Biomedical subjects

Lixia Lu

Publications and source records attributed to Lixia Lu.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Construction of equalized short hairpin RNA library from human brain cDNA.

Short hairpin RNA (shRNA) library is a powerful new tool for high-throughput loss-of-function genetic screens in mammalian cells. An shRNA library can be constructed from synthetic oligonucleotides or enzymatically cleaved natural cDNA. Here, we describe a new method for constructing equalized shRNA libraries from cDNA. First, enzymatically digested cDNA fragments are equalized by a suppression PCR-based method modified from suppression subtractive hybridization. The efficiency of equalization was confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR. The fragments are then converted into an shRNA library by a series of enzymatic treatments. With this new technology, we constructed a library from human brain cDNA. Sequence analysis showed that most of the randomly selected clones had inverted repeat sequences converted from different cDNA. After transfecting HEK 293T cells and detecting gene expression, three out of eight clones were demonstrated to significantly inhibit their target genes.

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PubMed2006

Regional vulnerability of mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons prone to degenerate in Parkinson's disease: a post-mortem study in human control subjects.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by loss of dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the human midbrain, which varies greatly among mesencephalic subregions. The genetic expression profiles of mesencephalic DA neurons particularly prone to degenerate during PD (nigrosome 1 within the substantia nigra pars compacta-SNpc) and those particularly resistant in the disease course (central grey substance-CGS) were compared in five control subjects by immuno-laser capture microdissection followed by RNA arbitrarily primed PCR. 8 ESTs of interest were selected for analysis by real time quantitative reverse transcription PCR. DA neurons in the CGS preferentially expressed implicated in cell survival (7 out of 8 genes selected), whereas SNpc DA neurons preferentially expressed one gene making them potentially susceptible to undergo cell death in PD. We propose that factors making CGS DA neurons more resistant may be helpful in protecting SNpc DA neurons against a pathological insult.

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PubMed2006

Regulation of Cbfa1 expression by total flavonoids of Herba epimedii.

Core binding factor alpha1 (Cbfa1) is a member of the runt family of transcription factors, which appears to play a pivotal role in regulating the differentiation of osteoblastic precursors and the activity of mature osteoblasts. Total flavonoids of Herba epimedii (HEF) is a recognized bone anabolic agent, but there is lack of reports on the modulation of Cbfa1 expression by HEF. Here we investigated the effect of HEF on Cbfa1 expression in the bone of ovariectomized (OVX) rats. HEF could increase the expression of Cbfa1 mRNA in the bone of ovariectomized rats in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, the high dose HEF (160 mg/kg) administered for 12 weeks in vivo stimulated osteocalcin expression. These findings suggest that Cbfa1 is required for mediating the anabolic effects of HEF.

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PubMed2005

Gene expression profiling of Lewy body-bearing neurons in Parkinson's disease.

Lewy bodies (LB) are a pathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease (PD). Whether LBs are neuroprotective, cytotoxic, or an age-related epiphenomenon is still debated. In the present study, the genetic fingerprints of mesencephalic dopaminergic (DA) neurons containing LBs versus mesencephalic DA neurons not containing LBs were compared in five PD patients. Total RNA from single neurons of both neuronal subpopulations was obtained by immuno-laser capture microdissection. Subsequently, RNA arbitrarily primed PCR was employed to generate expression profiles from the extracted RNA. Differentially displayed polymorphic fragments were dissected from silver-stained polyacrylamide gels. Most of these expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were homologous to known human sequences (56/64, 87.5%). Based on the potential significance of individual ESTs in neurodegenerative disorders, 5 ESTs of interest were selected for further quantitative expression analysis by real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR (rtq RT-PCR). DA neurons without LBs preferentially expressed molecules beneficial for cell survival, whereas genes preferentially expressed in DA neurons containing LBs may support a cytotoxic role of LBs. Thus, we favor the view that LB-positive DA neurons are sicker than their LB-negative counterparts, and that inhibition of LB formation may indeed represent a therapeutic strategy in PD.

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PubMed2004

Gene expression profiles derived from single cells in human postmortem brain.

The study of postmortem human brain tissue remains the basis for the understanding of many CNS disorders and to verify data obtained in experimental studies. So far, however, gene expression profiling in cellular sub-populations derived from human postmortem brain was hampered by several technical drawbacks. Here, we describe a method that allows the generation of mRNA expression profiles from single neurons. Dopaminergic neurons from different midbrain areas including substantia nigra, central gray substance and ventral tegmental area were identified and isolated by immuno-laser capture microscopy (LCM). Expression profiles were generated from microdissected cells using a modified RNA fingerprinting protocol. Using this approach, we were able to generate specific RNA fingerprints at a high resolution from phenotype-specific single neurons. Polymorphic fragments were isolated from gels and differential gene expression was confirmed by real-time PCR using gene-specific primer pairs and hybridization probes. The method described here is easy to use and reliable for profiling gene expression at the single cell level in human postmortem brain. It could therefore be valuable to open new insights into the molecular pathogenesis of CNS disorders.

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