PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

Tucker A Patterson

Publications and source records attributed to Tucker A Patterson.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Blockade of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors by ketamine produces loss of postnatal day 3 monkey frontal cortical neurons in culture.

Ketamine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, is used as a general pediatric anesthetic. Recent data suggest that anesthetic drugs may cause neurodegeneration during development. The purpose of this study was to determine the robustness of ketamine-induced developmental neurotoxicity using rhesus monkey frontal cortical cultures and also to determine if dysregulation of NMDA receptor subunits promotes ketamine-induced cell death. Frontal cortical cells collected from the neonatal monkey were incubated for 24 h with 1, 10, or 20 microM ketamine alone or with ketamine plus either NR1 antisense oligonucleotides or the nuclear factor kB translocation inhibitor, SN-50. Ketamine caused a marked reduction in the neuronal marker polysialic acid neural cell adhesion molecule and mitochondrial metabolism, as well as an increase in DNA fragmentation and release of lactate dehydrogenase. Ketamine-induced effects were blocked by NR1 antisenses and SN-50. These data suggest that NR1 antisenses and SN-50 offer neuroprotection from the enhanced degeneration induced by ketamine in vitro.

Animals↗

The MicroArray Quality Control (MAQC) project shows inter- and intraplatform reproducibility of gene expression measurements.

Over the last decade, the introduction of microarray technology has had a profound impact on gene expression research. The publication of studies with dissimilar or altogether contradictory results, obtained using different microarray platforms to analyze identical RNA samples, has raised concerns about the reliability of this technology. The MicroArray Quality Control (MAQC) project was initiated to address these concerns, as well as other performance and data analysis issues. Expression data on four titration pools from two distinct reference RNA samples were generated at multiple test sites using a variety of microarray-based and alternative technology platforms. Here we describe the experimental design and probe mapping efforts behind the MAQC project. We show intraplatform consistency across test sites as well as a high level of interplatform concordance in terms of genes identified as differentially expressed. This study provides a resource that represents an important first step toward establishing a framework for the use of microarrays in clinical and regulatory settings.

Equipment Design↗

Performance comparison of one-color and two-color platforms within the MicroArray Quality Control (MAQC) project.

Microarray-based expression profiling experiments typically use either a one-color or a two-color design to measure mRNA abundance. The validity of each approach has been amply demonstrated. Here we provide a simultaneous comparison of results from one- and two-color labeling designs, using two independent RNA samples from the Microarray Quality Control (MAQC) project, tested on each of three different microarray platforms. The data were evaluated in terms of reproducibility, specificity, sensitivity and accuracy to determine if the two approaches provide comparable results. For each of the three microarray platforms tested, the results show good agreement with high correlation coefficients and high concordance of differentially expressed gene lists within each platform. Cumulatively, these comparisons indicate that data quality is essentially equivalent between the one- and two-color approaches and strongly suggest that this variable need not be a primary factor in decisions regarding experimental microarray design.

Equipment Design↗

Cross-platform comparability of microarray technology: intra-platform consistency and appropriate data analysis procedures are essential.

BACKGROUND: The acceptance of microarray technology in regulatory decision-making is being challenged by the existence of various platforms and data analysis methods. A recent report (E. Marshall, Science, 306, 630-631, 2004), by extensively citing the study of Tan et al. (Nucleic Acids Res., 31, 5676-5684, 2003), portrays a disturbingly negative picture of the cross-platform comparability, and, hence, the reliability of microarray technology. RESULTS: We reanalyzed Tan's dataset and found that the intra-platform consistency was low, indicating a problem in experimental procedures from which the dataset was generated. Furthermore, by using three gene selection methods (i.e., p-value ranking, fold-change ranking, and Significance Analysis of Microarrays (SAM)) on the same dataset we found that p-value ranking (the method emphasized by Tan et al.) results in much lower cross-platform concordance compared to fold-change ranking or SAM. Therefore, the low cross-platform concordance reported in Tan's study appears to be mainly due to a combination of low intra-platform consistency and a poor choice of data analysis procedures, instead of inherent technical differences among different platforms, as suggested by Tan et al. and Marshall. CONCLUSION: Our results illustrate the importance of establishing calibrated RNA samples and reference datasets to objectively assess the performance of different microarray platforms and the proficiency of individual laboratories as well as the merits of various data analysis procedures. Thus, we are progressively coordinating the MAQC project, a community-wide effort for microarray quality control.

Databases, Genetic↗

A microarray study of MPP+-treated PC12 Cells: Mechanisms of toxicity (MOT) analysis using bioinformatics tools.

BACKGROUND: This paper describes a microarray study including data quality control, data analysis and the analysis of the mechanism of toxicity (MOT) induced by 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP+) in a rat adrenal pheochromocytoma cell line (PC12 cells) using bioinformatics tools. MPP+ depletes dopamine content and elicits cell death in PC12 cells. However, the mechanism of MPP+-induced neurotoxicity is still unclear. RESULTS: In this study, Agilent rat oligo 22K microarrays were used to examine alterations in gene expression of PC12 cells after 500 muM MPP+ treatment. Relative gene expression of control and treated cells represented by spot intensities on the array chips was analyzed using bioinformatics tools. Raw data from each array were input into the NCTR ArrayTrack database, and normalized using a Lowess normalization method. Data quality was monitored in ArrayTrack. The means of the averaged log ratio of the paired samples were used to identify the fold changes of gene expression in PC12 cells after MPP+ treatment. Our data showed that 106 genes and ESTs (Expressed Sequence Tags) were changed 2-fold and above with MPP+ treatment; among these, 75 genes had gene symbols and 59 genes had known functions according to the Agilent gene Refguide and ArrayTrack-linked gene library. The mechanism of MPP+-induced toxicity in PC12 cells was analyzed based on their genes functions, biological process, pathways and previous published literatures. CONCLUSION: Multiple pathways were suggested to be involved in the mechanism of MPP+-induced toxicity, including oxidative stress, DNA and protein damage, cell cycling arrest, and apoptosis.

1-Methyl-4-phenylpyridinium↗

Application of proteomics to the study of molecular mechanisms in neurotoxicology.

The proteome is the protein compliment of the genome and is the result of genetic expression, ribosomal synthesis and proteolytic degradation. Proteins participate in most major cell processes and their function is highly regulated by post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation and glycosylation. As a result, neurotoxicant-induced changes in protein levels, function or regulation could have a negative impact on neuronal viability. At the molecular level, direct oxidative or covalent modifications of individual proteins by various chemicals or drugs is likely to lead to perturbation of tertiary structure and a loss of function. The proteome and the functional determinants of its individual protein components are, therefore, likely targets of neurotoxicant action and resulting characteristic disruptions could be critically involved in corresponding mechanisms of neurotoxicity. Clearly, investigating changes in the proteome can provide important clues for deciphering mechanisms of toxicant action and, therefore, proteomics, the study of the proteome, is currently, and will likely remain, a significant experimental approach for mechanistic research in neurotoxicology. The purpose of this review is to discuss proteomics as a tool for neurotoxicological investigations. A variety of classic proteomic techniques (e.g. liquid chromatography (LC)/tandem mass spectroscopy, two-dimensional gel image analysis) as well as more recently developed approaches (e.g. two-hybrid systems, antibody arrays, protein chips, isotope-coded affinity tags, ICAT) are available to determine protein levels, identify components of multiprotein complexes and to detect post-translational changes. Proteomics, therefore, offers a comprehensive overview of cell proteins, and in the case of neurotoxicant exposure, can provide quantitative data regarding changes in corresponding expression levels and/or post-translational modifications that might be associated with neuron injury.

Animals↗