表观遗传学和环境因素与子宫内膜异位症

子宫内膜异位症(EMs)是一种雌激素依赖的炎性疾病,发病机制尚不清楚。越来越多的证据表明,一些基因的表观遗传学特性与EMs的发病有关。表观遗传学是指DNA序列不发生变化,但基因表达却发生了可遗传的改变,包括DNA甲基化、组蛋白共价修饰及染色质构象变化,这些改变可能会引发一系列包括肿瘤在内的病理变化。EMs异位组织中芳香化酶基因的Cp G岛序列低甲基化和(或)反式作用因子上调芳香化酶基因的表达;卵巢异位上皮及间质细胞的雌激素受体α(ERα)低表达而ERβ显著高表达;在位细胞的孕激素受体α(PRα)和PRβ均高表达;EMs异位内膜细胞的类固醇生成因子1(SF-1)启动子低甲基化而在位内膜高甲基化。此外,EMs异位组织E-钙黏蛋白(E-cadherin)基因及在位组织同源框基因A10(HOXA10)表达降低也与EMs有关;环境因素可能会影响表观遗传基因导致EMs的发生。综述表观遗传学改变和环境因素在EMs发病中的作用。     

插入CpG序列的乙肝病毒核心抗原基因真核表达质粒的构建及在树突状细胞中的表达

目的：构建pEGFP—N1／CpG-HBcAg（ISS）真核表达载体，探讨乙肝病毒核心抗原（HBcAg）在树突状细胞（DC）中的表达，为研制乙肝治疗性疫苗奠定基础。方法：根据HBcAg基因序列，设计合成两对引物，在引物中引入针对人敏感的CpG基序和不合CpG的片段，用PCR方法从慢性乙型肝炎患者血清HBVDNA中扩增出HBcAg基因片段，将扩增产物与pEGFP—N1连接，构建重组体pEGFP—N1／CpG-HBcAg，进行酶切、PCR及测序鉴定；分离人外周血单个核细胞（PBMC），体外诱导分化为DC，通过脂质体将重组质粒pEGFP—N1／CpG-HBcAg和空载体分别转染DC，Western blot检测HBcAg在DC的表达。结果：HBcAg基因体外扩增产物大小为530bp。所构建的pEGFP-N1／CpG—HBcAg经双酶切及PCR鉴定，与预期片段的大小相符。测序结果与GenBank中收录的HBcAg全长序列一致，表明pEGFP—NI／CpG-HBcAg真核表达体构建正确；PBMC体外成功刺激分化为DC，HBcAg可在DC中表达。结论：成功构建了真核重组表达载体pEGFP—N1／CpG—HBcAg，且可在DC中表达，为CpG的功能研究和乙型肝炎治疗性疫苗的研制奠定基础。     

Involvement of epigenetics and microRNA-29b in the urethane induced inception and establishment of mouse lung tumors

Epigenetic changes are correlated with tumor development showing aberrations in DNA methylation and histone modifications. To find the early changes, we evaluated the epigenetic events from early to late stage of the urethane induced lung tumor development in mouse model and tried to correlate the molecular events with the progression of tumor. We addressed the hypothesis by examining the tumor development, status of DNMTs, HDACs and MBDs, DNA methylation and expression of microRNA-29b during 1 to 36 weeks after urethane exposure that included the period before and after the tumor appearance. Tumors did not appear after 1 or 4 weeks but well defined tumors appeared after 12 weeks and larger tumors appeared at 36 weeks which was prevented by IP6. DNMT1, DNMT3a and DNMT3b were upregulated after urethane exposure at the time of no tumor till the tumor developed and showed its upregulated functional activity. DNMTs are shown to be the targets of microRNA-29b and we showed that microRNA-29b was downregulated in the line of DNMT upregulation. HDAC, the histone modifier, also showed progressive upregulation. Periodic increase in methyl binding proteins, MBD2, supported the expression of gene silencing pathways in terms of the downregulation of tumor suppressor genes, p16 and MLH1. All these molecular alterations were protected in the presence of IP6. Our results showed that the key steps of epigenetics, DNMTs, mir29b, and HDAC1, are altered both before and after the development of tumors.     

牙龈卟啉单胞菌PG0839基因突变株的构建

目的构建牙龈卟啉单胞菌毒力岛基因PG0839突变菌株,为研究PG0839基因功能提供实验基础。方法扩增1 584 bp PG0839基因片段,对聚合酶链反应（PCR）产物和pUC19载体进行BamH Ⅰ和EcoRⅠ双酶切,连接酶切产物得到质粒pPG0839-1。将2 101 bp erm基因产物插入到pPG0839-1中PG0839基因的EcoRⅤ位点,构建质粒pPG0839-2,作为电穿孔的供体质粒。电穿孔转化于受体菌牙龈卟啉单胞菌W83菌株,红霉素抗性培养基筛选阳性克隆,命名为PG0839基因突变菌株。结果运用插入失活方法构建PG0839基因突变菌株,进而通过酶切、测序、PR和反转录PCR对PG0839基因突变菌株进行验证,证实PG0839基因突变菌株构建成功。结论本实验成功构建PG0839基因突变菌株。     

Development of a methylation marker set for forensic age estimation using analysis of public methylation data and the Agena Bioscience EpiTYPER system

Individual age estimation has the potential to provide key information that could enhance and extend DNA intelligence tools. Following predictive tests for externally visible characteristics developed in recent years, prediction of age could guide police investigations and improve the assessment of age-related phenotype expression patterns such as hair colour changes and early onset of male pattern baldness. DNA methylation at CpG positions has emerged as the most promising DNA tests to ascertain the individual age of the donor of a biological contact trace. Although different methodologies are available to detect DNA methylation, EpiTYPER technology (Agena Bioscience, formerly Sequenom) provides useful characteristics that can be applied as a discovery tool in localized regions of the genome. In our study, a total of twenty-two candidate genomic regions, selected from the assessment of publically available data from the Illumina HumanMethylation 450 BeadChip, had a total of 177 CpG sites with informative methylation patterns that were subsequently investigated in detail. From the methylation analyses made, a novel age prediction model based on a multivariate quantile regression analysis was built using the seven highest age-correlated loci of ELOVL2, ASPA, PDE4C, FHL2, CCDC102B, C1orf132 and chr16:85395429. The detected methylation levels in these loci provide a median absolute age prediction error of ±3.07 years and a percentage of prediction error relative to the age of 6.3%. We report the predictive performance of the developed model using cross validation of a carefully age-graded training set of 725 European individuals and a test set of 52 monozygotic twin pairs. The multivariate quantile regression age predictor, using the CpG sites selected in this study, has been placed in the open-access Snipper forensic classification website.