly accepted, the results are not expected to be substantially different with this simpler construction, because both have four capillaries surrounding each myocyte. The model represents a single central cell that is releasing HB-EGF at a constant rate, Rgen, (approximated from the HB-EGF concentration measurement in conditioned medium) into the extracellular space. HB-EGF then can diffuse throughout this space, or enter a capillary and leave the system. This system is governed by
  • the diffusion equation at steady state (DV2C = 0),
  • the boundary condition for the ligand producing cell (—DVC = Rgen),
  • the boundary condition for all other cells (—DVC = 0), and
  • the capillary boundary condition (DVC = h(C — Cblood)).

C denotes HB-EGF concentration, D is the diffusivity constant, h is the mass transfer coefficient, and Cblood is the concentration of HB-EGF in the blood, approximated to be zero.  The numerical solution in Fig. 3B illustrates that HB-EGF remained localized around the cell which produced it and did not diffuse farther because of the sink-like effect of the capillaries. The maximum concentration of soluble HB-EGF achieved is 0.27 nM, which is near the threshold level of HB-EGF measured to stimulate cardiomyocyte growth (2,000 pg/ml). Therefore, the central HB-EGF-producing cell only signals to its four adjacent neighbors where the HB-EGF concentration reaches this threshold. However, if the model geometry is altered to reflect a 50% and 150% increase in cross-sectional area in all cells because of hypertrophy, estimated from 1 and 4 weeks of transverse aortic constriction, the maximum concentration achieved increases slightly to 0.29 nM and 0.37 nM, respectively. As the cell width increases, HB-EGF must diffuse farther to reach a capillary, exposing adjacent cells to a higher concentration during hypertrophy. However, no additional cells are exposed to HB-EGF. 

Fig. 3. Computational modeling of HB-EGF diffusion in the myocardium.

Red areas represent capillaries, green represents the HB-EGF ligand producing cell, pink represents adjacent cells, and white is an extracellular matrix where HB-EGF is free to diffuse. (A) The model geometry where HB-EGF is generated by the ligand-producing cell at a constant rate, Rgen, and diffuses throughout the extracellular space or enters a capillary and leaves the system with a mass transfer coefficient, h. (B) Numerical solution of the steady-state HB-EGF concentration profile with Rgen = 10 cell-1s-1, D = 0.7 µm2/s, and h = 0.02 µm/s, where concentration is shown by the color scale and height depicted. The maximum concentration achieved with the stated parameters was 0.27 nM from a capillary. Myocyte length was assumed to be 100 µm.

The driving force that determined the extent to which HB-EGF traveled was the rate of HB-EGF transfer into the capillaries and the diffusivity of HB-EGF. The exact mechanism of macromolecule transport into capillaries is unknown; however, it is most likely through diffusion, transcytosis, or a combination of the two. In the case of diffusion, the mass transfer coefficient governing the flux of HB-EGF through the capillary wall is coupled to the diffusivity of HB-EGF, whereas the terms are uncoupled for the case of transcytosis. Therefore, this model assessed transcytosis as a conservative scenario for HB-EGF localization. Parameter perturbation with uncoupled diffusion and capillary mass transfer showed that HB-EGF remained localized around the origin of production and diffused only to immediate neighbors for mass transfer coefficients >0.002 µm/s. For values <0.002 µm/s, HB-EGF diffused distances more than two cells away from the origin. Although the actual mass transfer coefficient of ligands in the size range of HB-EGF is unknown, values for O2 (0.02 µm/s, 0.032 kDa) (19) and LDL (1.7 x 10-5 µm/s, 2,000–3,000 kDa) (20) have been reported, and we assumed HB-EGF is in the upper end of that range due to its small size. HB-EGF also binds to EGFRs, the extracellular matrix, and cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans. EGFR binding and internalization could serve to further localize HB-EGF. The number of extracellular binding sites does not affect the steady-state HB-EGF concentration profile if this binding is reversible. However, these binding sites could serve to localize HB-EGF as the cell begins to produce the ligand by slowing the travel of HB-EGF to the capillaries in the approach to the steady state, or as a source of HB-EGF as the cell slows or stops HB-EGF production. At a diffusivity of 0.7 µm2/s (21), HB-EGF traveled only one cell away, but traveled approximately five cells away at 51.8 µm2/s (22), with a peak concentration below the estimated threshold for stimulating.

Overexpression of HB-EGF Causes Hypertrophy on the Infected Cell and Its Immediate Neighbor in Vivo.

To explore whether HB-EGF signals operate in a spatially restricted local circuit in the in vivo myocardial extracellular space as predicted by computational modeling, adenoviral vectors were injected directly into the left ventricular free wall in 26 male mice (Ad-GFP, n = 12; Ad-HB-EGF, n = 14). Of the 26 mice, 5 (4 Ad-GFP and 1 Ad-HB-EGF) mice died after the surgery. Gene expression was confirmed as positive cellular fluorescence in the presence of GFP, allowing determination of which cells were infected at 7 days (Fig. 4A). Immunohis-tochemical staining revealed that HB-EGF was localized on the Ad-HB-EGF-infected cell membrane or in the extracellular space around the overexpressing cell (Fig. 4A). For comparison, remote cells were defined as noninfected cells far (15–20 cell dimensions) from the adenovirus-infected area and in the same field as infected cells. Conventional 2D cross-sectional analysis blinded to treatment group (Fig. 4B) showed that Ad-GFP-infected cells (n = 102) resulted in no cellular hypertrophy compared with noninfected, adjacent (n = 92), or remote (n = 97) cells (2D myocyte cross-sectional area, 250 ± 7 versus 251 ± 7 or 255 ± 6 µm2, respectively). These data suggest that expression of GFP in these conditions does not cause cellular hypertrophy. However, overexpression of HB-EGF caused hypertrophy in both Ad-HB-EGF-infected cells (a 41 ± 5% increase of Ad-GFP-infected cells, n = 119, P < 0.01) and noninfected adjacent cells (a 33 ± 5% increase of Ad-GFP-adjacent cells, n = 97, P < 0.01) compared with remote cells (n = 109). Because 2D analysis of cardiomyocyte hypertrophy can be influenced by the plane of sectioning, we then developed a 3D histology approach that allowed reconstruction of cardiomyocytes in situ (Fig. 4C). We performed an independent 3D histology analysis of cardiomyocytes to determine cell volumes, blinded to treatment group (Fig. 4B). The volumes of both HB-EGF-infected cells (n = 19, 42,700 ± 4,000 µm3) and their adjacent cells (n = 11, 33,500 ± 3,300 µm3) were significantly greater than volumes of remote cells (n = 13, 18,600 ± 1,700 µm3, P < 0.01 vs. HB-EGF-infected cells and P < 0.05 vs. HB-EGF-adjacent cells, Fig. 4D). In contrast, cells treated with Ad-GFP (n = 12) showed no hypertrophy in the Ad-GFP-adjacent (n = 10) or remote cells (n = 9). These data demonstrate that HB-EGF acts as both an autocrine and local paracrine growth factor within myocardium, as predicted by computational modeling.

Degradation of Cx43 Through Local Autocrine/Paracrine HB-EGF

To determine whether the spatially confined effect of HB-EGF reduces local myocardial Cx43 in vivo, Cx43 was assessed with immunohistochemistry and confocal fluorescence imaging. Cells infected with Ad-HB-EGF had significant decreases in Cx43 immunoreactive signal compared with Ad-GFP cells, consistent with the results of in vitro immunoblotting (Fig. 5A). Quantitative digital image analyses of Cx43 in a total of 22 fields in 6 Ad-HB-EGF hearts and 19 fields in 4 Ad-GFP hearts were analyzed (Fig. 5B). Although Ad-GFP-infected cells showed immunoreactive Cx43 at the appositional membrane, overexpression of HB-EGF increased Cx43 in intracellular vesicle-like components (Fig. 5C), with reduced gap junction plaques (percent Cx43 area per cell area, 52 ± 8% of Ad-GFP control, P < 0.01). These data suggest that reduced expression of Cx43 can be attributed to an increased rate of internalization and degradation in gap junction plaques in cardiomyocytes. Interestingly, HB-EGF secretion by a given cardiomyocyte caused a 37 ± 13% reduction of Cx43 content in its adjacent cells compared with GFP controls (P < 0.05). As degradation of Cx43 may accompany structural changes with marked rearrangement of intercellular connections.  In contrast to Cx43, there was no significant difference in total area occupied by N-cadherin immunoreactive signal in between Ad-GFP (n = 19) and Ad-HB-EGF hearts (1.8 ± 0.5-fold compared with Ad-GFP, n = 17, P = not significant), indicating that HB-EGF has a selective effect on Cx43. Taken together, these data show that HB-EGF leads to cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and degradation of Cx43 in the infected cell and its immediately adjacent neighbors because of autocrine/ paracrine signaling. It should be noted, however, that quantifying the Cx43 from immunostaining could be limited by a nonlinear relation between the amount of Cx43 present and the area of staining.

Fig. 4. Effects of gene transfer of HB-EGF on cardiomyocyte hypertrophy in vivo.

(A) Adenoviral vectors (Ad-GFP or Ad-HB-EGF) were injected into the left ventricular free wall in mice. Myocytes were grouped as infected or noninfected on the basis of GFP fluorescence. Overex-pression of HB-EGF was confirmed by im-munohistochemistry. The presented image was pseudocolored with blue from that stained with Alexa Fluor 555 for the presence of HB-EGF. (Scale bars: 20 sm.) (B) 2D cross-sectional area of cardiomyo-cytes was measured in infected and non-infected cells in the same region of the same animal. Overexpression of HB-EGF caused cellular hypertrophy in both infected and adjacent cells. **, P < 0.01 vs. Ad-GFP infected; , P < 0.01 vs. Ad-HB-EGF remote; and §, P < 0.01 vs. Ad-GFP adjacent cells. GFP (infected 102 cells, adjacent 92 cells, and remote 97 cells from 5 mice), and HB-EGF (infected 119 cells, adjacent 97 cells, and remote 109 cells from 7 mice). The 3D histology also revealed cellular hypertrophy in both Ad-HB-EGF-infected cell and its adjacent cell. **, P < 0.01 vs. Ad-GFP infected; , P < 0.01; and *, P < 0.05 vs. Ad-HB-EGF remote cells. GFP (infected 12 cells, adjacent 10 cells, and remote 9 cells), and HB-EGF (infected 19 cells, adjacent 11 cells, and remote 13 cells). Statistical analysis was performed with one-way ANOVA. (C) Sample image of extracted myocytes in three dimensions.

Discussion

We have demonstrated in this study that HB-EGF secreted by cardiomyocytes leads to cellular growth and reduced expression of the principal ventricular gap junction protein Cx43 in a local autocrine/paracrine manner. Although proHB-EGF is biologically active as a juxtacrine growth factor that can signal to immediately neighboring cells in a nondiffusible mannerseveral studies have revealed the crucial role of metalloproteases in the enzymatic conversion of proHB-EGF to soluble HB-EGF, which binds to and activates the EGFR. Hypertrophic stimuli such as mechanical strain and G protein-coupled receptors agonists mediate cardiac hypertrophy through the shedding of membrane-bound proHB-EGF. Thus, an autocrine/paracrine loop, which requires the diffusible, soluble form of HB-EGF, is necessary for subsequent transactivation of the EGFR to produce the hypertrophic response.

To our knowledge, there have been no previous reports concerning the spatial extent of autocrine/paracrine ligand distribution and signaling in myocardial tissue. A theoretical analysis by Shvartsman et al. predicted, from computational modeling in an idealized cell culture environment, that autocrine ligands may remain highly localized, even within subcellular distances; this prediction has support from experimental data in the EGFR system. In contrast, a theoretical estimate by Francis and Palsson has suggested that cytokines might effectively communicate larger distances, approximated to be 200–300 m from the point of release. However, these studies have all focused on idealized cell culture systems, so our combined experimental and computational investigation here aimed at understanding both in vitro and in vivo situations offers insight.
Our computational model of diffusion in the extracellular space predicts that HB-EGF acts as both an autocrine and spatially restricted paracrine growth factor for neighboring cells. We studied the responses of the signaling cell and its immediate neighbors compared with more distant cells. For a paracrine signal to be delivered to its proper target, the secreted signaling molecules cannot diffuse too far; in vitro experiments, in fact, indicated that HB-EGF acts as a predominantly autocrine signal in cell culture, where diffusion into the medium is relatively unconstrained.
In contrast, in the extracellular space of the myocardium, HB-EGF is localized around the source of production because of tissue geometry, thereby acting in a local paracrine or autocrine manner only. Indeed, our results from in vivo gene transfer demonstrated that both the cell releasing soluble HB-EGF and its surrounding cells undergo hypertrophy. This localized conversation between neighboring cells may allow remodeling to be fine-tuned on a highly spatially restricted level within the myocardium and in other tissues.

Common genetic variation at the IL1RL1locus regulates IL-33/ST2 signaling

JE Ho, Wei-Yu Chen, Ming-Huei Chen, MG Larson, ElL McCabe, S Cheng, A Ghorbani, E Coglianese, V Emilsson, AD Johnson,….. CARDIoGRAM Consortium, CHARGE Inflammation Working Group, A Dehghan, C Lu, D Levy, C Newton-Cheh, CHARGE Heart Failure Working Group, …. JL Januzzi, RT Lee, and TJ Wang J Clin Invest Oct 2013; 123(10):4208-4218.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1172/JCI67119

Abstract and Introduction

The suppression of tumorigenicity 2/IL-33 (ST2/IL-33) pathway has been implicated in several immune and inflammatory diseases. ST2 is produced as 2 isoforms. The membrane-bound isoform (ST2L) induces an immune response when bound to its ligand, IL-33. The other isoform is a soluble protein (sST2) that is thought to be a decoy receptor for IL-33 signaling. Elevated sST2 levels in serum are associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular disease. We investigated the determinants of sST2 plasma concentrations in 2,991 Framing­ham Offspring Cohort participants. While clinical and environmental factors explained some variation in sST2 levels, much of the variation in sST2 production was driven by genetic factors. In a genome-wide associ­ation study (GWAS), multiple SNPs within IL1RL1 (the gene encoding ST2) demonstrated associations with sST2 concentrations. Five missense variants of IL1RL1 correlated with higher sST2 levels in the GWAS and mapped to the intracellular domain of ST2, which is absent in sST2. In a cell culture model, IL1RL1 missense variants increased sST2 expression by inducing IL-33 expression and enhancing IL-33 responsiveness (via ST2L). Our data suggest that genetic variation in IL1RL1 can result in increased levels of sST2 and alter immune and inflammatory signaling through the ST2/IL-33 pathway. Suppression of tumorigenicity 2 (ST2) is a member of the IL-1 receptor (IL-1R) family that plays a major role in immune and inflammatory responses. Alternative promoter activation and splicing produces both a membrane-bound protein (ST2L) and a soluble form (sST2). The transmembrane form of ST2 is selectively expressed on Th2- but not Th1-type T cells, and bind­ing of its ligand, IL-33, induces Th2 immune responses.  In contrast, the soluble form of ST2 acts as a decoy receptor by sequestering IL-33. The IL-33/ST2 pathway has important immunomodulatory effects. Clinically, the ST2/IL-33 signaling pathway participates in the pathophysiology of a number of inflammatory and immune diseases related to Th2 activation, including asthma, ulcera­tive colitis, and inflammatory arthritis. ST2 expression is also upregulated in cardiomyocytes in response to stress and appears to have cardioprotective effects in experimental studies. As a biomarker, circulating sST2 concentrations have been linked to worse prognosis in patients with heart failure, acute dyspnea, and acute coronary syndrome, and also predict mortality and incident cardiovascular events in individuals without existing cardiovascular disease. Both sST2 and its transmembrane form are encoded by IL-1R– like 1 (IL1RL1). Genetic variation in this pathway has been linked to a number of immune and inflammatory diseases. The contribution of IL1RL1 locus variants to interindividual variation in sST2 has not been investigated. The emergence of sST2 as an important predictor of cardiovascular risk and the important role outside of the ST2/IL-33 pathway in inflammatory diseases highlight the value of understanding genetic determinants of sST2. The fam­ily-based FHS cohort provides a unique opportunity to examine the heritability of sST2 and to identify specific variants involved using a genome-wide association study (GWAS). Thus, we per­formed a population-based study to examine genetic determinants of sST2 concentrations, coupled with experimental studies to elu­cidate the underlying molecular mechanisms.

Results

Clinical characteristics of the 2,991 FHS participants are presented in Supplemental Table 1 (supplemental material available online with this article; doi:10.1172/JCI67119DS1). The mean age of participants was 59 years, and 56% of participants were women. Soluble ST2 concentrations were higher in men compared with those in women (P < 0.001). Soluble ST2 concentrations were positively associated with age, systolic blood pressure, body-mass index, antihypertensive medication use, and diabetes mellitus (P < 0.05 for all). Together, these variables accounted for 14% of the variation in sST2 concentrations. The duration of hypertension or diabetes did not materially influence variation in sST2 concentra­tions. After additionally accounting for inflammatory conditions, clinical variables accounted for 14.8% of sST2 variation.

Heritability of sS72.

The age- and sex-adjusted heritability (h2) of sST2 was 0.45 (P = 5.3 x 10–16), suggesting that up to 45% of the vari­ation in sST2 not explained by clinical variables was attributable to genetic factors. Multivariable adjustment for clinical variables pre­viously shown to be associated with sST2 concentrations (21) did not attenuate the heritability estimate (adjusted h2 = 0.45, P = 8.2 x 10–16). To investigate the influence of shared environmental fac­tors, we examined the correlation of sST2 concentrations among 603 spousal pairs and found no significant correlation (r = 0.05, P = 0.25).

Genetic correlates of sS72.

We conducted a GWAS of circulating sST2 concentrations. Quantile-quantile, Manhattan, and regional linkage disequilibrium plots are shown in Supplemental Figures 1–3.  All genome-wide significant SNPs were located in a 400-kb linkage disequilibrium block that included IL1RL1 (the gene encoding ST2), IL1R1, IL1RL2, IL18R1, IL18RAP, and SLC9A4 (Figure 1). Results for 11 genome-wide significant “indepen­dent” SNPs, defined as pairwise r2 < 0.2, are shown in Table 1. In aggregate, these 11 “independent” genome-wide significant SNPs across the IL1RL1 locus accounted for 36% of heritability of sST2. In conditional analyses, 4 out of the 11 SNPs remained genome-wide significant, independent of each other (rs950880, rs13029918, rs1420103, and rs17639215), all within the IL1RL1 locus. The most significant SNP (rs950880, P = 7.1 x 10–94) accounted for 12% of the residual interindividual variability in circulating sST2 concentrations. Estimated mean sST2 concen­trations were 43% higher in major homozygotes (CC) compared with minor homozygotes (AA). Tree loci outside of the IL1RL1 locus had suggestive associations with sST2 (P < 1 x 10–6) and are displayed in Supplemental Table 3.

In silico association with expression SNPs.

The top 10 sST2 SNPs (among 11 listed in Table 1) were explored in collected gene expression databases. There were 5 genome-wide significant sST2 SNPs associated with gene expression across a variety of tissue types (Table 2). Specifically, rs13001325 was associated with IL1RL1 gene expression (the gene encoding both soluble and transmembrane ST2) in several subtypes of brain tissue (prefrontal cortex, P = 1.95 x 10–12; cerebellum, P = 1.54 x 10–5; visual cortex, P = 1.85 x 10–7). The CC genotype of rs13001325 was associated with a higher IL1RL1 gene expression level as well as a higher circulating sST2 concentration when compared with the TT genotype (Supplemental Figure 4). Other ST2 variants were significantly associated with IL18RAP (P = 8.50 x 10–41, blood) and IL18R1 gene expression (P = 2.99 x 10–12, prefrontal cortex).

In silico association with clinical phenotypes in published data

The G allele of rs1558648 was associated with lower sST2 concentra­tions in the FHS (0.88-fold change per G allele, P = 3.94 x 10–16) and higher all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR] 1.10 per G allele, 95% CI 1.03–1.16, P = 0.003) in the CHARGE consortium, which observed 8,444 deaths in 25,007 participants during an average fol­low-up of 10.6 years (22). The T allele of rs13019803 was associated with lower sST2 concentrations in the FHS (0.87-fold change per G allele, P = 5.95 x 10–20), higher mortality in the CHARGE consor­tium (HR 1.06 per C allele, 95% CI 1.01–1.12, P = 0.03), and higher risk of coronary artery disease (odds ratio 1.06, 95% CI 1.00–1.11, P = 0.035) in the CARDIoGRAM consortium, which included 22,233 individuals with coronary artery disease and 64,762 controls (23). In relating sST2 SNPs to other clinical phenotypes (including blood pressure, body-mass index, lipids, fasting glucose, natriuretic peptides, C-reactive protein, and echocardiographic traits) in pre­viously published studies, we found nominal associations with C-reactive protein for 2 SNPs (Supplemental Table 4).

Putative functional variants.

Using GeneCruiser, we examined nonsynonymous SNPs (nSNPs) (missense variants) that had at least suggestive association with sST2 (P < 1 x 10–4), includ­ing SNPs that served as proxies (r2 = 1.0) for nSNPs within the 1000 Genomes Pilot 1 data set (ref. 24 and Table 3). There were 6 missense variants located within the IL1RL1 gene, 5 of which had genome-wide significant associations with sST2 concen­trations, including rs6749114 (proxy for rs10192036, Q501K), rs4988956 (A433T), rs10204137 (Q501R), rs10192157 (T549I), rs10206753 (L551S), and rs1041973 (A78AE). Base substitutions and corresponding amino acid changes for these coding muta­tions are listed in Table 3. In combination, these 6 missense muta­tions accounted for 5% of estimated heritability, with an effect estimate of 0.23 (standard error [s.e.] 0.02, P = 2.4 x 10–20). When comparing major homozygotes with minor homozygotes, the esti­mated sST2 concentrations for these missense variants differed by 11% to 15% according to genotype (Supplemental Table 5). In conditional analyses, intracellular and extracellular variants appeared to be independently associated with sST2. For instance, in a model containing rs4988956 (A433T) and rs1041973 (A78E), both SNPs remained significantly associated with sST2 (P = 2.61 x 10–24 and P = 7.67 x 10–15, respectively). In total, missence variants added little to the proportion of sST2 variance explained by the 11 genome-wide significant nonmissense variants listed in Table 1. In relating these 6 missense variants to other clinical phenotypes in large consortia, we found an association with asthma for 4 out of the 6 variants (lowest P = 4.8 x 10–12 for rs10204137) (25).

Homology map of IL1RL1 missense variants and ST2 structure.

Of the 6 missense variants mapping to IL1RL1, 5 were within the cytoplas­mic Toll/IL-1R (TIR) domain of the transmembrane ST2 receptor (Figure 2A), and these intracellular variants are thus not part of the circulating sST2 protein. Of these cytoplasmic domain variants, A433T was located within the “box 2” region of sequence conserva­tion, described in the IL-1R1 TIR domain as important for IL-1 sig­naling . Q501R/K was within a conserved motif called “box 3,” but mutants of IL-1R1 in box 3 did not significantly affect IL-1 signaling in previous experiments (26). Both T549I and L551S were near the C terminus of the transmembrane ST2 receptor and were not predicted to alter signaling function based on previous exper­iments with the IL-1R . The A78E SNP was located within the extracellular domain of ST2 and is thus present in both the sST2 isoform and the transmembrane ST2 receptor. In models of the ST2/IL-33/IL-1RAcP complex derived from a crystal structure of the IL-1RII/IL-1β/IL-1RAcP complex (protein data bank ID 1T3G and 3O4O), A78E was predicted to be located on a surface loop within the first immunoglobulin-like domain (Figure 2B), distant from the putative IL-33 binding site or the site of interaction with IL-1RAcP. There were 2 rare extracellular variants that were not cap­tured in our GWAS due to low minor allele frequencies (A80E, MAF 0.008; A176T, MAF 0.002). Both were distant from the IL-33 bind­ing site on homology mapping and unlikely to affect IL-33 binding.

Functional effects of IL1RL1 missense variants on sST2 expression and promoter activity.

Since 5 of the IL1RL1 missense variants asso­ciated with sST2 levels mapped to the intracellular domain of ST2L and hence are not present on sST2 itself, we hypothesized that these missense variants exert effects via intracellular mecha­nisms downstream of ST2 transmembrane receptor signaling to regulate sST2 levels. To investigate the effect of IL1RL1 missense variants (identified by GWAS) on sST2 expression, stable cell lines expressing WT ST2L, IL1RL1 variants (A78E, A433T, T549I, Q501K, Q501R, and L551S), and a construct containing the 5 IL1RL1 intracellular domain variants (5-mut) were generated. Expression of ST2L mRNA and protein (detected in membrane fractions) was confirmed (Supplemental Figures 5 and 6). Eight different stable clones in each group were analyzed to reduce bias from clonal selection. Intracellular domain variants (A433T, T549I, Q501K, Q501R, L551S, and 5-mut), but not the extracellular domain variant (A78E), were associated with increased basal sST2 expression when compared with WT expression (P < 0.05 for all, Figure 3A). sST2 expression was highest in the 5-mut construct, suggesting that intracellular ST2L variants cooperatively regulate sST2 levels. This same pattern was consistent across different cell types (U937, Jurkat T, and A549 cells; Supplemental Figure 7). These findings suggest that intracellular domain variants of the transmembrane ST2 receptor may functionally regulate downstream signaling.   IL1RL1 transcription may occur via two alternative promoters (proximal vs. distal), which leads to differential expression of the soluble versus membrane-bound ST2 proteins. Similar to the sST2 protein expression results above, the intracellular domain variants, but not the extracellular domain variant, were associated with higher basal proximal promoter activity. Dis­tal promoter activity was also increased for most intracellular domain variants (Supplemental Figure 8).

IL1RL1 intracellular missense variants resulted in higher IL-33 pro­tein levels.

In addition to upregulation of sST2 protein levels, IL1RL1 intracellular missense variants caused increased basal IL-33 protein expression (Figure 3B), suggesting a possible autoregulatory loop whereby IL-33 signaling positively induces sST2 expression. IL-33 induced sST2 protein expression in cells expressing both WT and IL1RL1 missense variants. Interest­ingly, this effect was particularly pronounced in the A433T and Q501R variants (Supplemental Figure 9A).

Enhanced IL-33 responsiveness is mediated by IL-113 in A433T and Q501R variants.

Interaction among IL-33, sST2, and IL-113.

Inhibition of IL-113 by anti–IL-113 mAb reduced basal expression of sST2 (Supplemental Figure 11A). Blocking of IL-33 by sST2 did not reduce the induction of IL-113 levels by the IL1RL1 variants (Supplemental Figure 11B). Furthermore, inhibition of IL-113 by anti–IL-113 reduced the basal IL-33 levels. IL-33 itself upregulated sST2 levels, which in turn reduced IL-33 levels (Supplemental Figure 11C). Our results revealed that both IL-33 and IL-113 drive sST2 expression and that IL-113 acts as an upstream inducer of IL-33 and maintains IL-33 expression by intracellular IL1RL1 vari­ants (Supplemental Figure 11D). This suggests that IL1RL1 vari­ants upregulated sST2 mainly through IL-33 autoregulation and that the enhanced IL-33 responsiveness by A433T and Q501R was mediated by IL-113 upregulation.

IL1RL1 missense variants modulate ST2 signaling pathways

The effect of IL1RL1 missense variants on known ST2 downstream regulatory pathways, including NF-KB, AP-1/c-Jun, AKT, and STAT3 , was examined in the presence and absence of IL-33 (Figure 4 and Supplemental Figure 12). The IL1RL1 intracellular missense vari­ants (A433T, T549I, Q501K, Q501R, and L551S) were associated with higher basal phospho–NF-KB p65 and phospho–c-Jun levels (Figure 4, A and B). Consistent with enhanced IL-33 responsive­ness in A433T and Q501R cells, levels of IL-33–induced NF-KB and c-Jun phosphorylation were enhanced in these 2 variants (Figure 4, B and D). In contrast, A433T and Q501R variants showed lower basal phospho-AKT levels (Figure 4E). ……….. The majority of sST2 gene variants in our study were located within or near IL1RL1, the gene coding for both transmembrane ST2 and sST2. IL1RL1 resides within a linkage disequilibrium block of 400 kb on chromosome 2q12, a region that includes a number of other cytokines, including IL-18 receptor 1 (IL18R1) and IL-18 receptor accessory protein (IL18RAP). Polymorphisms in this gene cluster have been associated previously with a num­ber of immune and inflammatory conditions, including asthma, celiac disease, and type 1 diabetes mellitus . Many of these variants were associated with sST2 concentrations in our analysis (Supplemental Table 6). The immune effects of ST2 are corroborated by experimental evidence: membrane-bound ST2 is selectively expressed on Th2- but not Th1-type T helper cells, and activation of the ST2/IL-33 axis elaborates Th2 responses. In general, the allergic phenotypes above are thought to be Th2-mediated processes, in contrast to atherosclerosis, which appears to be a Th1-driven process.

Fig 2  Models of ST2 illustrate IL1RL1 missense variant locations.

Figure 2 Models of ST2 illustrate IL1RL1 missense variant locations.

Models of the (A) intracellular TIR domain (ST2-TIR) and the (B) extracellular domain (ST2-ECD) of ST2 (protein data bank codes 3O4O and 1T3G, respectively). Domains of ST2 are shown in yellow, with identified mis-sense SNP positions represented as red spheres and labels. Note that positions 549 and 551 are near the C terminus of ST2, which is not defined in the crystal structure (protein data bank ID 1T3G, shown as dashed black line in A). Arrows point toward the transmembrane domain, which is also not observed in crystal structures.

Fig 3 IL1RL1 intracellular missense variants resulted in higher sST2 and IL-33.

Figure 3   IL1RL1 intracellular missense variants resulted in higher sST2 and IL-33.

Media from KU812 cells expressing WT and IL1RL1 missense variants were collected for ELISA analysis of (A) sST2, (B) IL-33, and (C) IL-113 levels. Horizontal bars indicate mean values, and symbols represent indi­vidual variants. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 vs. WT. (D) Effect of anti–IL-113 mAb on IL-33–induced sST2 expression. Dashed line indicates PBS-treated cells as referent group. Error bars represent mean ± SEM from 2 independent experiments. *P < 0.05 vs. IL-33.

Fig 4  IL1RL1 missense variants modulated ST2 signaling pathways

Figure 4  IL1RL1 missense variants modulated ST2 signaling pathways. 

KU812 cells expressing WT or IL1RL1 variants were treated with PBS or IL-33. Levels of the following phosphorylated proteins were detected in cell lysates using ELISA: (A and B) phospho-NF-KB p65; (C and D) phospho-c-Jun activity; and (E and F) phospho-AKT. (A, C, and E) White bars represent basal levels, and (B, D, and F) gray bars represent relative fold increase (compared with PBS-treated group) after IL-33 treatment. *P < 0.05 vs. WT; **P < 0.01 vs. PBS-treated group. Dashed line in B, D, and F represents PBS-treated cells as referent group. Error bars represent mean ± SEM from 2 independent experiments. Fig 5   IL-33–induced sST2 expression is enhanced with mTOR inhibition and occurs via ST2L-dependent signaling.

Figure 5  IL-33–induced sST2 expression is enhanced with mTOR inhibition and occurs via ST2L-dependent signaling.

(A) sST2 mRNA expression in KU812 cells after treatment with DMSO, IL-33, or IL-33 plus signal inhibitors (wortmannin, LY294002, rapamycin, PD98059, SP60125, BAY11-7082, or SR11302). (B) ST2L mRNA and (C) sST2 mRNA expression in KU812 cells treated with PBS (white columns), rapamycin (rapa), anti-ST2 mAb, IL-33, IL-33 plus anti-ST2, IL-33 plus rapamycin, IL-33 plus rapamycin plus anti-ST2 mAb, or rapamycin plus anti-ST2. (D) IL33 mRNA expression in KU812 cells after treatment with DMSO, signal inhibitors, IL-33 plus signal inhibitors, and IL-1n plus signal inhibitors. *P < 0.05 vs. PBS-treated group; #P < 0.05 vs. IL-33–treated group; &P < 0.05 vs. IL-1n–treated group. Error bars represent mean ± SEM from 2 independent experiments. (E) A schematic model illustrating the regulation of sST2 expression by IL1RL1 missense variants through enhanced induction of IL-33 via enhanced NF-KB and AP-1 signaling and enhanced IL-33 responsiveness via increasing ST2L expression.

Quantitating subcellular metabolism with multi-isotope imaging mass spectrometry

ML Steinhauser, A Bailey, SE Senyo, C Guillermier, TS Perlstein, AP Gould, RT Lee, and CP Lechene
Department of Medicine, Divisions of Cardiovascular Medicine & Genetics, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School & Harvard Stem Cell Institute Division of Physiology and Metabolism, Medical Research Council National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London, UK National Resource for Imaging Mass Spectroscopy
Nature 2012;481(7382): 516–519.   http://dx. do.org/10.1038/nature10734

Mass spectrometry with stable isotope labels has been seminal in discovering the dynamic state of living matter, but is limited to bulk tissues or cells. We developed multi-isotope imaging mass spectrometry (MIMS) that allowed us to view and measure stable isotope incorporation with sub-micron resolution. Here we apply MIMS to diverse organisms, including Drosophila, mice, and humans. We test the “immortal strand hypothesis,” which predicts that during asymmetric stem cell division chromosomes containing older template DNA are segregated to the daughter destined to remain a stem cell, thus insuring lifetime genetic stability. After labeling mice with 15N-thymidine from gestation through post-natal week 8, we find no 15N label retention by dividing small intestinal crypt cells after 4wk chase. In adult mice administered 15N-thymidine pulse-chase, we find that proliferating crypt cells dilute label consistent with random strand segregation. We demonstrate the broad utility of MIMS with proof-of-principle studies of lipid turnover in Drosophila and translation to the human hematopoietic system. These studies show that MIMS provides high-resolution quantitation of stable isotope labels that cannot be obtained using other techniques and that is broadly applicable to biological and medical research. MIMS combines ion microscopy with secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), stable isotope reporters, and intensive computation (Supplemental Fig 1). MIMS allows imaging and measuring stable isotope labels in cell domains smaller than one micron cubed. We tested the potential of MIMS to quantitatively track DNA labeling with 15N-thymidine in vitro. In proliferating fibroblasts, we detected label incorporation within the nucleus by an increase in the 15N/14N ratio above natural ratio (Fig 1a). The labeling pattern resembled chromatin with either stable isotope-tagged thymidine or thymidine analogs (Fig 1b). We measured dose-dependent incorporation of 15N-thymidine over three orders of magnitude (Fig 1d, Supplemental Fig 2). We also tracked fibroblast division after a 24-hour label-free chase (Fig 1d,e, Supplemental Fig 3). Cells segregated into two populations, one indistinguishable from control cells suggesting no division, the other with halving of label, consistent with one division during chase. We found similar results by tracking cell division in vivo in the small intestine (Fig 1f,g, Supplemental Figs 4–6). We measured dose-dependent 15N-thymidine incorporation within nuclei of actively dividing crypt cells (Fig 1g, Supplemental Fig 4), down to a dose of 0.1µg/ g (Supplemental Fig 2). The cytoplasm was slightly above natural ratio, likely due to low level soluble 15N-thymidine or mitochondrial incorporation (Supplemental Fig 2). We measured halving of label with each division during label-free chase (Supplemental Fig 6). We then tested the “immortal strand hypothesis,” a concept that emerged from autoradiographic studies and that predicted long-term label retaining cells in the small intestinal crypt. It proposes that asymmetrically dividing stem cells also asymmetrically segregate DNA, such that older template strands are retained by daughter cells that will remain stem cells and newer strands are passed to daughters committed to differentiation (Supplemental Fig 7)5,6. Modern studies continue to argue both for or against the hypothesis, leading to the suggestion that definitive resolution of the debate will require a new experimental approach. Although prior evidence suggests a concentration of label-retaining cells in the +4 anatomic position, we searched for DNA label retention irrespective of anatomic position or molecular identity. We labeled mice with 15N-thymidine for the first 8 wks of life when intestinal stem cells are proposed to form. After a 4-wk chase, mice received bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) for 24h prior to sacrifice to identify proliferating cells(Fig 2a, Supplemental Fig 8: Exp 1), specifically crypt base columnar (CBC) cells and transit amplifying cells (TA) (Supplemental Fig 9), which cycle at a rate of one and two times per 24h, respectively (Supplemental Fig 10). All crypt cell nuclei were highly labeled upon completion of 15N-thymidine; after a four-week chase, however, we found no label retention by non-Paneth crypt cells (Fig 2b–f; n=3 mice, 136 crypts analysed). 15N-labeling in BrdU/15N+ Paneth and mesenchymal cells was equivalent to that measured at pulse completion (Fig2b,c) suggesting quiescence during the chase (values above 15N/14N natural ratio: Paneth pulse=107.8 +/− 5.0% s.e.m. n=51 vs Paneth pulse-chase=96.3+/−2.8% s.e.m. n=218; mesenchymal pulse=92.0+/−5.0% s.e.m. n=89 vs mesenchymal pulse-chase=90.5+/ −2.2% s.e.m. n=543). The number of randomly selected crypt sections was sufficient to detect a frequency as low as one label-retaining stem cell per crypt irrespective of anatomic location within the crypt. Because each anatomic level contains approximately 16 circumferentially arrayed cells, a 2-dimensional analysis captures approximately 1/8th of the cells at each anatomic position (one on each side of the crypt; Supplemental Fig 9a). Therefore, assuming only 1 label-retaining stem cell per crypt we should have found 17 label-retaining cells in the 136 sampled crypts (1/8th of 136); we found 0 (binomial test p<0.0001). The significance of this result held after lowering the expected frequency of label-retaining cells by 25% to account for the development of new crypts, a process thought to continue into adulthood. In three additional experiments, using shorter labeling periods and including in utero development, we also found no label-retaining cells in the crypt other than Paneth cells (Supplemental Fig 8, Exps 2–4).

Fig 1 post-natal human DNA synthesis in the heart

In recent years, several protocols have been developed experimentally in an attempt to identify novel therapeutic interventions aiming at the reduction of infarct size and prevention of short and long term negative ventricular remodeling following ischemic myocardial injury. Three main strategies have been employed and a significant amount of work is being conducted to determine the most effective form of action for acute ischemic heart failure. The delivery of bone marrow progenitor cells (BMCs) has been highly controversial, but recent clinical data have shown improvement in ventricular performance and clinical outcome. These observations have not changed the nature of the debate concerning the efficacy of this cell category for the human disease and the mechanisms involved in the impact of BMCs on cardiac structure and function. Whether BMCs transdifferentiate and acquire the cardiomyocyte lineage has faced strong opposition and data in favor and against this possibility have been reported. However, this is the only cell class which has been introduced in the treatment of heart failure in patients and large clinical trials are in progress.
Human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) have repeatedly been utilized in animal models to restore the acutely infarcted myocardium, but limited cell engraftment, modest ability to generate vascular structures, teratoma formation and the apparent transient beneficial effects on cardiac hemodynamics have questioned the current feasibility of this approach clinically. Tremendous efforts are being performed to reduce the malignant tumorigenic potential of ESCs and promote their differentiation into cardiomyocytes with the expectation that these extremely powerful cells may be applied to human beings in the future. Additionally, the study of ESCs may provide unique understanding of the mechanisms of embryonic development that may lead to therapeutic interventions in utero and the correction of congenital malformations.
The recognition that a pool of primitive cells with the characteristics of stem cells resides in the myocardium and that these cells form myocytes, ECs and SMCs has provided a different perspective of the biology of the heart and mechanisms of cardiac homeostasis and tissue repair. Regeneration implies that dead cells are replaced by newly formed cells restoring the original structure of the organ. In adulthood, this process occurs during physiological cell turnover, in the absence of injury. However, myocardial damage interferes with recapitulation of cell turnover and restitutio ad integrum of the organ. Because of the inability of the adult heart to regenerate itself after infarction, previous studies have promoted tissue repair by injecting exogenously expanded CPCs in proximity of the necrotic myocardium or by activating resident CPCs through the delivery of growth factors known to induce cell migration and differentiation. These strategies have attenuated ventricular dilation and the impairment in cardiac function and in some cases have decreased animal mortality.

Although various subsets of CPCs have been used to reconstitute the infarcted myocardium and different degrees of muscle mass regeneration have been obtained, in all cases the newly formed cardiomyocytes possessed fetal-neonatal characteristics and failed to acquire the adult cell phenotype. In the current study, to enhance myocyte growth and differentiation, we have introduced cell therapy together with the delivery of self-assembly peptide nanofibers to provide a specific and prolonged local myocardial release of IGF-1. IGF-1 increases CPC growth and survival in vitro and in vivo and this effect resulted here in a major increase in the formation of cardiomyocytes and coronary vessels, decreasing infarct size and restoring partly cardiac performance. This therapeutic approach was superior to the administration of CPCs or NF-IGF-1 only. Combination therapy appeared to be additive; it promoted myocardial regeneration through the activation and differentiation of resident and exogenously delivered CPCs. Additionally, the strategy implemented here may be superior to the utilization of BMCs for cardiac repair. CPCs are destined to form myocytes, and vascular SMCs and ECs and, in contrast to BMCs, do not have to transdifferentiate to acquire cardiac cell lineages. Transdifferentiation involves chromatin reorganization with activation and silencing of transcription factors and epigenetic modifications.

Selected References

  1. Hsieh PC, Davis ME, Gannon J, MacGillivray C, Lee RT. Controlled delivery of PDGF-BB for myocardial protection using injectable self-assembling peptide nanofibers. J Clin Invest 2006;116:237–248. [PubMed: 16357943]
  2. Davis ME, Hsieh PC, Takahashi T, Song Q, Zhang S, Kamm RD, Grodzinsky AJ, Anversa P, Lee RT. Local myocardial insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) delivery with biotinylated peptide nanofibers improves cell therapy for myocardial infarction. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2006;103:8155–8160. [PubMed: 16698918]
  3. Beltrami AP, Barlucchi L, Torella D, Baker M, Limana F, Chimenti S, Kasahara H, Rota M, Musso E, Urbanek K, Leri A, Kajstura J, Nadal-Ginard B, Anversa P. Adult cardiac stem cells are multipotent and support myocardial regeneration. Cell 2003;114:763–776. [PubMed: 14505575]
  4. Rota M, Padin-Iruegas ME, Misao Y, De Angelis A, Maestroni S, Ferreira-Martins J, Fiumana E, Rastaldo R, Arcarese ML, Mitchell TS, Boni A, Bolli R, Urbanek K, Hosoda T, Anversa P, Leri A, Kajstura J. Local activation or implantation of cardiac progenitor cells rescues scarred infarcted myocardium improving cardiac function. Circ Res 2008;103:107–116. [PubMed: 18556576]

Cardiac anatomy.

Figure 2.  Cardiac anatomy.

(A and B) Cardiac weights and infarct size. R and L correspond, respectively, to the number of myocytes remaining and lost after infarction. (C–G) LV dimensions. Sham-operated: SO. *Indicates P<0.05 vs SO; **vs untreated infarcts (UN); †vs infarcts treated with CPCs; ‡vs infarcts treated with NF-IGF-1.

Ventricular function

Figure 3.  Ventricular function.

Combination therapy (CPC-NF-IGF-1) attenuated the most the negative impact of myocardial infarction on cardiac performance. See Figure 2 for symbols.

Endothelial Cells Promote Cardiac Myocyte Survival and Spatial Reorganization: Implications for Cardiac Regeneration

Daria A. Narmoneva, Rada Vukmirovic, Michael E. Davis, Roger D. Kamm,  and Richard T. Lee
Cardiovascular Division, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, and the Division of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Circulation. 2004 August 24; 110(8): 962–968.        http://dx.doi.org/10.1161/01.CIR.0000140667.37070.07

Background

Endothelial-cardiac myocyte (CM) interactions play a key role in regulating cardiac function, but the role of these interactions in CM survival is unknown. This study tested the hypothesis that endothelial cells (ECs) promote CM survival and enhance spatial organization in a 3-dimensional configuration.

Methods and Results

Microvascular ECs and neonatal CMs were seeded on peptide hydrogels in 1 of 3 experimental configurations:

  1. CMs alone,
  2. CMs mixed with ECs (coculture), or
  3. CMs seeded on preformed EC networks (prevascularized).

Capillary-like networks formed by ECs promoted marked CM reorganization along the EC structures, in contrast to limited organization of CMs cultured alone. The presence of ECs markedly inhibited CM apoptosis and necrosis at all time points. In addition, CMs on preformed EC networks resulted in significantly less CM apoptosis and necrosis compared with simultaneous EC-CM seeding (P<0.01, ANOVA). Furthermore, ECs promoted synchronized contraction of CMs as well as connexin 43 expression.

Conclusions

These results provide direct evidence for a novel role of endothelium in survival and organization of nearby CMs. Successful strategies for cardiac regeneration may therefore depend on establishing functional CM-endothelium interactions.

Keywords:  endothelium; cardiomyopathy; heart failure; tissue

Introduction

Recent studies suggest that the mammalian heart possesses some ability to regenerate itself through several potential mechanisms, including generation of new cardiomyocytes (CMs) from extracardiac progenitors, CM proliferation, or fusion with stem cells with subsequent hybrid cell division. These mechanisms are insufficient to regenerate adequate heart tissue in humans, although some vertebrates can regenerate large volumes of injured myocardium.
Several approaches in cell transplantation and cardiac tissue engineering have been investigated as potential treatments to enhance cardiac function after myocardial injury. Implantation of skeletal muscle cells, bone marrow cells, embryonic stem cell-derived CMs, and myoblasts can enhance cardiac function. Cell-seeded grafts have been used instead of isolated cells for in vitro cardiac tissue growth or in vivo transplantation. These grafts can develop a high degree of myocyte spatial organization, differentiation, and spontaneous and coordinated contractions. On implantation in vivo, cardiac grafts can integrate into the host tissue and neovascularization can develop. However, the presence of scar tissue and the death of cells in the graft can limit the amount of new myocardium formed, most likely due to ischemia. Therefore, creating a favorable environment to promote survival of transplanted cells and differentiation of progenitor cells remains one of the most important steps in regeneration of heart tissue.
One of the key factors for myocardial regeneration is revascularization of damaged tissue. In the normal heart, there is a capillary next to almost every CM, and endothelial cells (ECs) outnumber cardiomyocytes by ≈3:1. Developmental biology experiments reveal that myocardial cell maturation and function depend on the presence of endocardial endothelium at an early stage. Experiments with inactivation or overexpression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) demonstrated that at later stages, either an excess or a deficit in blood vessel formation results in lethality due to cardiac dysfunction. Both endocardium and myocardial capillaries have been shown to modulate cardiac performance, rhythmicity, and growth. In addition, a recent study showed the critical importance of CM-derived VEGF in paracrine regulation of cardiac morphogenesis. These findings and others highlight the significance of interactions between CMs and endothelium for normal cardiac function. However, little is known about the specific mechanisms for these interactions, as well as the role of a complex, 3-dimensional organization of myocytes, ECs, and fibroblasts in the maintenance of healthy cardiac muscle.
The critical relation of CMs and the microvasculature suggests that successful cardiac regeneration will require a strategy that promotes survival of both ECs and CMs. The present study explored the hypothesis that ECs (both as preexisting capillary-like structures and mixed with myocytes at the time of seeding) promote myocyte survival and enhance spatial reorganization in a 3-dimensional configuration. The results demonstrate that CM interactions with ECs markedly decrease myocyte death and show that endothelium may be important not only for the delivery of blood and oxygen but also for the formation and maintenance of myocardial structure.

Methods

  • Three-Dimensional Culture
  • Immunohistochemistry and Cell Death Assays
  • Evaluation of Contractile Areas

Results

  • EC-CM Interactions Affect Myocyte Reorganization
  • ECs Improve Survival of CMs
  • Preformed Endothelial Networks Promote Coordinated, Spontaneous Contractions
  • ECs Promote Cx43 Expression

EC-CM Interactions Affect Myocyte Reorganization

To explore interactions between CMs and ECs in 3-dimensional culture, we used peptide hydrogels, a tissue engineering scaffold. Cells seeded on the surface of the hydrogel attach and then migrate into the hydrogel. When CMs alone were used, cells attached on day 1 and then formed small clusters of cells at days 3 and 7 (Figure 1). In contrast, when CMs were seeded together with ECs, cells formed interconnected linear networks, as commonly seen with ECs in 3-dimensional culture environments, with increasing spatial organization from day 1 to day 7 (Figure 1).

Figure 1.  ECs promote CM reorganization. 

When CMs were cultured alone (left column), they aggregated into sparse clusters. When CMs were cultured with ECs (center), cells organized into capillary-like networks. There was no difference in morphological appearance between coculture or prevascularized cultures (not shown) and ECs alone (right column). Bar=100 μm. Abbreviations are as defined in text.

To establish whether preformed endothelial networks enhanced the organization of myocytes, we also seeded ECs 1 day before myocytes were added. These ECs formed similar interconnected networks in the absence of myocytes; preforming the vascular network did not lead to significant differences in morphology (data not shown). Furthermore, to exclude the possibility that the increasing cell density of added ECs caused the spatial organization, we also performed control experiments with varying numbers and combinations of cells; there was no effect of doubling or halving cell numbers, indicating that the spatial organization effect was specifically due to ECs. To establish that both myocytes and ECs were forming networks together, we performed immunofluorescence studies with specific antibodies, as well as analysis of cross sections of CM-EC cocultures, whereby cells were labeled with CellTracker dyes before seeding. Immunofluorescent staining demonstrated that >95% of CMs were present within these networks, suggesting that CMs preferentially migrate to or survive better near ECs (Figure 2).

Figure 2.  CMs appear on outside of endothelial networks.

CMs appear on outside of endothelial networks. High-magnification, double-immunofluorescence image of structures formed in EC-CM coculture at day 7 demonstrating CMs (sarcomeric actinin, red) spread on top of ECs (von Willebrand factor, green) with no myocytes present outside structure. Bar=100 μm. Abbreviations are as defined in text.

The analysis of cross sections demonstrated the presence of what appeared to be EC-derived, tubelike structures (Figure 3), with myocytes spread on the outer part of the capillary wall. Along with the capillary-like structures, clusters of intermingled cells (both myocytes and ECs) not containing the lumen were also observed (not shown). However, when the lumen was present, ECs were always on the inner side and myocytes on the outer side of the structure.

Figure 3.  ECs form tubelike structures with myocytes spreading on outer wall.

Cross section of paraffin-embedded sample of 3-day coculture of myocytes (red) and ECs (green) incubated in CellTracker dye before seeding on hydrogel. Bar=50 μm. Abbreviations are as defined in text.

In CM-fibroblast cocultures, cells rapidly (within 24 hours) formed large clusters consisting of cells of both types (not shown). At later time points, fibroblast proliferation resulted in their migration outside the clusters and spreading on the hydrogel without any pattern. However, in contrast to EC-CM cocultures, CMs remained in the clusters and demonstrated only limited spreading. Immunofluorescent staining revealed that there was no orientation of myocytes relative to the fibroblasts in the clusters. In cultures with EC-conditioned medium, myocyte morphology and spatial organization remained similar to those of myocyte controls.

ECs Improve Survival of CMs

To test the hypothesis that ECs promote CM survival, we assessed apoptosis and necrosis in the 3-dimensional cultures. Quantitative analyses of CMs positive for TUNEL and necrosis staining demonstrated significantly decreased myocyte apoptosis and necrosis when cultured with ECs, compared with CM-only cultures (Figure 4, P<0.01). This effect was observed at all 3 time points, although the decreased necrosis was most pronounced at day 1. In addition, CMs seeded on the preformed EC networks had a lower rate of apoptosis at day 1 relative to same-time seeding cultures (P<0.05, post hoc test), suggesting that early EC-CM interactions provided by the presence of well-attached and prearranged ECs may further promote CM survival. In contrast to the ECs, cardiac fibroblasts did not affect myocyte survival (P>0.05, Figure 4), with ratios for myocyte apoptosis and necrosis in the myocyte-fibroblast cocultures being similar to those for myocyte-only controls. However, addition of EC-conditioned medium resulted in a significant decrease in apoptosis and necrosis ratios of myocytes (P<0.01). Interestingly, the effect of conditioned medium on myocyte necrosis was similar in magnitude to the effect of ECs, whereas myocyte apoptosis ratios in the conditioned-medium group were only partially decreased compared with those in the presence of ECs. These results suggest that the prosurvival effect of ECs on CMs may not only be merely due to the local interactions between myocytes and ECs during myocyte attachment but may also involve direct signaling between myocytes and ECs.

Figure 4.  ECs prolong survival of CMs

Top, dual immunostaining of CMs and EC-myocyte prevascularized groups at day 3 in culture, with TUNEL-positive cells in red; green indicates sarcomeric actinin; blue, DAPI. Bottom, presence of ECs decreased CM apoptosis and necrosis, both in coculture conditions and when cultures were prevascularized by seeding with ECs 1 day before CMs (mean±SD, P<0.01). EC-conditioned medium decreased myocyte apoptosis and necrosis (P<0.01), whereas fibroblasts did not have any effect (P>0.05). *Different from myocytes alone; **different from EC-myocyte coculture and pre-vascularized. Bar=100 μm. Abbreviations are as defined in text.

Preformed Endothelial Networks Promote Coordinated, Spontaneous Contractions

In the prevascularized group with preformed vascular structures, synchronized, spontaneous contractions of large areas (Figure 5, top panels) were detected as early as days 2 to 3after seeding, in contrast to the coculture group, wherein such contractions were observed on days 6 to 7. In CM-only cultures, beating of separate cells and small cell clusters was also detected at days 2 to 3, similar to that in the prevascularized group. However, the average area of synchronized beating at day 3 in the myocyte-only group (3.5±0.5×102 μm2) was nearly 3 orders of magnitude smaller than the synchronously contracting area in the prevascularized group (4.3±2.5×105 μm2, mean±SD, n=5). These data suggest that ECs promote synchronized CM contraction, particularly when vascular networks are already formed.

Figure 5.  ECs promote large-scale, synchronized contraction of CMs.

Left, phase-contrast video of beating areas in CM-only and prevascularized groups (day 3). Right, motion analysis of video showing regions of synchronized contractions (connected areas in purple are contracting synchronously) and nonmoving areas in blue. Bars=100 μm. Abbreviations are as defined in text.

ECs Promote Cx43 Expression

Staining for Cx43 showed striking differences in the distribution pattern of this gap junction protein between EC-CM cocultures and CMs cultured alone. In myocyte-only cultures, Cx43 expression was barely detectable at day 1 (not shown); at days 3 and 7, Cx43 expression was sparse throughout the cell clusters (Figure 6). In the presence of ECs (in both coculture and prevascularized groups), Cx43 staining was evident at day 1, both between ECs and distributed among CMs. As early as day 3 in culture, patches of localized junction-like Cx43, in addition to diffuse staining, were observed for myocytes in the coculture group (Figure 6). In the prevascularized group at day 3, wherein spontaneous contractions were already observed, more junction-like patches of Cx43 were observed compared with the coculture group, indicating electrical connections between myocytes (Figure 6). In addition to junctions between myocytes, there was also evidence of Cx43 localized at the interface between ECs and myocytes (Figure 6) detected in both the coculture group (at day 7) and the preculture group (as early as day 3). When myocytes and myocyte-EC coculture groups were cultured for 3 days with or without addition of 100 ng/mL of neutralizing anti-mouse VEGF antibody (R&D Systems), we observed no differences in either apoptosis or Cx43 staining between VEGF antibody-containing cultures and controls.

Figure 6. ECs promote Cx43 expression

Cultures at 3 days immunostained for Cx43 (red) and anti-sarcomeric actinin (green); nuclei are stained with DAPI (blue). For CMs alone (left), Cx43 staining is diffuse and sparse, with no evidence of gap junctions; for coculture (center), both diffuse (yellow arrow) and patchlike (thin, white arrow) Cx43 staining is observed; for prevascularized (right), increased patchlike staining indicates presence of gap junctions. Thick arrow-heads indicate junctions between myocytes and ECs. Bar=50 μm. Abbreviations are as defined in text.

nihms-134922.jpg  endothelial-myocyte figs_Image_1

nihms-134922.jpg  endothelial-myocyte figs_Image_2

nihms-134922.jpg  endothelial-myocyte figs_Image_3

nihms-134922.jpg  endothelial-myocyte figs_Image_4

nihms-134922.jpg  endothelial-myocyte figs_Image_5

nihms-134922.jpg  endothelial-myocyte figs_Image_6

Endothelial-Cardiomyocyte Interactions in Cardiac Development and Repair: Implications for Cardiac Regeneration

Patrick C.H. Hsieh, Michael E. Davis, Laura K. Lisowski, and Richard T. Lee

Cardiovascular Division, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
Annu Rev Physiol.    PMC 2009 September 30

The ongoing molecular conversation between endothelial cells and cardiomyocytes is highly relevant to the recent excitement in promoting cardiac regeneration. The ultimate goal of myocardial regeneration is to rebuild a functional tissue that closely resembles mature myocardium, not just to improve systolic function transiently. Thus, regenerating myocardium will require rebuilding the vascular network along with the cardiomyocyte architecture. Here we review evidence demonstrating crucial molecular interactions between endothelial cells and cardiomyocytes. We first discuss endothelial-cardiomyocyte interactions during embryonic cardiogenesis, followed with morphological and functional characteristics of endothelial-cardiomyocyte interactions in mature myocardium. Finally, we consider strategies exploiting endothelial-cardiomyocyte interplay for cardiac regeneration.

Signaling from Cardiomyocytes to Endothelial Cells

The examples of neuregulin-1, NF1, and PDGF-B demonstrate that signals from endothelial cells regulate the formation of primary myocardium. Similarly, signaling from myocardial cells to endothelial cells is also required for cardiac development. Two examples of myocardial-to-endothelial signaling are vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-A and angiopoietin-1.

VASCULAR ENDOTHELIAL GROWTH FACTOR-A

VEGF-A is a key regulator of angiogenesis during embryogenesis. In mice, a mutation in VEGF-A causes endocardial detachment from an underdeveloped myocardium. A mutation in VEGF receptor-2 (or Flk-1) also results in failure of the endocardium and myocardium to develop (18). Furthermore, cardiomyocyte-specific deletion of VEGF-A results in defects in vasculogenesis/angiogenesis and a thinned ventricular wall, further confirming reciprocal signaling from the myocardial cell to the endothelial cell during cardiac development. Interestingly, this cardiomyocyte-selective VEGF-A-deletion mouse has underdeveloped myocardial microvasculature but preserved coronary artery structure, implying a different signaling mechanism for vasculogenesis/angiogenesis in the myocardium and in the epicardial coronary arteries.
Cardiomyocyte-derived VEGF-A also inhibits cardiac endocardial-to-mesenchymal transformation. This process is essential in the formation of the cardiac cushions and requires delicate control of VEGF-A concentration. A minimal amount of VEGF initiates endocardial-to-mesenchymal transformation, whereas higher doses of VEGF-A terminate this transformation. Interestingly, this cardiomyocyte-derived VEGF-A signaling for endocardial-to-mesenchymal transformation may be controlled by an endothelial-derived feedback mechanism through the calcineurin/NFAT pathway (24), demonstrating the importance of endothelial-cardiomyocyte interactions for cardiac morphogenesis.

ANGIOPOIETIN-1

Another mechanism of cardiomyocyte control of endothelial cells during cardiac development is the angiopoietin-Tie-2 system. Both angiopoietin-1 and angiopoietin-2 may bind to Tie-2 receptors in a competitive manner, but with opposite effects: Angiopoietin-1 activates the Tie-2 receptor and prevents vascular edema, whereas angiopoietin-2 blocks Tie-2 phosphorylation and increases vascular permeability. During angiogenesis/vasculogenesis, angiopoietin-1 is produced primarily by pericytes, and Tie-2 receptors are expressed on endothelial cells. Angiopoietin-1 regulates the stabilization and maturation of neovasculature; genetic deletion of angiopoietin-1 or Tie-2 causes a defect in early vasculogenesis/angiogenesis and is lethal.
Cardiac endocardium is one of the earliest vascular components (along with the dorsal aorta and yolk sac vessels) and the adult heart can be regarded as a fully vascularized organ, angiopoietin-Tie-2 signaling may also be required for early cardiac development. Indeed, mice with mutations in Tie-2 have underdeveloped endocardium and myocardium. These Tie-2 knockout mice display defects in the endocardium but have normal vascular morphology at E10.5, suggesting that the endocardial defect is the fundamental cause of death. In addition, a recent study showed that overexpression, and not deletion, of angiopoietin-1 from cardiomyocytes caused embryonic death between E12.5-15.5 due to cardiac hemorrhage. The mice had defects in the endocardium and myocardium and lack of coronary arteries, suggesting that, as with VEGF-A, a delicate control of angiopoietin-1 concentration is critical for early heart development.

ENDOTHELIAL-CARDIOMYOCYTE INTERACTIONS IN NORMAL CARDIAC FUNCTION

Cardiac Endothelial Cells Regulate Cardiomyocyte Contraction

The vascular endothelium senses the shear stress of flowing blood and regulates vascular smooth muscle contraction. It is therefore not surprising that cardiac endothelial cells—the endocardial endothelial cells as well as the endothelial cells of intramyocardial capillaries— regulate the contractile state of cardiomyocytes. Autocrine and paracrine signaling molecules released or activated by cardiac endothelial cells are responsible for this contractile response (Figure 2).

NITRIC OXIDE

Three different nitric oxide synthase isoenzymes synthesize nitric oxide (NO) from L-arginine. The neuronal and endothelial NO synthases (nNOS and eNOS, respectively) are expressed in normal physiological conditions, whereas the inducible NO synthase is induced by stress or cytokines. Like NO in the vessel, which causes relaxation of vascular smooth muscle, NO in the heart affects the onset of ventricular relaxation, which allows for a precise optimization of pump function beat by beat. Although NO is principally a paracrine effector secreted by cardiac endothelial cells, cardiomyocytes also express both nNOS and eNOS. Endothelial expression of eNOS exceeds that in cardiomyocytes by greater than 4:1. Cardiomyocyte autocrine eNOS signaling can regulate β-adrenergic and muscarinic control of contractile state.
Barouch et al. demonstrated that cardiomyocyte nNOS and eNOS may have opposing effects on cardiac structure and function. Using mice with nNOS or eNOS deficiency, they found that nNOS and eNOS have not only different localization in cardiomyocytes but also opposite effects on cardiomyocyte contractility; eNOS localizes to caveolae and inhibits L-type Ca2+ channels, leading to negative inotropy, whereas nNOS is targeted to the sarcoplasmic reticulum and facilitates Ca2+ release and thus positive inotropy (31). These results demonstrate that spatial confinement of different NO synthase isoforms contribute independently to the maintenance of cardiomyocyte structure and phenotype.
As indicated above, mutation of neuregulin or either of two of its cognate receptors, erbB2 and erbB4, causes embryonic death during mid-embryogenesis due to aborted development of myocardial trabeculation . Neuregulin also appears to play a role in fully developed myocardium. In adult mice, cardiomyocyte-specific deletion of erbB2 leads to dilated cardiomyopathy. Neuregulin from endothelial cells may induce a negative inotropic effect in isolated rabbit papillary muscles. This suggests that, along with NO, the neuregulin signaling pathway acts as an endothelial-derived regulator of cardiac inotropism.  In fact, the negative inotropic effect of neuregulin may require NO synthase because L-NMMA, an inhibitor of NO synthase, significantly attenuates the negative inotropy of neuregulin.

Studies to date indicate that cardiac regeneration in mammals may be feasible, but the response is inadequate to preserve myocardial function after a substantial injury. Thus, understanding how normal myocardial structure can be regenerated in adult hearts is essential. It is clear that endothelial cells play a role in cardiac morphogenesis and most likely also in survival and function of mature cardiomyocytes. Initial attempts to promote angiogenesis in myocardium were based on the premise that persistent ischemia could be alleviated. However, it is also possible that endothelial-cardiomyocyte interactions are essential in normal cardiomyocyte function and for protection from injury. Understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms controlling these cell-cell interactions will not only enhance our understanding of the establishment of vascular network in the heart but also allow the development of new targeted therapies for cardiac regeneration by improving cardiomyocyte survival and maturation.

Endothelial-cardiomyocyte assembly

Figure 1.  Endothelial-cardiomyocyte assembly in adult mouse myocardium.
Normal adult mouse myocardium is stained with intravital perfusion techniques to demonstrate cardiomyocyte (outlined in red) and capillary (green; stained with isolectin-fluorescein) assembly. Nuclei are blue (Hoechst). Original magnification: 600X

Endothelial dysfunction

Intramyocardial Fibroblast – Myocyte Communication

Rahul Kakkar, M.D. and Richard T. Lee, M.D.
From the Cardiology Division, Massachusetts General Hospital and the Cardiovascular Division, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
Circ Res. 2010 January 8; 106(1): 47–57.    http://dx.doi.org/10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.109.207456

Cardiac fibroblasts have received relatively little attention compared to their more famous neighbors, the cardiomyocytes. Cardiac fibroblasts are often regarded as the “spotters”, nonchalantly watching the cardiomyocytes do the real weight-lifting, and waiting for a catastrophe that requires their actions. However, emerging data now reveal the fibroblast as not only a critical player in the response to injury, but also as an active participant in normal cardiac function.
Interest in cardiac fibroblasts has grown with the recognition that cardiac fibrosis is a prominent contributor to diverse forms of myocardial disease. In the early 1990’s, identification of angiotensin receptors on the surface of cardiac fibroblasts linked the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system directly with pathologic myocardial and matrix extracellular remodeling.  Fibroblasts were also revealed as a major source of not only extracellular matrix, but the proteases that regulate and organize matrix. New research has uncovered paracrine and well as direct cell-to-cell interactions between fibroblasts and their cardiomyocyte neighbors, and cardiac fibroblasts appear to be dynamic participants in ventricular physiology and pathophysiology.
This review will focus on several aspects of fibroblast-myocyte communication, including mechanisms of paracrine communication.  Ongoing efforts at regeneration of cardiac tissue focus primarily on increasing the number of cardiomyocytes in damaged myocardium. Although getting cardiomyocytes into myocardium is an important goal, understanding intercellular paracrine communication between different cell types, including endothelial cells but also fibroblasts, may prove crucial to regenerating stable myocardium that responds to physiological conditions appropriately.

An area of active research in cardiovascular therapeutics is the attempt to engineer, ex vivo, functional myocardial tissue that may be engrafted onto areas of injured ventricle. Recent data suggests that the inclusion of cardiac fibroblasts in three-dimensional cultures greatly enhances the stability and growth of the nascent myocardium. Cardiac fibroblasts when included in polymer scaffolds seeded with myocytes and endothelial cells have the ability to promote and stabilize vascular structures. Naito and colleagues constructed three dimensional cultures of neonatal rat cell isolates on collagen type I and Matrigel (a basement membrane protein mixture), and isolates of a mixed cell population versus a myocyte-enriched population were compared. The mixed population cultures, which contained a higher fraction of cardiac fibroblasts than the myocyte-enriched cultures, displayed improved contractile force generation and greater inotropic response despite an equivalent overall cell number. Greater vascularity was also seen in the mixed-pool cultures.(160) Building on this, Nichol and colleagues demonstrated that in a self-assembling nanopeptide scaffold, embedded rat neonatal cardiomyocytes exhibit greater cellular alignment and reduced apoptosis when cardiac fibroblasts were included in the initial culture. A similar result was noted when polymer scaffolds were pre-treated with cardiac fibroblasts before myocyte seeding, suggesting a persistent paracrine effect. These data reinforce the concept that engineering functional myocardium, either in situ or ex vivo will require attention to the nature of cell-cell interactions, including fibroblasts.

To date, a broad initial sketch of cardiac fibroblast-myocyte interactions has been drawn. Future studies in this field will better describe these interactions. How do multiple paracrine factors interact to produce a cohesive and coordinated communication scheme? What are the changes in coordinated bidirectional signaling that during development promotes myocyte progenitor proliferation but have different roles in the adult? Might fibroblasts actually be required for improved cardiac repair and regeneration?
Recent studies have begun to apply genetic and cellular fate-mapping techniques to document the origins of cardiac fibroblasts, the dynamic nature of their population, and how that population may be in flux during time of injury or pressure overload. It is crucial to define on a more specific molecular basis the origins and fates of cardiac fibroblasts. Do fibroblasts that have been resident within the ventricle since development fundamentally differ from those that arise from endothelial transition or that infiltrate from the bone marrow during adulthood? Do fibroblasts with these different origins behave differently or take on different roles in the face of ventricular strain or injury?

Our understanding of the nature of the cardiac fibroblast is evolving from the concept of the fibroblast as a bystander that causes unwanted fibrosis to the picture of a more complex role of fibroblasts in the healthy as well as diseased heart. The pathways used by cardiac fibroblasts to communicate with their neighboring myocytes are only partially described, but the data to date indicate that these pathways will be important for cardiac repair and regeneration.

. Paracrine bidirectional cardiac fibroblast-myocyte crosstalk

Figure 2. Paracrine bidirectional cardiac fibroblast-myocyte crosstalk

Under biomechanical overload, cardiac fibroblasts and myocytes respond to an altered environment via multiple mechanisms including integrin-extracellular matrix interactions and renin-angiotensin-aldosterone axis activation. Cardiac fibroblasts increase synthesis of matrix proteins and secrete a variety of paracrine factors that can stimulate myocyte hypertrophy. Cardiac myocytes similarly respond by secreting a conglomerate of factors. Hormones such as TGFβ1, FGF-2, and the IL-6 family members LIF and CT-1 have all been implicated in this bidirectional fibroblast-myocyte hormonal crosstalk.

Read Full Post »

The Delicate Connection:  IDO (Indolamine 2, 3 dehydrogenase) and Cancer Immunology

Author and Curator: Demet Sag, PhD, CRA, GCP      

Table of Contents:

  1. Abstract
  2. Dual role for IDO
  3. Immune System and IDO
  4. Autoimmune disorders and IDO
  5. Cancer and Ido
  6. Clinical Interventions
  7. Clinical Trials
  8. Future Actions for Molecular Dx and Targeted Therapies:
  9. Conclusion
  10. References

TABLE 1- IDO Clinical Trials

TABLE 2- Kyn induced Genes

TABLE 3 Possible biomarkers and molecular diagnostics targets

TABLE 4: Current Interventions ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

ABSTRACT:

Overall purpose is to find a method to manipulate IDO for clinical applications, mainly the focus of this review is is cancer prevention and treatment.  The first study proving the connection between IDO and immune response came from, a very natural event, a protection of pregnancy in human. This led to discover that high IDO expression is a common factor in cancer tumors. Thus, attention promoted investigations on IDO’s role in various disease states, immune disorders, transplantation, inflammation, women health, mood disorders.
Many approaches, vaccines and adjuvants are underway to find new immunotherapies by combining the power of DCs in immune response regulation and specific direction of siRNA.  As a result, with this unique qualities of IDO, DCs and siRNA, we orchestrated a novel intervention for immunomodulation of IDO by inhibiting with small interference RNA, called siRNA-IDO-DCvax.  Proven that our DCvax created a delay and regression of tumor growth without changing the natural structure and characterization of DCs in melanoma and breast cancers in vivo. (** The shRNA IDO- DCvax is developed by Regen BioPhrama, San Diego, CA ,  Thomas Ichim, Ph.D, CSO. and David Koos, CEO)

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Double-Edged Sword of IDO: The Good and The Bad for Clinical intervention and Developments

IDO almost has a dual role. There is a positive side of high expression of IDO during pregnancy (29; 28; 114), transplants (115; 116; 117; 118; 119), infectious diseases (96) and but this tolerance is negative during autoimmune-disorders (120; 121; 122), tumors of cancer (123; 124; 117; 121; 125; 126; 127) (127), and mood disorders (46). The increased IDO expression has a double-edged sword in human physiology provides a positive role during protection of fetus and grafts after transplantations but becomes a negative factor during autoimmune disorders, cancer, sepsis and mood disorders.

Prevention of allogeneic fetal rejection is possible by tryptophan metabolism (26) rejecting with lack of IDO but allocating if IDO present (29; 28; 114). These studies lead to find “the natural regulation mechanism” for protecting the transplants from graft versus host disease GVHD (128) and getting rid of tumors.

The plasticity of  mammary and uterus during reproduction may hold some more answers to prevent GVHD and tumors of cancer with good understanding of IDO and tryptophan mechanism (129; 130). After allogeneic bone marrow transplants the risk of solid tumor development increased about 80% among 19,229 patients even with a greater risk among patients under 18 years old (117).  The adaptation of tolerance against host mechanism is connected to the IDO expression (131). During implantation and early pregnancy IDO has a role by making CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) and expressing in DCs and  MQs  (114; 132; 133).

Clonal deletion mechanism prevents mother to react with paternal products since female mice accepted the paternal MHC antigen-expressing tumor graft during pregnancy and rejected three weeks after delivery (134). CTLA-4Ig gene therapy alleviates abortion through regulation of apoptosis and inhibition of spleen lymphocytes (135).  

 Immune System and IDO DCs are the orchestrator of the immune response (56; 57; 58) with list of functions in uptake, processing, and presentation of antigens; activation of effector cells, such as T-cells and NK-cells; and secretion of cytokines and other immune-modulating molecules to direct the immune response. The differential regulation of IDO in distinct DC subsets is widely studied to delineate and correct immune homeostasis during autoimmunity, infection and cancer and the associated immunological outcomes. Genesis of antigen presenting cells (APCs), eventually the immune system, require migration of monocytes (MOs), which is originated in bone marrow. Then, these MOs move from bloodstream to other tissues to become macrophages and DCs (59; 60).

Initiation of immune response requires APCs to link resting helper T-cell with the matching antigen to protect body. DCs are superior to MQs and MOs in their immune action model. When DCs are first described (61) and classified, their role is determined as a highly potent antigen-presenting cell (APC) subset with 100 to 1000-times more effective than macrophages and B-cells in priming T-cells. Both MQs and monocytes phagocytize the pathogen, and their cell structure contains very large nucleus and many internal vesicles. However, there is a nuance between MQ and DCs, since DCs has a wider capacity of stimulation, because MQs activates only memory T cells, yet DCs can activate both naïve and memory T cells.

DCs are potent activators of T cells and they also have well controlled regulatory roles. DC properties determine the regulation regardless of their origin or the subset of the DCs. DCs reacts after identification of the signals or influencers for their inhibitory, stimulatory or regulatory roles, before they express a complex repertoire of positive and negative cytokines, transmembrane proteins and other molecules. Thus, “two signal theory” gains support with a defined rule.  The combination of two signals, their interaction with types of cells and time are critical.

In short, specificity and time are matter for a proper response. When IDO mRNA expression is activated with CTL40 ligand and IFNgamma, IDO results inhibition of T cell production (4).  However, if DCs are inhibited by 1MT, an inhibitor of IDO, the response stop but IgG has no affect (10).  In addition, if the stimulation is started by a tryptophan metabolite, which is downstream of IDO, such as 3-hydroxyantranilic or quinolinic acids, it only inhibits Th1 but not Th2 subset of T cells (62).

Furthermore, inclusion of signal molecules, such as Fas Ligand, cytochrome c, and pathways also differ in the T cell differentiation mechanisms due to combination, time and specificity of two-signals.  The co-culture experiments are great tool to identify specific stimuli in disease specific microenvironment (63; 12; 64) for discovering the mechanism and interactions between molecules in gene regulation, biochemical mechanism and physiological function during cell differentiation.

As a result, the simplest differential cell development from the early development of DCs impact the outcome of the data. For example, collection of MOs from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) with IL4 and GM-CSF leads to immature DCs (iDCs). On next step, treatment of iDCs with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) or other plausible cytokines (TGFb1, IFNgamma, IFNalpha,  IFNbeta, IL6 etc.) based on the desired outcome differentiate iDCs  into mature DCs (mDCs). DCs live only up to a week but MOs and generated MQs can live up to a month in the given tissue. B cells inhibit T cell dependent immune responses in tumors (65).

AutoImmune Disorders:

The Circadian Clock Circuitry and the AHR

The balance of IDO expression becomes necessary to prevent overactive immune response self-destruction, so modulation in tryptophan and NDA metabolisms maybe essential.  When splenic IDO-expressing CD11b (+) DCs from tolerized animals applied, they suppressed the development of arthritis, increased the Treg/Th17 cell ratio, and decreased the production of inflammatory cytokines in the spleen (136).

The role of Nicotinamide prevention on type 1 diabetes and ameliorates multiple sclerosis in animal model presented with activities of  NDAs stimulating GPCR109a to produce prostaglandins to induce IDO expression, then these PGEs and PGDs converted to the anti-inflammatory prostaglandin, 15d-PGJ(2) (137; 138; 139).  Thus, these events promotes endogenous signaling mechanisms involving the GPCRs EP2, EP4, and DP1 along with PPARgamma. (137).

Modulating the immune response at non-canonical at canonocal pathway while keeping the non-canonical Nf-KB intact may help to mend immune disorders. As a result, the targeted blocking in canonical at associated kinase IKKβ and leaving non-canonocal Nf-kB pathway intact, DCs tips the balance towards immune supression. Hence, noncanonical NF-κB pathway for regulatory functions in DCs required effective IDO induction, directly or indirectly by endogenous ligand Kyn and negative regulation of proinflammatory cytokine production. As a result, this may help to treat autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, and multiple sclerosis, or allergy or transplant rejection.

While the opposite action needs to be taken during prevention of tumors, that is inhibition of non-canonical pathway.  Inflammation induces not only relaxation of veins and lowering blood pressure but also stimulate coagulopathies that worsen the microenvironment and decrease survival rate of patients after radio or chemotherapies.Cancer Generating tumor vaccines and using adjuvants underway (140).

Clinical correlation and genetic responses also compared in several studies to diagnose and target the system for cancer therapies (127; 141; 131).  The recent surveys on IDO expression and human cancers showed that IDO targeting is a candidate for cancer therapy since IDO expression recruiting Tregs, downregulates MHC class I and creating negative immune microenvironment for protection of development of tumors (125; 27; 142).  Inhibition of IDO expression can make advances in immunotherapy and chemotherapy fields (143; 125; 131; 144).

IDO has a great importance on prevention of cancer development (126). There are many approaches to create the homeostasis of immune response by Immunotherapy.  However, given the complexity of immune regulations, immunomodulation is a better approach to correct and relieve the system from the disease.  Some of the current IDO targeted immunotherapy or immmunomodulations with RNA technology for cancer prevention (145; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150) or applied on human or animals  (75; 151; 12; 115; 152; 9; 125) or chemical, (153; 154) or  radiological (155).  The targeted cell type in immune system generally DCs, monocytes (94)T cells (110; 156)and neutrophils (146; 157). On this paper, we will concentrate on DCvax on cancer treatments.

 T-reg, regulatory T cells; Th, T helper; CTLA-4, cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4; TCR, T cell receptor; IDO, indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase. (refernece: http://www.pnas.org/content/101/28/10398/suppl/DC)

T-reg, regulatory T cells; Th, T helper; CTLA-4, cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4; TCR, T cell receptor; IDO, indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase. (refernece: http://www.pnas.org/content/101/28/10398/suppl/DC)

IDO and the downstream enzymes in tryptophan pathway produce a series of immunosuppressive tryptophan metabolites that may lead into Tregs proliferation or increase in T cell apoptosis (62; 16; 27; 158), and some can affect NK cell function (159).

The interesting part of the mechanism is even without presence of IDO itself, downstream enzymes of IDO in the kynurenine tryptophan degradation still show immunosuppressive outcome (160; 73) due to not only Kyn but also TGFbeta stimulated long term responses. DC vaccination with IDO plausible (161) due to its power in immune response changes and longevity in the bloodstream for reversing the system for Th17 production (162).

Clinical Interventions are taking advantage of the DC’s central role and combining with enhancing molecules for induction of immunity may overcome tolerogenic DCs in tumors of cancers (163; 164).

The first successful application of DC vaccine used against advanced melanoma after loading DCs with tumor peptides or autologous cell lysate in presence of adjuvants keyhole limpet hematocyanin (KLH) (165).  Previous animal and clinical studies show use of DCs against tumors created success (165; 166; 167) as well as some problems due to heterogeneity of DC populations in one study supporting tumor growth rather than diminishing (168).

DC vaccination applied onto over four thousand clinical trial but none of them used siRNA-IDO DC vaccination method. Clinical trials evaluating DCs loaded ex vivo with purified TAAs as an anticancer immunotherapeutic interventions also did not include IDO (Table from (169). This table presented the data from 30 clinical trials, 3 of which discontinued, evaluating DCs loaded ex vivo with TAAs as an anticancer immunotherapy for 12 types of cancer [(AML(1), Breast cancer (4), glioblastoma (1), glioma (2), hepatocellular carcinoma (1), hematological malignancies (1), melanoma (6), neuroblastoma sarcoma (2), NSCLC (1), ovarian cancer (3), pancreatic cancer (3), prostate cancer (10)] at phase I, II or I/II.

Tipping the balance between Treg and Th17 ratio has a therapeutic advantage for restoring the health that is also shown in ovarian cancer by DC vaccination with adjuvants (161).  This rebalancing of the immune system towards immunogenicity may restore Treg/Th17 ratio (162; 170) but it is complicated. The stimulation of IL10 and IL12 induce Treg produce less Th17 and inhibiting CTL activation and its function (76; 171; 172) while animals treated with anti-TGFb before vaccination increase the plasma levels of IL-15 for tumor specific T cell survival in vivo (173; 174) ovarian cancer studies after human papilloma virus infection present an increase of IL12 (175).

Opposing signal mechanism downregulates the TGFb to activate CTL and Th1 population with IL12 and IL15 expression (162; 173).  The effects of IL17 on antitumor properties observed by unique subset of CD4+ T cells (176) called also CD8+ T cells secrete even more IL17 (177).

Using cytokines as adjuvants during vaccination may improve the efficacy of vaccination since cancer vaccines unlike infections vaccines applied after the infection or disease started against the established adoptive immune response.  Adjuvants are used to improve the responses of the given therapies commonly in immunotherapy applications as a combination therapy (178).

Enhancing cancer vaccine efficacy via modulation of the microenvironment is a plausible solution if only know who are the players.  Several molecules can be used to initiate and lengthen the activity of intervention to stimulate IDO expression without compromising the mechanism (179).  The system is complicated so generally induction is completed ex-vivo stimulation of DCs in cell lysates, whole tumor lysates, to create the microenvironment and natural stimulatory agents. Introduction of molecules as an adjuvants on genetic regulation on modulation of DCs are critical, because order and time of the signals, specific location/ tissue, and heterogeneity of personal needs (174; 138; 180). These studies demonstrated that IL15 with low TGFb stimulates CTL and Th1, whereas elevated TGFb with IL10 increases Th17 and Tregs in cancer microenvironments.

IDO and signaling gene regulation

For example Ret-peptide antitumor vaccine contains an extracellular fragment of Ret protein and Th1 polarized immunoregulator CpG oligonucleotide (1826), with 1MT, a potent inhibitor of IDO, brought a powerful as well as specific cellular and humoral immune responses in mice (152).

The main idea of choosing Ret to produce vaccine in ret related carcinomas fall in two criterion, first choosing patients self-antigens for cancer therapy with a non-mutated gene, second, there is no evidence of genetic mutations in Ret amino acids 64-269. Demonstration of proliferating hemangiomas, benign endothelial tumors and often referred as hemangiomas of infancy appearing at head or neck, express IDO and slowly regressed as a result of immune mediated process.

After large scale of genomic analysis show insulin like growth factor 2 as the key regulator of hematoma growth (Ritter et al. 2003). We set out to develop new technology with our previous expertise in immunotherapy and immunomodulation (181; 182; 183; 184), correcting Th17/Th1 ratio (185), and siRNA technology (186; 187).  We developed siRNA-IDO-DCvax. Patented two technologies “Immunomodulation using Altered DCs (Patent No: US2006/0165665 A1) and Method of Cancer Treatments using siRNA Silencing (Patent No: US2009/0220582 A1).

In melanoma cancer DCs were preconditioned with whole tumor lysate but in breast cancer model pretreatment completed with tumor cell lysate before siRNA-IDO-DCvax applied. Both of these studies was a success without modifying the autanticity of DCs but decreasing the IDO expression to restore immunegenity by delaying tumor growth in breast cancer (147) and in melanoma (188).  Thus, our DCvax specifically interfere with Ido without disturbing natural structure and content of the DCs in vivo showed that it is possible to carry on this technology to clinical applications.

Furthermore, our method of intervention is more sophisticated since it has a direct interaction mechanism with ex-vivo DC modulation without creating long term metabolism imbalance in Trp/Kyn metabolite mechanisms since the action is corrective and non-invasive.

There were several reasons.

First, prevention of tumor development studies targeting non-enzymatic pathway initiated by pDCs conditioned with TGFbeta is specific to IDO1 (189).

Second, IDO upregulation in antigen presenting cells allowing metastasis show that most human tumors express IDO at high levels (123; 124).

Third, tolerogenic DCs secretes several molecules some of them are transforming growth factor beta (TGFb), interleukin IL10), human leukocyte antigen G (HLA-G), and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), and non-secreted program cell death ligand 1 (PD-1 L) and IDO, indolamine 2.3-dioxygenase, which promote tumor tolerance. Thus, we took advantage of DCs properties and Ido specificity to prevent the tolerogenicity with siRNA-IDO DC vaccine in both melanoma and breast cancer.

Fourth, IDO expression in DCs make them even more potent against tumor antigens and create more T cells against tumors. IDOs are expressed at different levels by both in broad range of tumor cells and many subtypes of DCs including monocyte-derived DCs (10), plasmacytoid DCs (142), CD8a+ DCs (190), IDO compotent DCs (17), IFNgamma-activated DCs used in DC vaccination.  These DCs suppress immune responses through several mechanisms for induction of apoptosis towards activated T cells (156) to mediate antigen-specific T cell anergy in vivo (142) and for enhancement of Treg cells production at sites of vaccination with IDO-positive DCs+ in human patients (142; 191; 192; 168; 193; 194). If DCs are preconditioned with tumor lysate with 1MT vaccination they increase DCvax effectiveness unlike DCs originated from “normal”, healthy lysate with 1MT in pancreatic cancer (195).  As a result, we concluded that the immunesupressive effect of IDO can be reversed by siRNA because Treg cells enhances DC vaccine-mediated anti-tumor-immunity in cancer patients.

Gene silencing is a promising technology regardless of advantages simplicity for finding gene interaction mechanisms in vitro and disadvantages of the technology is utilizing the system with specificity in vivo (186; 196).  siRNA technology is one of the newest solution for the treatment of diseases as human genomics is only producing about 25,000 genes by representing 1% of its genome. Thus, utilizing the RNA open the doors for more comprehensive and less invasive effects on interventions. Thus this technology is still improving and using adjuvants. Silencing of K-Ras inhibit the growth of tumors in human pancreatic cancers (197), silencing of beta-catenin in colon cancers causes tumor regression in mouse models (198), silencing of vascular endothelial growth factor (VGEF) decreased angiogenesis and inhibit tumor growth (199).

Combining siRNA IDO and DCvax from adult stem cell is a novel technology for regression of tumors in melanoma and breast cancers in vivo. Our data showed that IDO-siRNA reduced tumor derived T cell apoptosis and tumor derived inhibition of T cell proliferation.  In addition, silencing IDO made DCs more potent against tumors since treated or pretreated animals showed a delay or decreased the tumor growth (188; 147)

 

Clinical Trials:

First FDA approved DC-based cancer therapies for treatment of hormone-refractory prostate cancer as autologous cellular immunotherapy (163; 164).  However, there are many probabilities to iron out for a predictive outcome in patients.

Table 2 demonstrates the current summary of clinical trials report.  This table shows 38 total studies specifically Ido related function on cancer (16), eye (3), surgery (2), women health (4), obesity (1), Cardiovascular (2), brain (1), kidney (1), bladder (1), sepsis shock (1), transplant (1),  nervous system and behavioral studies (4), HIV (1) (Table 4).  Among these only 22 of which active, recruiting or not yet started to recruit, and 17 completed and one terminated.

Most of these studies concentrated on cancer by the industry, Teva GTC ( Phase I traumatic brain injury) Astra Zeneca (Phase IV on efficacy of CRESTOR 5mg for cardiovascular health concern), Incyte corporation (Phase II ovarian cancer) NewLink Genetics Corporation Phase I breast/lung/melanoma/pancreatic solid tumors that is terminated; Phase II malignant melanoma recruiting, Phase II active, not recruiting metastatic breast cancer, Phase I/II metastatic melanoma, Phase I advanced malignancies) , HIV (Phase IV enrolling by invitation supported by Salix Corp-UC, San Francisco and HIV/AIDS Research Programs).

Many studies based on chemotherapy but there are few that use biological methods completed study with  IDO vaccine peptide vaccination for Stage III-IV non-small-cell lung cancer patients (NCT01219348), observational study on effect of biological therapy on biomarkers in patients with untreated hepatitis C, metastasis melanoma, or Crohn disease by IFNalpha and chemical (ribavirin, ticilimumab (NCT00897312), polymorphisms of patients after 1MT drug application in treating patients with metastatic or unmovable refractory solid tumors by surgery (NCT00758537), IDO expression analysis on MSCs (NCT01668576), and not yet recruiting intervention with adenovirus-p53 transduced dendric cell vaccine , 1MT , radiation, Carbon C 11 aplha-methyltryptophan- (NCT01302821).

Among the registered clinical trials some of them are not interventional but  observational and evaluation studies on Trp/Kyn ratio (NCT01042847), Kyn/Trp ratio (NCT01219348), Kyn levels (NCT00897312, NCT00573300),  RT-PCR analysis for Kyn metabolism (NCT00573300, NCT00684736, NCT00758537), and intrinsic IDO expression of mesenchymal stem cells in lung transplant with percent inhibition of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell proliferation toward donor cells (NCT01668576), determining polymorphisms (NCT00426894). These clinical trials/studies are immensely valuable to understand the mechanism and route of intervention development with the data collected from human populations   

Future Actions for Molecular Dx and Targeted Therapies:

Viable tumor environment. Tumor survival is dependent upon an exquisite interplay between the critical functions of stromal development and angiogenesis, local immune suppression and tumor tolerance, and paradoxical inflammation. TEMs: TIE-2 expressing monocytes; “M2” TAMs: tolerogenic tumor-associated macrophages; MDSCs: myeloid-derived suppressor cells; pDCs: plasmacytoid dendritic cells; co-stim.: co-stimulation; IDO: indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase; VEGF: vascular endothelial growth factor; EGF: epidermal growth factor; MMP: matrix metaloprotease; IL: interleukin; TGF-β: transforming growth factor-beta; TLRs: toll-like receptors.  (reference: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/cdi/2012/937253/fig1/)

Viable tumor environment. Tumor survival is dependent upon an exquisite interplay between the critical functions of stromal development and angiogenesis, local immune suppression and tumor tolerance, and paradoxical inflammation. TEMs: TIE-2 expressing monocytes; “M2” TAMs: tolerogenic tumor-associated macrophages; MDSCs: myeloid-derived suppressor cells; pDCs: plasmacytoid dendritic cells; co-stim.: co-stimulation; IDO: indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase; VEGF: vascular endothelial growth factor; EGF: epidermal growth factor; MMP: matrix metaloprotease; IL: interleukin; TGF-β: transforming growth factor-beta; TLRs: toll-like receptors. (reference: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/cdi/2012/937253/fig1/)

Current survival or response rate is around 40 to 50 % range.  By using specific cell type, selected inhibition/activation sequence based on patient’s genomic profile may improve the efficacy of clinical interventions on cancer treatments. Targeted therapies for specific gene regulation through signal transduction is necessary but there are few studies with genomics based approach.

On the other hand, there are surveys, observational or evaluations (listed in clinical trials section) registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov that will provide a valuable short-list of molecules.  Preventing stimulation of Ido1 as well as Tgfb-1gene expression by modulating receptor mediated phosphorylation between TGFb/SMAD either at Mad-Homology 1 (MH1) or Mad-Homology 1 (MH2) domains maybe possible (79; 82; 80). Within Smads are the conserved Mad-Homology 1 (MH1) domain, which is a DNA binding module contains tightly bound Zinc atom.

Smad MH2 domain is well conserved and one the most diverse protein-signal interacting molecule during signal transduction due to two important Serine residues located extreme distal C-termini at Ser-Val-Ser in Smad 2 or at pSer-X-PSer in RSmads (80). Kyn activated orphan G protein–coupled receptor, GPR35 with unknown function with a distinct expression pattern that collides with IDO sites since its expression at high levels of the immune system and the gut (63) (200; 63).  

The first study to connect IDO with cancer shows that group (75).  The directly targeting to regulate IDO expression is another method through modulating ISREs in its promoter with RNA-peptide combination technology. Indirectly, IDO can be regulated through Bin1 gene expression control over IDO since Bin1 is a negative regulator of IDO and prevents IDO expression.  IDO is under negative genetic control of Bin1, BAR adapter–encoding gene Bin1 (also known as Amphiphysin2). Bin1 functions in cancer suppression since attenuation of Bin1 observed in many human malignancies (141; 201; 202; 203; 204; 205; 206) .  Null Bin-/- mice showed that when there is lack of Bin1, upregulation of IDO through STAT1- and NF-kB-dependent expression of IDO makes tumor cells to escape from T cell–dependent antitumor immunity.

This pathway lies in non-enzymatic signal transducer function of IDO after stimulation of DCs by TGFb1.  The detail study on Bin1 gene by alternative spicing also provided that Bin1 is a tumor suppressor.  Its activities also depends on these spliced outcome, such as  Exon 10, in muscle, in turn Exon 13 in mice has importance in role for regulating growth when Bin1 is deleted or mutated C2C12 myoblasts interrupted due to its missing Myc, cyclinD1, or growth factor inhibiting genes like p21WAF1 (207; 208).

On the other hand alternative spliced Exon12A contributing brain cell differentiation (209; 210). Myc as a target at the junction between IDO gene interaction and Trp metabolism.  Bin1 interacts with Myc either early-dependent on Myc or late-independent on Myc, when Myc is not present. This gene regulation also interfered by the long term signaling mechanism related to Kynurenine (Kyn) acting as an endogenous ligand to AHR in Trp metabolite and TGFb1 and/or IFNalpha and IFNbeta up regulation of DCs to induce IDO in noncanonical pathway for NF-kB and myc gene activations (73; 74).  Hence, Trp/Kyn, Kyn/Trp, Th1/Th17 ratios are important to be observed in patients peripheral blood. These direct and indirect gene interactions place Bin1 to function in cell differentiation (211; 212; 205).

Regulatory T-cel generation via reverse and non-canonical signaliing to pDCs

Table 3 contains the microarray analysis for Kyn affect showed that there are 25 genes affected by Kyn, two of which are upregulated and 23 of them downregulated (100). This list of genes and additional knowledge based on studies creating the diagnostics panel with these genes as a biomarker may help to analyze the outcomes of given interventions and therapies. Some of these molecules are great candidate to seek as an adjuvant or co-stimulation agents.  These are myc, NfKB at IKKA, C2CD2, CREB3L2, GPR115, IL2, IL8, IL6, and IL1B, mir-376 RNA, NFKB3, TGFb, RelA, and SH3RF1. In addition, Lip, Fox3P, CTLA-4, Bin1, and IMPACT should be monitored.

In addition, Table 4 presents the other possible mechanisms. The highlights of possible target/biomarkers are specific TLRs, conserved sequences of IDO across its homologous structures, CCR6, CCR5, RORgammat, ISREs of IDO, Jak, STAT, IRFs, MH1 and MH2 domains of Smads. Endothelial cell coagulation activation mechanism and pDC maturation or immigration from lymph nodes to bloodstream should marry to control not only IDO expression but also genesis of preferred DC subsets. Stromal mesenchymal cells are also activated by these modulation at vascular system and interferes with metastasis of cancer. First, thrombin (human factor II) is a well regulated protein in coagulation hemostasis has a role in cell differentiation and angiogenesis.

Protein kinase activated receptors (PARs), type of GPCRs, moderate the actions. Second, during hematopoietic response endothelial cells produce hematopoietic growth factors (213; 214). Third, components of bone marrow stroma cells include monocytes, adipocytes, and mesenchymal stem cells (215). As a result, addressing this issue will prevent occurrence of coagulapathologies, namely DIC, bleeding, thrombosis, so that patients may also improve response rate towards therapies. Personal genomic profiles are powerful tool to improve efficacy in immunotherapies since there is an influence of age (young vs. adult), state of immune system (innate vs. adopted or acquired immunity). Table 5 includes some of the current studies directly with IDO and indirectly effecting its mechanisms via gene therapy, DNA vaccine, gene silencing and adjuvant applications as an intervention method to prevent various cancer types.

CONCLUSION

IDO has a confined function in immune system through complex interactions to maintain hemostasis of immune responses. The genesis of IDO stem from duplication of bacterial IDO-like genes.  Inhibition of microbial infection and invasion by depleting tryptophan limits and kills the invader but during starvation of trp the host may pass the twilight zone since trp required by host’s T cells.  Thus, the host cells in these small pockets adopt to new microenvironment with depleted trp and oxygen poor conditions. Hence, the cell metabolism differentiate to generate new cellular structure like nodules and tumors under the protection of constitutively expressed IDO in tumors, DCs and inhibited T cell proliferation.

On the other hand, having a dichotomy in IDO function can be a potential limiting factor that means is that IDOs impact on biological system could be variable based on several issues such as target cells, IDO’s capacity, pathologic state of the disease and conditions of the microenvironment. Thus, close monitoring is necessary to analyze the outcome to prevent conspiracies since previous studies generated paradoxical results.

Current therapies through chemotherapies, radiotherapies are costly and effectiveness shown that the clinical interventions require immunotherapies as well as coagulation and vascular biology manipulations for a higher efficacy and survival rate in cancer patients. Our siRNA and DC technologies based on stem cell modulation will provide at least prevention of cancer development and hopefully prevention in cancer.

11.       References

1. Biochemistry of tryptophan in health and disease. BenderDA. 1983, Mol Aspects Med , pp. 6:101–197.

2. Molecular insights into substrate recognition and catalysis by indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase. Forouhar, F., Anderson, R., Mowat, C.F, et al. 2006, PNAS, pp. vol. 104, no:2, 473-478.

3. Importance of the Two Interferon-stimulated Response Element. Konan KV, Taylor, MW. 1996, J. Biol. Chem.-, pp. 19140-5.

4. Induction of indolamine 2,3 dioxygenase: A mechanism of the anti-tumor activity of interferon gamma. Ozaki, Y., Edelstein, M.P., Duch, D.S. 1998, PNAS USA., pp. vol:85, 1242-1246.

5. Localization of the human indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) gene to the pericentromeric region of human chromosome . Burkin, D. J., Kimbro, K. S., Barr, B. L., Jones, C., Taylor, M. W., Gupta, S. L. 1993, Genomics , pp. 17: 262-263.

6. Localization of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase gene (INDO) to chromosome 8p12-p11 by fluorescent in situ hybridization. Najfeld, V., Menninger, J., Muhleman, D., Comings, D. E., Gupta, S. L. 1993, Cytogenet. Cell Genet. , pp. 64: 231-232.

7. Molecular cloning, sequencing and expression of human interferon-gamma-inducible indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase cDNA.  Dai, W., Gupta, S. L. 1990, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. , pp. 168: 1-8.

8. Gene structure of human indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase. Kadoya, A., Tone, S., Maeda, H., Minatogawa, Y., Kido, R. 1992, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. , pp. 189: 530-536.

9. A gene atlas of th emouse and human protein-encoding transcriptomes. Andrew I. Su, Tim Wiltshire, Serge Batalov , Hilmar Lapp , Keith A. Ching , David Block, Jie Zhang , Richard Soden , Mimi Hayakawa , Gabriel Kreiman , Michael P. Cooke , John R. Walker , and John B. Hogenesch. 2004, PNAS, pp. vol. 101, no. 166062-6067 (http://dx.doi.org:/10.1073/pnas.0400782101).

10. Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase production by human dendritic cells results in the inhibition of T cell proliferation. Hwu P, Du MX, Lapointe R, Do M, Taylor MW, Young HA. 2000, J. Immunol, pp. 164:3596–3599.

11. Inhibition of T cell proliferation by acrophage tryptophan catabolism. Munn, D.H. et al. 1999, J. Exp. Med., p. 189:1363.

12. HeLa cells cocultured with peripheral blood lymphocytes acquire an immuno-inhibitory phenotype through up-regulation of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase activity. Logan, G. J., Smyth, C. M. F., Earl, J. W., Zaikina, I., Rowe, P. B., Smythe, J. A., Alexander, I. E. 2002, Immunology, pp. 105:478-487.

13. Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase – Is It an Immun Suppressor? Soliman H, Mediaville-Varela M, Antonia S. 2010, Cancer J. , pp. 16:354-359.

14. Targeting the immunoregulatory indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase pathway in immunotherapy. Johnson BA, III, Baban B, Mellor AL. 2009, Immunotherapy. , pp. 645–661.

15. Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase and regulation of T cell immunity. AL., Mellor. 2005, Biochem Biophys Res Commun. , pp. 338(1):20–24.

16. Modulation of tryptophan catabolism by regulatory T cells. Fallarino, F., Grohmann, U., Hwang, K. W., Orabona, C., Vacca, C., Bianchi, R., Belladonna, M. L., Fioretti, M. C., Alegre, M.-L., Puccetti, P. 2003, Nature Immun., pp. 4: 1206-1212.

17. CTLA-4-Ig regulates tryptophan catabolism in vivo. Grohmann, U., Orabona, C., Fallarino, F., Vacca, C., Calcinaro, F., Falorni, A., Candeloro, P., Belladonna, M. L., Bianchi, R., Fioretti, M. C., Puccetti, P. 2002, Nature Immun. , pp. 3: 1097-1101.

18. Reverse signaling through GITR ligand enables dexamethasone to activate IDO in allergy. Grohmann, U., Volpi, C., Fallarino, F., Bozza, S., Bianchi, R., Vacca, C., Orabona, C., Belladonna, M. L., Ayroldi, E., Nocentini, G., Boon, L., Bistoni, F., Fioretti, M. C., Romani, L., Riccardi, C., Puccetti, P. 2007, Nature Med., pp. 13:579-586.

19. Cells expressing indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase inhibit T cell responses. Mellor, A. L., Keskin, D. B., Johnson, T., Chandler, P., Munn, D. H. 2002, J. Immun. , pp. 168: 3771-3776.

20. Chon, SY, Hassanain, HH, Piine, R., and Gupta, SL. 1995, J. Interferon Cytokine Res. , pp. 15, 517-526.

21. Levy, ED, KEsler, DS, Pine, R., Reich, N, and Darnell, JE.Jr et al. 1988, Genes Dev, pp. 2,383-393.

22. Benoist, C. and Manthis, D. 1990, Annu. Rev of Immunol., pp. 8, 681-715.

23. Dorn, A, Durand, B., Marling, C., Meur, M.L., Beoist, C., and Mathis, D. 1987, PNAS USA, pp. 34, 6249-6253.

24. Konan, K.V. Ph.D. Thesis. Transcriptional Regulation of the Indolamine 2,3-oxygenase Gene. s.l. : Indiana University, Bloominigton, 1995.

25. Tryptophan pyrrolase of rabbit intestine: D- and L–tryptophan cleaving enzyme or enzymes. Yamamoto, S., and Hayashi, O. 1967, J Biol Chem, pp. 242: 5260-5266.

26. Prevention of allogeneic fetal rejection by tryptophan catabolism. Munn, DH, Zhou M, Attwood JT, Bondarev I, Conway SJ, Marshall B, Brown C, Mellor AL. 1998, Science, pp. 281:1191–3.

27. Evidence for a tumoral immune resistance mechanismbased on tryptophan degradation by indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase. Uyttenhove, C. et al. 2003, Nature Med. 9, pp. 1269–1274 .

28. Pregnancy: success and failure within the Th1/Th2/Th3 paradigm. Raghupathy, R. 2001., Seminars in Immunology, pp. Volume 13, Issue 4, Pages 219–227.

29. Why is the fetal allograft not rejected? Davies, C. J. March 2007 , J ANIM SCI , pp. vol. 85 no. 13 suppl E32-E35 .

30. Exploring the mechanism of tryptoophan 2,3-dioxygenase. Thackray, S., Mowat, C.G., Chapman, K. 2008, Biochem. Society Transaction., pp. 36, 1120-1123.

31. The new life of a centenarian: signalling functions of NAD(P). Berger F, Ramírez-Hernández MH, Ziegler M. 2004, Trends Biochem Sci , pp. 29:111–118 .

32. Biochemistry of tryptophan in health and disease. DA, Bender. 1983, Mol Aspects Med, pp. 6:101–197. 33. Poliovirus induces indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase and quinolinic acid synthesis in macaque brain. Heyes MP, Saito K, Jacobowitz D, Markey SP, Takikawa O, Vickers JH. 1992, FASEB J., pp. 6:2977–2989.

34. Dramatic changes in oxidative tryptophan metabolism along the kynurenine pathway in experimental cerebral and noncerebral malaria. . Sanni LA, Thomas SR, Tattam BN, Moore DE, Chaudhri G, Stocker R, Hunt NH. 1998, Am J Pathol, pp. 152:611–619.

35. Induction of pulmonary indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase by intraperitoneal injection of bacterial lipopolysaccharide. . Yoshida R, Hayaishi O. 1978, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA , pp. 75:3998–4000.

36. Induction of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase in mouse lung during virus infection. Yoshida R, Urade Y, Tokuda M, Hayaishi O. 1979, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA , pp. 76:4084–4086.

37. Induction of pulmonary indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase by intraperitoneal injection of bacterial lipopolysaccharide. Yoshida R, Hayaishi. 1978, PNAS USA, pp. 3998-4000.

38. Sequence of human 2,3-dioxygenase (TDO2): presence of a glucorticoid response-like element composed of a GTT repeat and intronic CCCCT repeat. Comings DE, Muhleman D, Dietz G, Sherman M, Forest. 1995, Genomics, pp. 29:390-396165.

39. Studies on the biosynthesis of Nicotinamide adenine inucleotide. II.Arole of picolinic carboxylase in the Biosynthesisofnicotinamideadeninedinucleotidefromtryptophan in mammals. Ikeda M, Tsuji H, Nakamura S, Ichiyama A, Nishizuka Y, HayaishiO. 1965, J. Biol. Chem. , pp. 240: 1395-1401.

40. The Secret Life of NAD+: An Old Metabolite Controlling New Metabolic Signaling Pathways. Houtkooper R.H., Carles Cantó C. , Wanders, R.J. and Auwerx, J. 2010, Endocrine Reviews , pp. vol. 31 no. 2 194-223, http://dx.doi.org:/10.1210/er.2009-0026.

41. Stimulation of Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide biosynthetic pathways delays axonal degeneration after axotomy. Sasaki Y, Araki T, Milbrandt J. 2006, J Neurosci , pp. 26: 8484–8491.

42. European Nicotinamide Diabetes Intervention Trial (ENDIT): a randomised controlled trial of intervention before the onset of type 1 diabetes. Gale EA, Bingley PJ, Emmett CL, CollierT. 2004, Lancet., pp. 363:925–931.

43. Safety of high-dose nicotinamide: a review. Knip M, Douek IF, Moore WP, Gillmor HA, McLean AE, Bingley PJ, Gale EA. 2000, Diabetologia, pp. 43:1337–1345.

44. Large supplements of nicotinic acid and nicotinamide increase tissue NAD and poly(ADP-ribose) levels but do not affect diethylnitrosamine-induced altered hepatic foci in Fischer-344 rats. JacksonTM, Rawling JM, Roebuck BD, Kirkland JB. 1995, J Nutr , p. 125:1455.

45. Characterization and evolution of vertebrate indelamine 2,3-dihydrogenases IDOs from monotremes and marsupials. Yuasa, HJ, Ball, HJ, Ho, YF, Austin, CJ, et al. 2009, Comp. Biochem. Physiol. B. Biochem.. Mol. Biol., pp. 153 (2): 137-144.

46. Novel tryptophan catabolic enzyme IDO2 is the preferred biochemical target of the antitumor indolamine 2,3-dihydrogenase inhibitor compound D-1 methyl-tryptophan. Metz, R., Duhadaway, JB, Kamasani, U, Laury-Kleintop, L., Muller, AJ, Prendergast, GC. 2007, Cancer Res., pp. 67 (15): 7082-7087.

47. Total synthesis of exiguamines A and B inspired by catechollamine chemistry. Sofiyev, V, Lumb, JP, Volgraf, M., Trauner, D. 2012, Chemistry., pp. 18 (16): 4999-5005.

48. Molecular evolution of bacterial indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase. Yuasa, H J, Ushigoe, A, Ball, HJ. 2011, Gene., pp. 484 (1) : 22-31.

49. Infectious tolerance and the long-term acceptance of transplant tissue. Waldman, H., Adams, E., Fairchild, P., and Cobbold, S. 2006, J. Immunol., pp. 212:301-313.

50. Molecular evolution and characterizationof fungal indolamine 2,3-dioxygenases. Yuasa, HJ and Ball, HJ. 2012, J. Mol. Eval., pp. 72 (2): 160-168.

51. convergent evolution. The gene structure of Sulculus 41 kDa myoglobin is homologous with tht of human indolamine dioxygenase. Suzuki, T, Imai, K. 1996, Biochim. Biophys. Acta., pp. 1308(1):41-48.

52. Evolutionof myoglobin. Suzuki, T., Imai, K. 1998, Cell Mol Life Sci, pp. 54(9):979-1004.

53. A myoglobin evolved from indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase, trtptophan-degrading enzyme. Suzuki, T., Kawamichi, H., Imai, K. 1998, Comp Biochem Phisiol. Mol. Biol., pp. 121(2):117-128.

54. Do molluscs possess indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase? Yuasa, HJ and Suzuki, T. 2005, Comp. Biochem. Physiol. B. Biochem. Mol. Biol. , pp. (3) 445-454.

55. Comparison studies of the indolamine dioxygenase-like myoglobin from the abalone Sulculus diversicolor. Suzuki, T., Imai, K. 1997, Comp. Biohem. Phsiol B Biochem Mol Biol, pp. 117 (4)599-604.

56. Orchestration of the immune response by dendritic cells. Buckwalter MR, Albert ML. 2009, Curr Biol., pp. 19(9):355–361.

57. Dendritic cells and the control of immunity. Banchereau J, Steinman RM. 1998, Nature., pp. 245–52.

58. IDO expression by dendritic cells: tolerance and tryptophan catabolism. . Munn DH, Mellor AL. 2004, Nat Rev Immunol. , pp. 762–74.

59. Monocyte and Macrophage. Gordon, S. and Taylor, P.R. 2005, NATURE REVIEWS | IMMUNOLOGY , pp. vol:5, 953-964.

60. Blood monocytes consist of two principal subsets with distinct migratory properties. Geissmann F, Jung S, Littman DR. 2003, Immunity. , pp. 19:71–82.

61. Identification of a novel cell type in peripheral lymphoid organs of mice. I Morphology, quantitation, tissue distribution. . Steinman RM, Cohn ZA. 1973, J Exp Med., pp. 137(5):1142–1162.

62. T cell apoptosis by tryptophan catabolism. Fallarino F, Grohmann U, Vacca C, Bianchi R, Orabona C, Spreca A, Fioretti MC, Puccetti P. 2002, Cell Death Differ , pp. 9:1069–1077.

63. Kynurenine is a novel endothelium derived relaxing factor produced during inflammation. Wang, et al. 2010, Nat. Med., pp. 16(3): 279-285.

64. Activation of the noncanonical NF-kB pathway by HIV controls a Dendritic cell immunoregulatory phenotype. Manches, O. Fernandez, V.M.,, Plumas, J., Chaperot, L., and Bhardwaj, N. 2012, PNAS, pp. vol: 109, 14122-14127.

65. B cells inhibit induction of T cell-dependent tumor immunity. Qin, Z., Richter, G., Schuler, T., Ibe, S., Cao, X, Blakenstein, T. 1998, Nat. Med, p. 4:627.

66. Different partners, Opposite Outcmes: A new perspective of immunobiology of Indolamine 2,3 dioxygenase. Orabona, C., Pallotta, M.T., Grohman, U. 2012, Molecular Medicine., pp. 18:834-842.

67. Indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase: From catalyst to signaling function. Fallarino, F., Grohman, U., and Puccetti, P. 2012, Eurepean J. of Immunol. , pp. 42:1932-1937.

68. IDO: more than an enzyme. Chen, W. 2011, Nature Immonology, pp. 809-811.

69. Indolamine2,3-dehydrogenase in lung dendritic cells promotes Th2 responses and allergic inflammation. Xu, H., Oriss, T.B., Fei, M., Henry, A.C., Melgert, B.N., Chen, L., Mellor, A.L. 2008, PNAS USA, pp. 105: 6690-6695.

70. The immunoregulatory enzyme IDO paradoxically drives B-cellmediated autoimmunity. Scott, G.N., DuHadaway, J., Pigott, E., Ridge, N., Prendergast, G.C., Muller, A.J., Mandik-Nayak, L. 2009, J. Immunol., pp. 182:7509-7517.

71. Tryptophan deprivation sensitizes activated T cells to apoptosis prior to cell division. Lee GK, Park HJ, Macleod M, Chandler P, Munn DH, Mellor AL. 2002, Immunology , pp. 107:452–460.

72. Enzymology of NAD+ homeostasis in man. . Magni G, Amici A, Emanuelli M, Orsomando G, Raffaelli N, Ruggieri S. 2004, Cell Mol Life Sci , pp. 61:19–34.

73. Kynurenine pathway enzymes in dendritic cells initiate tolerogenesis in the absence of functional IDO. . Belladonna ML, Grohmann U, Guidetti P, Volpi C, Bianchi R, Fioretti MC, Schwarcz R, Fallarino F, Puccetti P. 2006, J Immunol. , pp. ;177:130–7.

74. An indogenous tumour promoting ligand of the human aryl hydrocarbon receptor. Opitz, et. al. 2011, pp. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1038/nature10491.

75. Inhibition of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase, animmunoregulatorytarget of the cancer suppression gene Bin1, potentiates cancer chemotherapy. Muller, A. J. et al. 2005, Nature Med. , pp. 11, 312–319 .

76. TGF-b; a master of all T cell trades. Li, M.O., Fravell, R.A. 2008, Cell. , pp. 134: 392-404.

77. Palotta, M.T. et al. 2011, Nat. Immunol., pp. 12:870-878. 78. Chen, W. et al. 2003, J. Exp. Immunol., p. 198: 1875.

79. Smads: transcriptional activators of TGF-beta responses. . Derynck R, Zhang Y, Feng XH. 1998, Cell , pp. 95 (6): 737–40.
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/S0092-8674(00)81696-7.  PMID 9865691.

80. Smad transcription factors. Massagué J, Seoane J, Wotton D. 2005, Genes Dev, pp. 19 (23): 2783–810.
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1101/gad.1350705. PMID .

81. A structural basis for mutational inactivation of the tumour suppressor Smad4. Shi Y, Hata A, Lo RS, Massagué J, Pavletich NP. 1997, Nature., pp. 388 (6637): 87–93.   http://dx.doi.org:/10.1038/40431. PMID 9214508.

82. Promoting bone morphogenetic protein signaling through negative regulation of inhibitory Smads. Itoh F, Asao H, Sugamura K, Heldin CH, ten Dijke P, Itoh S. 2001, EMBO J., pp. 20 (15): 4132–     http://dx.doi.org:/10.1093/emboj/20.15.4132. PMC 149146. PMID 11483516.

83. SMAD_Signaling_Network. http://www.sabiosciences.com. [Online] 2013. http://www.sabiosciences.com/pathway.php?sn=SMAD_Signaling_Network.

84. Immune inhibitory receptors. Revetch, J.V., and Lanier, L.L. 2000, Science., pp. 290:84-89.

85. Soc3 drives proteasomal degradation of indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) and antagonizes IDO-dependent tolerogenesis. Orabona, C., Pallotta, M., Volpi, C., et al. 2008, PNAS USA, pp. 105: 20828-20833.

86. Cutting edge; silencing supressor of cytokine signaling3 expression in dendritic cells turns CD28-Ig from immune adjuvant to supressant. Orabona, C.,, Belladonna, M.L., et all. 2005, J. Immunol., pp. 174: 6582-6586.

87. Molecular signatures of T-cell inhibition in HIV-1 infection. Larsson, M., Shankar. E.M, Che, K.F., Ellegard, R., Barathan, M., Velu, V., and Kamarulzaman, A. 2013, Retrovirology, p. 10:31.

88. TGF-beta and CD4+CD25+ regulatory cells. Huber, S. and Schramn, C. 2006, Front. Bioscie., pp. 11:1014-1023.

89. Immune Escape as a fundemental trait of cancer; focus on IDO. Prendergast, G.C. 2008, Oncogene., pp. 27, 3889-3900.

90. Il-6 inhibits the tolerogenic functionof CD8+ dendritic cells expressing indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase. Grohman, U., Fallarino, F., et al. 2001, J. Immunol., pp. 167:708-714.

91. Avoiding horror autotoxicus: Th eimportance of dentritic cells in peripheral T cell tolerance. Steinman, R.M., and Nussenzweig, M.C. 2002, PNAS, pp. no:1, 351-358.

92. Dendritic-cell function in Toll-like receptor- and MyD88-knockout mice . Kaisho, T., Akira, S. 2001, Trends Immunol , pp. 22,78-83.

93. Innate sensing of self and non-self RNAs by Toll-like receptors. Sioud, M. 2006., Trends Mol Med., pp. 12:67–76.

94. Impaired expression of indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase in monocyte-derived dendritic cells in response to Toll-like receptor-7/8 ligands. Furset, G., Fløisand, Y. and Sioud, M. 2008, Immunology., pp. 123(2): 263–271,  http://dx.doi.org:/10.1111/j.1365-2567.2007.02695.x.

95. Toll-;ike receptor 9 mediated induction of the immunorepressor pathway of tryptophan metabolism. Fallarino, F., and Puccetti, P. 2006, Eur. J. of Imm., pp. 36:8-11.

96. Toll-like receptors and host defense against microbial pathogens: bringing specificity to the innate immune system. . Netea MG, der Graaf C, Van der Meer JWM, Kullberg BJ. 2004, J Leukoc Biol. , pp. 75:749–55.

97. Species-specific recognition of single-stranded RNA via toll-like receptor 7 and 8. . Heil F, Hemmi H, Hochrein H, et al. 2004, Science. , pp. 303:1526–9.

98. Innate antiviral responses by means of TLR7-mediated recognition of single-stranded RNA. . Diebold SS, Kaisho T, Hemmi H, Akira S, Reis e Sousa C. 2004., Science. , pp. 303:1529–31.

99. The role of CpG motifs in innate immunity. Krieg, A.M. 2000., Curr Opin Immunol., pp. 12:35–43.

100. Anendogenous tumour-promoting ligand of the human aryl hydrocarbon receptor. Opitz, C.A., Litzenburger, U.M., Sahm, F., Ott,M., Tritschler, I., Trump, S. 2011, Nature, pp. vol 478; 197-203.

101. Impaired impression of Indolamine 2,3-deoxygenase in monocyte derived DCs in response to TLR-7/8. Furset, G., Floisand, Y., Sioud, M. 2007, Immunology, pp. 263-271.

102. Activationof the noncanonical NF-kB pathway by HIV controls a Dendritic cell immunoregulatory phenotype. Manches, O. Fernandez, V.M.,, Plumas, J., Chaperot, L., and Bhardwaj, N. 2012, PNAS, pp. vol: 109, 14122-14127.

103. Regulation of dendritic cell numbers and maturation by lipopolysaccharide in vivo . de Smedt, T., Pajak, B., Muraille, E., Lespagnard, L., Heinen, E., De Baetselier, P., Urbain, J., Leo, O., Moser, M. 1996, J. Exp. Med., pp. 184,1413-1424.

104. Subsets of dendritic cell precursors express different Toll-like receptors and respond to different microbial antigens . Kadowaki, N., Ho, S., Antonenko, S., de Waal Malefyt, R., Kastelein, R. A., Bazan, F., Liu, Y-J. 2001, J. Exp. Med., pp. 194,863-869 .

105. TRAF6 is a critical factor for dendritic cell maturation and development . Kobayashi, T., Walsh, P. T., Walsh, M. C., Speirs, K. M., Chiffoleau, E., King, C. G., Hancock, W. W., Caamano, J. H., Hunter, C. A., Scott, P., Turka, L. A., Choi, Y. 2003, Immunity , pp. 19,353-363 .

106. Activation of interferon regulatory factor-3 via toll-like receptor 3 and immunomodulatory functions detected in A549 lung epithelial cells exposed to misplaced U1-snRNA. Sadik CD, Bachmann M, Pfeilschifter J, Mühl H. 2009, Nucleic Acids Res. , pp. 37(15):5041-56. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1093/nar/gkp525. Epub 2009 Jun 18.

107. Triggering of the dsRNA sensors TLR3, MDA5, and RIG-I induces CD55 expression in synovial fibroblasts. Karpus ON, Heutinck KM, Wijnker PJ, Tak PP, Hamann J. 2012, PLoS One., p. 7(5):e35606.  http://dx.doi.org:/10.1371/journal.pone.0035606. Epub 2012 May 10.

108. The structure of the TLR5-flagellin complex: a new mode of pathogen detection, conserved receptor dimerization for signaling. Lu J, Sun PD. 2012, Sci Signal., p. 5(216):pe11.  http://dx.doi.org:/10.1126/scisignal.2002963.

109. Flagellin/Toll-like receptor 5 response was specifically attenuated by keratan sulfate disaccharide via decreased EGFR phosphorylation in normal human bronchial epithelial cells. Shirato K, Gao C, Ota F, Angata T, Shogomori H, Ohtsubo K, Yoshida K, Lepenies B, Taniguchi N. 2013, Biochem Biophys Res Commun., pp. doi:pii: S0006-291X(13)00779-1. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.bbrc.2013.05.009. [Epub ahead of print].

110. Differential induction of interleukin-10 and interleukin-12 in dendritic cells by microbial Toll-like receptor activators and skewing of T-cell cytokine profiles Infect. Qi, H., Denning, T. L., Soong, L. 2003, Immun. , pp. 71,3337-3342 .

111. Activation of Toll-like receptor 2 on human dendritic cells triggers induction of IL-12, but not IL-10 . Thoma-Uszynski, S., Kiertscher, S. M., Ochoa, M. T., Bouis, D. A., Norgard, M. V., Miyake, K., Godowski, P. J., Roth, M. D., Modlin, R. L. 2000, J. Immunol. , pp. 165,3804-3810.

112. Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) and TLR4 differentially activate human dendritic cells . Re, F., Strominger, J. L. 2001, J. Biol. Chem. , pp. 276,37692-37699.

113. Pasare, C., Medzhitov, R. (2003) Toll pathway-dependent blockade of CD4+CD25+ T cell-mediated suppression by dendritic cells. Pasare, C., Medzhitov, R. 2003, Science , pp. 299,1033-1036 .

114. What is the role of regulatory T cells in the success of implantation and early pregnancy? Saito, S., Shima, T., Nakashima, A., Shiozaki, A., Ito, M., Sasaki, Y. 2007, J Assist Reprod Genet, pp. 24: 379-386.

115. Sleeping Beauty-based gene therapy with indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase inhibits lung allograft fibrosis. Liu H, Liu L, Fletcher BS, Visner GA. 2006, FASEB J, pp. 20:2384-2386.

116. Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase expression in transplanted NOD Islets prolongs graft survival after adoptive transfer of diabetogenic splenocytes. Alexander AM, Crawford M, Bertera S, et al. 2002, Diabetes. , pp. 51(2):356–365.

117. Solid Cancers after Bone Marrow Transplantatioin. Curtis, R.E., Rowlings, P.A., Deeg, J., Schirer, D.A. et al. 1997, The New England Journal of Medicine., pp. 336, No: 13: 897-904.

118. More ADO about IDO; GVHD (commentary). Curti, A., Trabanelli, S., Lemoli, M. 2008, Blood, p. 2950.

119. Jasperson, et al, . 2008, Blood, p. 3257.

120. Tolerance, DCs and tryptophan: much ado about IDO. Grohmann U, Fallarino F, Puccetti P. 2003, Trends Immunol, pp. 24:242-248.

121. Evidence for a tumoral immune resistance mechanism based on tryptophan degradation by indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase. Uyttenhove C, Pilotte L, Théate I, Stroobant V, Colau D, Parmentier N, et al. 2003, Nat Med , pp. 9:1269–74.

122. Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase is a critical regulator of acute graft-versus-host disease lethality. Lisa K. Jasperson, Christoph Bucher, Angela Panoskaltsis-Mortari, Patricia A. Taylor, Andrew L. Mellor, David H. Munn, and Bruce R. Blazar. 2008., Blood., pp. 111:3257-3265.

123. The metabolism of tryptophan. 2. The metabolism of tryptophan in patients suffering from cancer of the bladder. . Boyland, E. & Willliams, D.C. 1956, Biochem. J., pp. 64, 578−582 .

124. Tryptophan metabolism in carcinoma of the breast. . Rose, D. 1967, Lancet , pp. 1, 239−241. 

125. Inhibitors of indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase for cancer therapy: can we see the wood for the trees? . Löb S, Königsrainer A, Rammensee HG, Opelz G, Terness P. 2009;, Nat Rev Cancer , pp. 9:445–52.  http://dx.doi.org:/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-11-1331.

126. The hallmarks of cancer. . Hanahan, D. & Weinberg, R.A. 2000., Cell., pp. 100, 57−70.

127. Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase Expression in Human Cancers: Clinical and Immunologic Perspectives. Godin-Ethier, J., Hanafi,L.A., Piccirillo,C.A. and Lapointe, R. 2011, Clin Cancer Res, pp. 17; 6985,  http://dx.doi.org:/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-11-1331.

128. Dendritic cell modification as a route to inhibiting corneal graft rejection by the indirect pathway of allorecognition. Khan A, Fu H, Tan LA, Harper JE, Beutelspacher SC, Larkin DF, Lombardi G, McClure MO, George AJ. 2013, Eur J Immunol., pp. 43(3):734-46. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1002/eji.201242914. Epub 2013 Jan 18.

129. Possible role of the ‘IDO-AhR axis’ in maternal-foetal tolerance. . Hao K, Zhou Q, Chen W, Jia W, Zheng J, Kang J, Wang K, Duan T. 2013, Cell Biol Int., pp. 37(2):105-8.  http://dx.doi.org:/10.1002/cbin.10023. Epub 2013 Jan 2.

130. Implication of indolamine 2,3 dioxygenase in the tolerance toward fetuses, tumors, and allografts. . Dürr S, Kindler V. 2013, J Leukoc Biol. , pp. 93(5):681-7.
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1189/jlb.0712347. Epub 2013 Jan 16.

131. Evidence for a tumoral immune resistance mechanism based on tryptophan degradation by indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase. Uyttenhove C, Pilotte L, Théate I, Stroobant V, Colau D, Parmentier N, et al. 2003, Nat Med, pp. 9:1269–74.

132. NAturally arising CD4+ regulatory T cells for immunologic self-tolerance and negative control of immune responses. Sagaguchi, S. 2004, Annu. Rev. of Immunol., pp. 22: 531-562.

133. Regulatory T cells in transplantation tolerance. Wood, K.J., zZSakaguchi, S.,. 2003, Nat. Rev. Immunol., pp. 3; 199-210.

134. The cell awareness of paternal alloantigens during pregnancy. Tafuri, A., Alferink, J., Hammerling, G.J., Arnold, B. 1995, Science, pp. 270; 630-3.

135. Adenovirus mediated CTLA4Ig transgene therapy alleviates abortion by inhibiting spleen lymphocyte proliferation and regulating apoptosis in the feto-placental unit. Li W, Li B, Li S. 2013, J Reprod Immunol. , pp. 97(2):167-74.

136. A distinct tolerogenic subset of splenic IDO(+)CD11b(+) dendritic cells from orally tolerized mice is responsible for induction of systemic immune tolerance and suppression of collagen-induced arthritis. Park MJ, Park KS, Park HS, Cho ML, Hwang SY, Min SY, Park MK, Park SH, Kim HY. 2012, Cell Immunol. , pp. 278(1-2):45-54. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.cellimm.2012.06.009. Epub 2012 Jul 10.

137. Pharmacological targeting of IDO-mediated tolerance for treating autoimmune disease. Penberthy, W.T. 2007, Curr. Drug Metab., pp. 8:(3):245-266.

138. Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase expression in transplanted NOD Islets prolongs graft survival after adoptive transfer of diabetogenic splenocytes. Alexander AM, Crawford M, Bertera S, et al. 2002, Diabetes. , pp. 51(2):356–365.

139. Heme oxygenase-1 plays an important protective role in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. . Liu Y, Zhu B, Luo L, Li P, Paty DW, Cynader MS. 2001., NeuroReport. , pp. 12(9):1841–1845.

140. Tumor vaccines in 2010: need for integration. Koos, D., Josephs, SF, Alexandrescu, DT et al. 2010, Cell Immunol, pp. 263: 138-147.

141. BIN1 is a novel MYC-interacting protein with features of a tumor suppressor. . Sakamuro, D., Elliott, K., Wechsler-Reya, R. & Prendergast, G.C. 1996, Nat. Genet. , pp. 14, 69−77.

142. Expression of Indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase by plasmacytoid dendritic cells in tumor draining nodes. Munn, S.H., Sharma, M.D., Hou, D., Baban, B. et al. 2004, J. Clin. Invest. , pp. 114: 280-290.

143. Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase Expression in Human Cancers: Clinical and Immunologic Perspectives. Jessica Godin-Ethier, Laïla-Aïcha Hanafi, Ciriaco A. Piccirillo, and Réjean Lapointe. 2011 , Clin Cancer Res, pp. 17; 6985, http://dx.doi.org:/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-11-1331.

144. Potential regulatory function of human dendritic cells expressing indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase. . Munn, D.H. et al. 2002, Science 297, 1867−1870, pp. 297, 1867−1870 .

145. An HDAC inhibitor enhances cancer therapeutic efficiency of RNA polymerase III promoter-driven IDO shRNA. Yen MC, Weng TY, Chen YL, Lin CC, Chen CY, Wang CY, Chao HL, Chen CS, Lai MD. 2013, Cancer Gene Ther. , p. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1038/cgt.2013.27. [Epub ahead of print].

146. Systemic delivery of Salmonella typhimurium transformed with IDO shRNA enhances intratumoral vector colonization and suppresses tumor growth. Blache CA, Manuel ER, Kaltcheva TI, Wong AN, Ellenhorn JD, Blazar BR, Diamond DJ. 2012, Cancer Res. , pp. 72(24):6447-56.
http://dx.doi.org:/ZZ1158/0008-5472.CAN-12-0193. Epub 2012 Oct 22.

147. Silencing IDO in dendritic cells: a novel approach to enhance cancer immunotherapy in a murine breast cancer model. Zheng X, Koropatnick J, Chen D, Velenosi T, Ling H, Zhang X, Jiang N, Navarro B, Ichim TE, Urquhart B, Min W. 2013, Int J Cancer., pp.132(4):967-77. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1002/ijc.27710. Epub 2012 Jul 20.

148. Immunosuppressive CD14+HLA-DRlow/neg IDO+ myeloid cells in patients following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Mougiakakos D, Jitschin R, von Bahr L, Poschke I, Gary R, Sundberg B, Gerbitz A, Ljungman P, Le Blanc K. 2013, Leukemia. , pp. 27(2):377-88.
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1038/leu.2012.215. Epub 2012 Jul 25.

149. Upregulated expression of indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase in primary breast cancer correlates with increase of infiltrated regulatory T cells in situ and lymph node metastasis. Yu J, Sun J, Wang SE, Li H, Cao S, Cong Y, Liu J, Ren X. 2011, Clin Dev Immunol. , p. 11:469135.
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1155/2011/469135. Epub 2011 Oct 24.

150. Skin delivery of short hairpin RNA of indoleamine 2,3 dioxygenase induces antitumor immunity against orthotopic and metastatic liver cancer. Huang TT, Yen MC, Lin CC, Weng TY, Chen YL, Lin CM, Lai MD. 2011, Cancer Sci. , pp. 102(12):2214-20. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1111/j.1349-7006.2011.02094.x.

151. Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase expression in transplanted NOD Islets prolongs graft survival after adoptive transfer of diabetogenic splenocytes. . Alexander AM, Crawford M, Bertera S, et al. 2002, Diabetes. , pp. 51(2):356–365.

152. Prevention of Spontaneous Tumor Development in a ret Transgenic Mouse Model by Ret Peptide Vaccination with Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase Inhibitor 1-Methyl Tryptophan. Zeng, J., Cai, S., Yi, Y., et al. 2009, Cancer Res., pp. 69: 3963-3970,  http://dx.doi.org:/10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-08-2476.

153. Medicinal electronomics bricolage design of hypoxia-targeting antineoplastic drugs and invention of boron tracedrugs as innovative future-architectural drugs. Hori H, Uto Y, Nakata E. 2010, Anticancer Res. , pp. 30(9):3233-42.

154. Synthesis of 4-cyano and 4-nitrophenyl 1,6-dithio-D-manno-, L-ido- and D-glucoseptanosides possessing antithrombotic activity. Bozó E, Gáti T, Demeter A, Kuszmann J. 2002, Carbohydr Res. , pp. 3;337(15):1351-65.

155. Radiopharmaceuticals XXVII. 18F-labeled 2-deoxy-2-fluoro-d-glucose as a radiopharmaceutical for measuring regional myocardial glucose metabolism in vivo: tissue distribution and imaging studies in animals. Gallagher BM, Ansari A, Atkins H, Casella V, Christman DR, Fowler JS, Ido T, MacGregor RR, Som P, Wan CN, Wolf AP, Kuhl DE, Reivich M. 1977, J Nucl Med. , pp. 18(10):990-6.

156. Tryptophan deprivation sensitizes activated T cells to apoptosis prior to cell division. Lee GK, Park HJ, Macleod M, Chandler P, Munn DH, Mellor AL. 2002, Immunology, pp. 107:452–460.

157. Induction of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase by uropathogenic bacteria attenuates innate responses to epithelial infection. Loughman JA, Hunstad DA. 2012 , J Infect Dis. , pp. 205(12):1830-9.  http://dx.doi.org:/10.1093/infdis/jis280.

158. Inhibition of allogeneic T cell proliferation by indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase-expressing dendritic cells: mediation of suppression by tryptophan metabolites. . Terness, P., et al. 2002, J. Exp. Med.196:447–457., pp. 196:447–457.

159. The tryptophan catabolite L-kynurenine inhibits the surface expression of NKp46- and NKG2D-activating receptors and regulates NK-cell function. . Chiesa, M.D., et al. 2006, Blood. , pp. 108:4118–4125.38.

160. Differential effects of the tryptophan metabolite 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid on the proliferation of human CD8+ T cells induced by TCR triggering or homeostatic cytokines. Weber, W.P., et al. 2006, Eur. J. Immunol. , pp. 36:296-304.

161. Dendritic cell vaccination against ovarian cancer–tipping the Treg/TH17 balance to therapeutic advantage? Cannon MJ, Goyne H, Stone PJ, Chiriva-Internati M. 2011, Expert Opin Biol Ther. , pp. 11(4):441-5. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1517/14712598.2011.554812.

162. Phenotype, distribution, generation, and functional and clinical relevance of Th17 cells in the human tumor environments. . Kryczek I, Banerjee M, Cheng P, et al. 2009, Blood., pp. 114:1141–1149.

163. The use of dendritic cells in cancer immunitherapy. Schuler, G., Schuker-Turner, B., Steinman, RM, 2003, Curr. Opin. Immunol., pp. 15: 138-147.

164. Clinical applications of dentritic cell vaccines. Morse, MA, Lyerly, HK. 2000, Curr. Opin. Mol Ther., pp. 2:20-28.

165. Vaccination of melanoma patients with peptide or tumor lysate-pulsed dendritic cells. Nestle, FO, Alijagic, S., Gillet, M. et al. 1998, Nat. Med., pp. 4: 328-332.

166. Dentritic cell based tumor vaccination in prostate and renal cell cancer: a systamatic review. Draube, A., Klein-Gonzales, Matheus, S et al. 2011, Plos One, p. 6:e1881.

167. [Online] http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/CellularGeneTherapy-Products/ApprovedProducts/ucm210215.htm.

168. Dendritic cell based antitumor vaccination: impact of functional indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase expression. Wobster, m., Voigt, H., Houben, R. et al. 2007, Cancer Immunol Immunother, pp. 56:1017-1024. 169. [Online] oncoimmunology.2012 October1; 1(17):1111-1134,  http://dx.doi.org:/10.4161/onci.21494.

170. Interleukins 1beta and 6 but not transforming growth factor-beta are essential for the differentiation of interleukin 17-producing human T helper cells. Acosta-Rodriguez EV, Napolitani G, Lanzavecchia A, Sallusto F. 2007 , Nat Immunol. , pp. 8(9):942-9.

171. IFNgamma promotes generationof Il-10 secreting CD4+ T cells that suppress generationof CD8responses in an antigen-experienced host. Liu, X.S., Leerberg, J., MacDonald, K., Leggatt, G.R., Frazer, I.H. 2009, J. Immunol., pp. 183: 51-58.

172. Antigen, in the presence of TGF-beta, induces up-regulationof FoxP3gfp+ in CD4+ TCR transgenic T cells that mediate linked supressionof CD8+ T cell responses. . Kapp, J.A., Honjo, K., Kapp, L.M., Goldsmith, K., Bucy, R.P. 2007, J. Immunol., pp. 179: 2105-2114.

173. Opposing effects of TGF-beta and IL-15 cytokines control the number of short lived effecctor CD8+ T cells. Sanjabi, S, Mosaheb, M.M., Flavell, R.A. 2009, Immunity., pp. 31; 131-144.

174. Synergestic enhancement of CD8+ T cell mediated tumor vaccines efficacy by an anti-tumor forming growth factor-beta monoclonal antibody. . Terabe, M., Ambrosino, E., Takaku, S. et al. 2009, Clin. Cancer Res., pp. 15; 6560-9.

175. IL-12 enhances CTL synapse formationand induces self-reactivity. Markinewicz, MA, Wise, EL, Buchwald, ZS et al. 2009, J. Immunol., pp. 182: 1351-1362.

176. Tumor specific Th17-polarized cells eradicate large established melanoma. Muranski, P., Boni, A., Antony, PA, et al. 2008, Blood, pp. 112; 362-373.

177. Type17 CD8+ T cells dispplay enhanced antitumor immunity. Hinrichs, C.S., Kaiser, A., Paulos, C.M., et al. 2008, Blood., pp. 112:362-373.

178. Marying Immunotherapy with Chemotherapy: Why Say IDO? Muller, AJ, and Prendergrast, GC. 2005, Cancer Research, pp. 65: 8065-8068.

179. Enhancing Cancer Vaccine efficacy via Modulationof the Tumor Environment. Disis, ML. 2009, Clin Cancer Res, pp. 15: 6476-6478.

180. Systemic inhibition of transforming growth factor beta 1 in glioma bearing mice improves the therapeutic efficacy of glioma-associated antigen peptide vaccines. Ueda, R., Fujita, M., Zhu, X., et al. 2009, Clin. Cancer res., pp. 15: 6551-9.

181. Immune modulation by silencing IL-12 productionin dendritic cells using smal interfering RNA. Hill, JA, Ichim, TE, Kusznieruk, KP, et al. 2003, J. Immunol, pp. 171:809-813.

182. Immune modulation and tolerance induction by RelB-silenced dentritic cells through RNA interference. Li, M. Zang, X, Zheng, X, et al. 2007, J. Immunol, pp. 178: 5480-7.

183. RNAi mediated CD40-CD54 interruption promotes tolerance in autoimmune arthritis. . Zheng, X., Suzuki, M., Zhang, X., et al. 2010, Arthritis Res. Ther., p. 12:R13.

184. Dendritic cells genetically engineered to express Fas ligand induce donor-specific hyporesponsiveness and prolong allograft survival. Min, WP. Gorczynki, R., huang, XY et al. 2000, J. Immunol., pp. 164:161-167.

185. LF15-0195 generates tolerogenic dendritic cells by supressionof NF-kappaB signaling through inhibitionof IKK activity. . Yang, J., Bernier, SM, Ichim, TE, et al. 2003, J Leukoc. Biol., pp. 74: 438-447.

186. RNA interfrence: A potent tool for gene specific therapeutics. . Ichim, TE, Li, M., Qian, H., Popov, HI, Rycerz, K., Zheng, X., White, D., Zhong, R., and Min, WP. 2004, Am. J. Transplant, pp. 4:1227-1236.

187. A novel in vivo siRNA delivery system specifically targeting dendritic cells and silencing CD40 genes for immunomodulation. Zheng, X., Vladau, C., Zhang, X. et al. 2009, Blood, pp. 113:2646-2654.

188. Reinstalling Antitumor Immunity by Inhibiting Tumor derived ImmunoSupressive Molecule IDO through RNA interference. Zheng, X et al. 2006, Int. Journal of Immunology., pp. 177:5639-5646.

189. Roles of TGFbeta in metastasis. Padua, D., Massague, J. 2009, Cell Res., pp. 19;89-102.

190. Functional expression of indolamine2,3-dioxygenase by murine CDalpha+dendritic cells. Fallarino, F., Vacca, C, Orabona, C et al. 2002, Int Immunol., pp. 14:65-8.

191. Indolamine2,3-dioxygenase controls conversion of Fox3+ Tregs to TH17-like cells in tumor draining lymph nodes. Sharma, MD, Hou, DY, Liu, Y et al. 2009, Blood, pp.113: 6102-11.

192. IDO upregulates regulatory T cells via tryptoophan catabolite and supresses encephalitogenic T cell responses in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Yan, Y, Zhang, GX, Gran, B et al. 2010, J Immunol, pp. 185; 5953-61.

193. IDO activates regulatory T cells and blocks their conversion into Th-17-like T cells. Baban, B, Chandler, PR, Sharma, MD et al. 2009, J Immunol, pp. 183; 2475-83.

194. Enhancement of vaccine-mediated antitumor immunity in cancer patients after depletionof regulatory T cells. Dannull, J., Farrand, KJ, Mathews, SA, et al. 2005, J Clin Invest, pp. 115: 3623-33.

195. 1-MT enhances potency of tumor cell lysate pulled dentritic cells against pancreatic adenocarcinoma by downregulating percentage of Tregs. Li, Y, Xu, J, Zhou, H. et al. 2010, J Huazhong Univ Sci Technol Med Sci , pp. 30: 344-8.

196. siRNA mediated antitumorigenesis for drug target validation and therapeutics. Lu, PY, Xie, FY and Woodle, MC. 2003, Curr Opin Mol. Ther., pp. 5:225-234.

197. Stable supression of tumorigenicity by virus-mediated RNA interference. Brumellkamp, TR, Bernards, R, Agami, R. 2002, Cancer Cell, pp. 2; 243-247.

198. Small interferring RNAs directed against beta-catenin inhibit the in vitro and in vivo growth of colon cancer cells. Verma, UN, Surabhi, RM, Schmaltieg, A., Becerra, C., Gaynor, RB. 2003, Clin. Cancer. Res., pp. 9:1291-1300.

199. siRNA mediated inhibition of vascular endothelial growth factor severely limits tumor resistance to antiangiogeneic thromboposdin-1 and slows tumor vascularization and growth. Filleur, S., Courtin, A, Ait-Si-Ali, S., Guglielmi, J., Merel, C., Harel-Bellan, A., CLezardin, P., and Cabon, F. 2003, Cancer Res, pp. 63; 3919-3922.

200. Kynurenic acid as a ligand for orphan G protein-coupled receptor GPR35. . Wang, J., et al. 2006, J. Biol.Chem. , pp. 281:22021–22028. 201. Bin1 functionally interacts with Myc in cells and inhibits cell proliferation by multiple mechanisms. Elliott, K. et al. 1999, Oncogene , pp. 18, 3564−3573 .

202. Mechanism for elimination of a tumor suppressor: aberrant splicing of a brain-specific exon causes loss of function of Bin1 in melanoma. . Ge, K. et al. 1999, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, pp. 96, 9689−9694. 

203. Losses of the tumor suppressor Bin1 in breast carcinoma are frequent and reflect deficits in a programmed cell death capacity. Ge, K. et al. 2000, Int. J. Cancer , pp. 85, 376−383.

204. Loss of heterozygosity and tumor suppressor activity of Bin1 in prostate carcinoma. Ge, K. et al. 2000, Int. J. Cancer , pp. 86, 155−161.

205. Expression of a MYCN-interacting isoform of the tumor suppressor BIN1 is reduced in neuroblastomas with unfavorable biological features. . Tajiri, T. et al. 2003, Clin. Cancer Res., pp. 9, 3345−3355.

206. Targeted deletion of the suppressor gene Bin1/Amphiphysin2 enhances the malignant character of transformed cells. Muller, A.J., DuHadaway, J.B., Donover, P.S., Sutanto-Ward, E. & Prendergast, G.C. 2004, Cancer Biol. Ther. , p. 3.

207. Interactions of myogenic factors and the retinoblastoma protein mediates muscle commitment and cell differentiation. Gu, WJ., Scheniider,W., Condrolli,G., Kaushal,, S, Mahdavi,V., Nadal-Gnard, B. 1993, Cell, pp. 72; 309-324.

208. Structural analysis of the human BIN1 gene: evidence of tissue-specific transcriptional regualtion and alternate splicing. Wechsler-Reya, R, Sakamuro, J., Zhang, J., DuHadaway, J., and Predengast. 1998, J of Biol Chem.

209. A role for th ePutative Tuimor Supressor Bin1 in Muscle Differentiation. Wechsler-Reya, R., Elliott, KJ, Prendergast, GC. 1998, Molecular and Cellular Biology, p. 18 (1) :566.

210. The putative tumor repressor BIN1 is a short lived nuclear phosphoprotein whose localization is altered in malignant cells. Wechsler-Reya, R., Elliot, K., Herlyn, M., Prendergast, GC. 1997, Cancer Res, pp. 57: 3258-3263.

211. Transformation selective apoptosis by farnesyltransferase inhibitors requires Bin1. DuHadaway, J.B. et al. 2003, Oncogene, pp. 22, 3578−3588 (2003).

212. The c-Myc-interacting adapter protein Bin1 activates a caspase-independent cell death program. Elliott, K., Ge, K., Du, W. & Prendergast, G.C. 2000., Oncogene , pp. 19, 4669−4684.

213. Growth stimulation of human bone marrow cells in agar culture by vascular cells. Knudtzon, S., and Mortensen, BT. 1975, Blood, pp. 46 (6) 937-943.

214. Exogenous endothelial cells as accelerators of hematopoietic reconstitution. Mizer, C., Ichim, TE, Alexandrescu, DT, DAsanu, CA, Ramos, F., Turner, A., Woods, EJ, Bogon, V., Murphy, MP, Koos, D., and Patel, A. 2013, J. Translational Medicine, p. 10: 231.

215. Dissecting the bone marrow microenvironment . Torok-Storb, B. et al. 1999, Annals of New York Academy of Science, pp. 872: 164-170. 217. Yuasa, XX and Ball YY. 2011.

218. Possible role of the ‘IDO-AhR axis’ in maternal-foetal tolerance. Hao K, Zhou Q, Chen W, Jia W, Zheng J, Kang J, Wang K, Duan T. 2013, Cell Biol Int. , pp. 37(2):105-8. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1002/cbin.10023.

219. Toll pathway-dependent blockade of CD4+CD25+ T cell-mediated suppression by dendritic cells. Pasare, C., Medzhitov, R. 2003, Science , pp. 299,1033-1036 .

220. Activation of Toll-like receptor 2 on human dendritic cells triggers induction of IL-12, but not IL-10. Thoma-Uszynski, S., Kiertscher, S. M., Ochoa, M. T., Bouis, D. A., Norgard, M. V., Miyake, K., Godowski, P. J., Roth, M. D., Modlin, R. L. 2000, J. Immunol. , pp. 165,3804-3810.

Read Full Post »

%d bloggers like this: