Faculty Bibliography

Metabolic labeling with tritiated palmitate is a direct method for monitoring posttranslational modification of Ras proteins with this fatty acid. Advances in intensifying screens have allowed for the easy visualization of tritium without the need for extended exposure times. While more energetic radioisotopes are easier to visualize, the lack of commercial source and need for shielding make them more difficult to work with. Since radiolabeled palmitate is directly incorporated into Ras, its loss can be monitored by traditional pulse-chase experiments that cannot be accomplished with the method of acyl-exchange chemistry. As such, tritiated palmitate remains a readily accessible and direct method for monitoring the palmitoylation status of Ras proteins under a multitude of conditions.

It has been recently shown that N-ras plays a preferential role in immune cell development and function; specifically: N-ras, but not H-ras or K-ras, could be activated at and signal from the Golgi membrane of immune cells following a low level T-cell receptor stimulus. The goal of our studies was to test the hypothesis that N-ras and H-ras played distinct roles in immune cells at the level of the transcriptome. First, we showed via mRNA expression profiling that there were over four hundred genes that were uniquely differentially regulated either by N-ras or H-ras, which provided strong evidence in favor of the hypothesis that N-ras and H-ras have distinct functions in immune cells. We next characterized the genes that were differentially regulated by N-ras in T cells following a low-level T-cell receptor stimulus. Of the large pool of candidate genes that were differentially regulated by N-ras downstream of TCR ligation, four genes were verified in qRT-PCR-based validation experiments (Dntt, Slc9a6, Chst1, and Lars2). Finally, although there was little overlap between individual genes that were regulated by N-ras in unstimulated thymocytes and stimulated CD4(+) T-cells, there was a nearly complete correspondence between the signaling pathways that were regulated by N-ras in these two immune cell types.

Background: Loss-of-function (LOF) mutations in FGFR1 are a frequent cause of congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (CHH), a severe form of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) deficiency, in males and females. They also predispose females to hypothalamic amenorrhea (HA), a milder and reversible form of GnRH deficiency associated with stress and/or energy deficits. FGF21 is an important metabolic regulator, which signals through a complex of FGFR1c with its co-receptor s-Klotho. Several lines of evidence support the hypothesis that mutations in KLB, which encodes s-Klotho, could also underlie CHH by compromising FGF21 signalling: 1) female Fgf21 transgenic(Tg) mice are resistant to high-fat diet and exhibit HH and infertility; 2) a CHH patient, obese with severe insulin-resistance carries a FGFR1 L342S mutation (1) that impairs FGF21 signalling in vitro. Methods: We screened 295 CHH patients for mutations in KLB and FGF21. The functionality of identified mutations were evaluated in vitro using cell-based reporter gene assays and expression assays, as well as in vivo using rescue experiments in C.elegans deficient of both worm KLB homologues. Klb deficient mice (Klb-/-) were evaluated for reproductive and metabolic phenotypes. Results: No mutations were identified in FGF21. We identified 9 heterozygous KLB mutations among 13/295 unrelated CHH patients (4%, 9 males and 4 females). Five patients harbor an identical KLB deletion (p.Phe777del) while the other mutations are missense. All mutations have a MAF<1% in EVS and 1000 genome database and are LOF in vitro and/or in vivo. Additional gene defects in CHH-associated genes were identified in 6/13 patients; these including 3 heterozygous FGFR1 mutations, consistent with an oligogenic model of inheritance. Notably, 10/13 subjects also exhibited metabolic defects, such as obesity, impaired fasting glucose, and/or severe dyslipidemia. Klb-/- mice are smaller in size than wild- type littermates. Female Klb-/- exhibit delayed sexual maturation and irregular estrous cycles, with reduced time spent in estrous. Further reproductive and metabolic phenotyping of the Klb-/-mice is underway. Conclusion: Loss-of-function KLB mutationsunderlie congenital GnRH deficiency. The delayed puberty phenotype of Klb-/- mice supports a role for KLB in reproduction. These findings highlight FGF21 as a probable important link between metabolism and reproduction

Efforts to identify meaningful functional imaging-based biomarkers are limited by the ability to reliably characterize inter-individual differences in human brain function. Although a growing number of connectomics-based measures are reported to have moderate to high test-retest reliability, the variability in data acquisition, experimental designs, and analytic methods precludes the ability to generalize results. The Consortium for Reliability and Reproducibility (CoRR) is working to address this challenge and establish test-retest reliability as a minimum standard for methods development in functional connectomics. Specifically, CoRR has aggregated 1,629 typical individuals' resting state fMRI (rfMRI) data (5,093 rfMRI scans) from 18 international sites, and is openly sharing them via the International Data-sharing Neuroimaging Initiative (INDI). To allow researchers to generate various estimates of reliability and reproducibility, a variety of data acquisition procedures and experimental designs are included. Similarly, to enable users to assess the impact of commonly encountered artifacts (for example, motion) on characterizations of inter-individual variation, datasets of varying quality are included.

Cultured primary neurons are a well-established model for the study of neuronal function. Conventional stable isotope labeling with amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) requires nearly complete metabolic labeling of proteins and therefore is difficult to apply to cultured primary neurons, which do not divide in culture. Here we describe a protocol that utilizes a multiplex SILAC labeling strategy for primary cultured neurons. In this strategy, two different sets of heavy amino acids are used for labeling cells for the different experimental conditions. This allows for a straightforward SILAC quantitation using partially labeled cells because the two cell populations are always equally labeled.

The behavior of the Central African Kinda baboon (Papio kindae) is not well documented. Having previously noted distinctive grooming behavior in several Kinda baboon populations, we investigated the topic more systematically in the Kafue National Park, Zambia. We recorded the duration and details of male-female dyadic interactions (approaches, withdrawals and time spent grooming) in the early morning and late afternoon. Such interactions were more often initiated by the male and terminated by the female partner. The male groomed the female more often, and longer, than she groomed him, regardless of the female's reproductive state or the presence of an infant. The bias towards male grooming was stronger in morning than evening interactions. These behaviors, whose function is not immediately obvious, and which are unlike those previously reported in baboons, further exemplify the distinctiveness of the taxon. (c) 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Excess scar formation after cutaneous injury can result in hypertrophic scar (HTS) or keloid formation. Modern strategies to treat pathologic scarring represent nontargeted approaches that produce suboptimal results. Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), a central mediator of inflammation, has been proposed as a novel target to block fibroproliferation. To examine its mechanism of action, we performed genomewide microarray on human fibroblasts (from normal skin, HTS, and keloid scars) treated with the mTOR inhibitor, rapamycin. Hypertrophic scar and keloid fibroblasts demonstrated overexpression of collagen I and III that was effectively abrogated with rapamycin. Blockade of mTOR specifically impaired fibroblast expression of the collagen biosynthesis genes PLOD, PCOLCE, and P4HA, targets significantly overexpressed in HTS and keloid scars. These data suggest that pathologic scarring can be abrogated via modulation of mTOR pathways in procollagen and collagen processing.

Epidemiological findings indicate that transient environmental influences during perinatal life, especially nutrition, may have deleterious heritable health effects lasting for the entire life. Indeed, the fetal organism develops specific adaptations that permanently change its physiology/metabolism and that persist even in the absence of the stimulus that initiated them. This process is termed "nutritional programming". We previously demonstrated that mothers fed a Low-Protein-Diet (LPD) during gestation and lactation give birth to F1-LPD animals presenting metabolic consequences that are different from those observed when the nutritional stress is applied during gestation only. Compared to control mice, adult F1-LPD animals have a lower body weight and exhibit a higher food intake suggesting that maternal protein under-nutrition during gestation and lactation affects the energy metabolism of F1-LPD offspring. In this study, we investigated the origin of this apparent energy wasting process in F1-LPD and demonstrated that minimal energy expenditure is increased, due to both an increased mitochondrial function in skeletal muscle and an increased mitochondrial density in White Adipose Tissue. Importantly, F1-LPD mice are protected against high-fat-diet-induced obesity. Clearly, different paradigms of exposure to malnutrition may be associated with differences in energy expenditure, food intake, weight and different susceptibilities to various symptoms associated with metabolic syndrome. Taken together these results demonstrate that intra-uterine environment is a major contributor to the future of individuals and disturbance at a critical period of development may compromise their health. Consequently, understanding the molecular mechanisms may give access to useful knowledge regarding the onset of metabolic diseases.

The actin-Capping Protein heterodimer, composed of the alpha and beta subunits, is a master F-actin regulator. In addition to its role in many cellular processes, Capping Protein acts as a main tumor suppressor module in Drosophila and in humans, in part, by restricting the activity of Yorkie/YAP/TAZ oncogenes. We aimed in this report to understand how both subunits regulate each other in vivo. We show that the levels and capping activities of both subunits must be tightly regulated to control F-actin levels and consequently growth of the Drosophila wing. Overexpressing capping protein alpha and beta decreases both F-actin levels and tissue growth, while expressing forms of Capping Protein that have dominant negative effects on F-actin promote tissue growth. Both subunits regulate each other's protein levels. In addition, overexpressing one of the subunit in tissues knocked-down for the other increases the mRNA and protein levels of the subunit knocked-down and compensates for its loss. We propose that the ability of the alpha and beta subunits to control each other's levels assures that a pool of functional heterodimer is produced in sufficient quantities to restrict the development of tumor but not in excess to sustain normal tissue growth.