Characterization of Murine Pituitary-Derived Cell Lines Tpit/F1, Tpit/E and TtT/GF
JOURNAL OF REPRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
Authors: Yoshida, Saishu; Higuchi, Masashi; Ueharu, Hiroki; Nishimura, Naoto; Tsuda, Mitsuyoshi; Yako, Hideji; Chen, Mo; Mitsuishi, Hideo; Sano, Yoshiya; Kato, Takako; Kato, Yukio
Abstract
The pituitary is an important endocrine tissue of the vertebrate that produces and secretes many hormones. Accumulating data suggest that several types of cells compose the pituitary, and there is growing interest in elucidating the origin of these cell types and their roles in pituitary organogenesis. Therein, the histogenous cell line is an extremely valuable experimental tool for investigating the function of derived tissue. In this study, we compared gene expression profiles by microarray analysis and real-time PCR for murine pituitary tumor-derived non-hormone-producing cell lines TtT/GF, Tpit/F1 and Tpit/E. Several genes are characteristically expressed in each cell line: Abcg2, Nestin, Prrx1, Prrx2, CD34, Eng, Cspg4 (Ng2), S100 beta and nNos in TtT/GF; Cxcl12, Raldh1, Msx1 and Twist1 in Tpit/F1; and Cxadr, S0x9, Cdh1, EpCAM and Krt8 in Tpit/E. Ultimately, we came to the following conclusions: TtT/GF cells show the most differentiated state, and may have some properties of the pituitary vascular endothelial cell and/or pericyte. Tpit/F1 cells show the epithelial and mesenchymal phenotypes with sternness still in a transiting state. Tpit/E cells have a phenotype of epithelial cells and are the most immature cells in the progression of differentiation or in the initial endothelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Thus, these three cell lines must be useful model cell lines for investigating pituitary stem/progenitor cells as well as organogenesis.
Variants in CXADR and F2RL1 are associated with blood pressure and obesity in African-Americans in regions identified through admixture mapping
JOURNAL OF HYPERTENSION
Authors: Shetty, Priya B.; Tang, Hua; Tayo, Bamidele O.; Morrison, Alanna C.; Hanis, Craig L.; Rao, Dabeeru C.; Young, Jeffery H.; Fox, Ervin R.; Boerwinkle, Eric; Cooper, Richard S.; Risch, Neil J.; Zhu, Xiaofeng
Abstract
Objective: Genetic variants in 296 genes in regions identified through admixture mapping of hypertension, BMI, and lipids were assessed for association with hypertension, blood pressure (BP), BMI, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). Methods: This study identified coding SNPs identified from HapMap2 data that were located in genes on chromosomes 5, 6, 8, and 21, wherein ancestry association evidence for hypertension, BMI, or HDL-C was identified in previous admixture mapping studies. Genotyping was performed in 1733 unrelated African-Americans from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's Family Blood Pressure Project, and gene-based association analyses were conducted for hypertension, SBP, DBP, BMI, and HDL-C. A gene score based on the number of minor alleles of each SNP in a gene was created and used for gene-based regression analyses, adjusting for age, age(2), sex, local marker ancestry, and BMI, as applicable. An individual's African ancestry estimated from 2507 ancestry-informative markers was also adjusted for to eliminate any confounding due to population stratification. Results: CXADR (rs437470) on chromosome 21 was associated with SBP and DBP with or without adjusting for local ancestry (P < 0.0006). F2RL1 (rs631465) on chromosome 5 was associated with BMI (P = 0.0 0 05). Local ancestry in these regions was associated with the respective traits as well. Conclusion: This study suggests that CXADR and F2RL1 likely play important roles in BP and obesity variation, respectively; and these findings are consistent with those of other studies, so replication and functional analyses are necessary.