cell-specific-paired-interrogation-mouse-ovarian-epigenome

Cell-Specific Paired Interrogation of the Mouse Ovarian Epigenome and Transcriptome

Assessing cell-type-specific epigenomic and transcriptomic changes are key to understanding ovarian aging. To this end, the optimization of the ...

oklahoma medical research foundation

Modern molecular and biochemical neuroscience studies require analysis of specific cellular populations derived from brain tissue samples to disambiguate cell type-specific events. This is particularly true in the analysis of minority glial populations in the brain, such as microglia, which may be obscured in whole tissue analyses. Microglia have central functions in development, aging, and neurodegeneration and are a current focus of neuroscience research. A long-standing concern for glial biologists using  models is whether cell isolation from CNS tissue could introduce  artifacts in microglia, which respond quickly to changes in the environment. Mouse microglia were purified by magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS), as well as cytometer-based and cartridge-based fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) approaches to compare and contrast performance. The Cx3cr1-NuTRAP mouse model was used to provide an endogenous fluorescent microglial marker and a microglial-specific translatome profile as a baseline comparison lacking cell isolation artifacts. All sorting methods performed similarly for microglial purity with main differences being in cell yield and time of isolation.  activation signatures occurred principally during the initial tissue dissociation and cell preparation and not the cell sorting. The cell preparation-induced activational phenotype could be minimized by inclusion of transcriptional and translational inhibitors or non-enzymatic dissociation conducted entirely at low temperatures. These data demonstrate that a variety of microglial isolation approaches can be used, depending on experimental needs, and that inhibitor cocktails are effective at reducing cell preparation artifacts.

Minimizing the  Confounds of Cell-Isolation Techniques on Transcriptomic and Translatomic Profiles of Purified Microglia.

Common neurological disorders, like Alzheimer's disease (AD), multiple sclerosis (MS), and autism, display profound sex differences in prevalence and clinical presentation. However, sex differences in the brain with health and disease are often overlooked in experimental models. Sex effects originate, directly or indirectly, from hormonal or sex chromosomal mechanisms. To delineate the contributions of genetic sex (XX v. XY) versus gonadal sex (ovaries v. testes) to the epigenomic regulation of hippocampal sex differences, we used the Four Core Genotypes (FCG) mouse model which uncouples chromosomal and gonadal sex. Transcriptomic and epigenomic analyses of ~ 12-month-old FCG mouse hippocampus, revealed genomic context-specific regulatory effects of genotypic and gonadal sex on X- and autosome-encoded gene expression and DNA modification patterns. X-chromosomal epigenomic patterns, classically associated with X-inactivation, were established almost entirely by genotypic sex, independent of gonadal sex. Differences in X-chromosome methylation were primarily localized to gene regulatory regions including promoters, CpG islands, CTCF binding sites, and active/poised chromatin, with an inverse relationship between methylation and gene expression. Autosomal gene expression demonstrated regulation by both genotypic and gonadal sex, particularly in immune processes. These data demonstrate an important regulatory role of sex chromosomes, independent of gonadal sex, on sex-biased hippocampal transcriptomic and epigenomic profiles. Future studies will need to further interrogate specific CNS cell types, identify the mechanisms by which sex chromosomes regulate autosomes, and differentiate organizational from activational hormonal effects.

Kevin D. Pham

Genes & Human Disease Research Program

oklahoma medical research foundation

Cell-Specific Paired Interrogation of the Mouse Ovarian Epigenome and Transcriptome

Kevin D. Pham

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oklahoma medical research foundation

Cell-Specific Paired Interrogation of the Mouse Ovarian Epigenome and Transcriptome

Genes & Human Disease Research Program