TY  - JOUR
A1  - Langenhorst, Daniela
A1  - Gogishvili, Tea
A1  - Ribechini, Eliana
A1  - Kneitz, Susanne
A1  - McPherson, Kirsty
A1  - Lutz, Manfred B.
A1  - Hünig, Thomas
T1  - Sequential induction of effector function, tissue migration and cell death during polyclonal activation of mouse regulatory T-cells
N2  - The ability of CD4+Foxp3+ regulatory T-cells (Treg) to produce interleukin (IL)-10 is important for the limitation of inflammation at environmental interfaces like colon or lung. Under steady state conditions, however, few Tregs produce IL-10 ex vivo. To investigate the origin and fate of IL-10 producing Tregs we used a superagonistic mouse anti-mouse CD28 mAb (CD28SA) for polyclonal in vivo stimulation of Tregs, which not only led to their numeric expansion but also to a dramatic increase in IL-10 production. IL-10 secreting Tregs strongly upregulated surface receptors associated with suppressive function as compared to non-producing Tregs. Furthermore, polyclonally expanding Tregs shifted their migration receptor pattern after activation from a CCR7+CCR52 lymph node-seeking to a CCR72CCR5+ inflammationseeking phenotype, explaining the preferential recruitment of IL-10 producers to sites of ongoing immune responses. Finally, we observed that IL-10 producing Tregs from CD28SA stimulated mice were more apoptosis-prone in vitro than their IL-10 negative counterparts. These findings support a model where prolonged activation of Tregs results in terminal differentiation towards an IL-10 producing effector phenotype associated with a limited lifespan, implicating built-in termination of immunosuppression.
KW  - Medizin
Y1  - 2012
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-76009
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schartl, Manfred
A1  - Kneitz, Susanne
A1  - Wilde, Brigitta
A1  - Wagner, Toni
A1  - Henkel, Christiaan V.
A1  - Spaink, Hermann P.
A1  - Meierjohann, Svenja
T1  - Conserved expression signatures between medaka and human pigment cell tumors
N2  - Aberrations in gene expression are a hallmark of cancer cells. Differential tumor-specific transcript levels of single genes or whole sets of genes may be critical for the neoplastic phenotype and important for therapeutic considerations or useful as biomarkers. As an approach to filter out such relevant expression differences from the plethora of changes noted in global expression profiling studies, we searched for changes of gene expression levels that are conserved. Transcriptomes from massive parallel sequencing of different types of melanoma from medaka were generated and compared to microarray datasets from zebrafish and human melanoma. This revealed molecular conservation at various levels between fish models and human tumors providing a useful strategy for identifying expression signatures strongly associated with disease phenotypes and uncovering new melanoma molecules.
KW  - Biologie
Y1  - 2012
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-75848
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Riedel, Alice
A1  - Mofolo, Boitumelo
A1  - Avota, Elita
A1  - Schneider-Schaulies, Sibylle
A1  - Meintjes, Ayton
A1  - Mulder, Nicola
A1  - Kneitz, Susanne
T1  - Accumulation of Splice Variants and Transcripts in Response to PI3K Inhibition in T Cells
N2  - Background: Measles virus (MV) causes T cell suppression by interference with phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) activation. We previously found that this interference affected the activity of splice regulatory proteins and a T cell inhibitory protein isoform was produced from an alternatively spliced pre-mRNA. Hypothesis: Differentially regulated and alternatively splice variant transcripts accumulating in response to PI3K abrogation in T cells potentially encode proteins involved in T cell silencing. Methods: To test this hypothesis at the cellular level, we performed a Human Exon 1.0 ST Array on RNAs isolated from T cells stimulated only or stimulated after PI3K inhibition. We developed a simple algorithm based on a splicing index to detect genes that undergo alternative splicing (AS) or are differentially regulated (RG) upon T cell suppression. Results: Applying our algorithm to the data, 9% of the genes were assigned as AS, while only 3% were attributed to RG. Though there are overlaps, AS and RG genes differed with regard to functional regulation, and were found to be enriched in different functional groups. AS genes targeted extracellular matrix (ECM)-receptor interaction and focal adhesion pathways, while RG genes were mainly enriched in cytokine-receptor interaction and Jak-STAT. When combined, AS/RG dependent alterations targeted pathways essential for T cell receptor signaling, cytoskeletal dynamics and cell cycle entry. Conclusions: PI3K abrogation interferes with key T cell activation processes through both differential expression and alternative splicing, which together actively contribute to T cell suppression.
KW  - Biologie
Y1  - 2013
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-77917
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Heisig, Julia
A1  - Weber, David
A1  - Englberger, Eva
A1  - Winkler, Anja
A1  - Kneitz, Susanne
A1  - Sung, Wing-Kin
A1  - Wolf, Elmar
A1  - Eilers, Martin
A1  - Wei, Chia-Lin
A1  - Gessler, Manfred
T1  - Target Gene Analysis by Microarrays and Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Identifies HEY Proteins as Highly Redundant bHLH Repressors
N2  - HEY bHLH transcription factors have been shown to regulate multiple key steps in cardiovascular development. They can be induced by activated NOTCH receptors, but other upstream stimuli mediated by TGFß and BMP receptors may elicit a similar response. While the basic and helix-loop-helix domains exhibit strong similarity, large parts of the proteins are still unique and may serve divergent functions. The striking overlap of cardiac defects in HEY2 and combined HEY1/HEYL knockout mice suggested that all three HEY genes fulfill overlapping function in target cells. We therefore sought to identify target genes for HEY proteins by microarray expression and ChIPseq analyses in HEK293 cells, cardiomyocytes, and murine hearts. HEY proteins were found to modulate expression of their target gene to a rather limited extent, but with striking functional interchangeability between HEY factors. Chromatin immunoprecipitation revealed a much greater number of potential binding sites that again largely overlap between HEY factors. Binding sites are clustered in the proximal promoter region especially of transcriptional regulators or developmental control genes. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that HEY proteins primarily act as direct transcriptional repressors, while gene activation seems to be due to secondary or indirect effects. Mutagenesis of putative DNA binding residues supports the notion of direct DNA binding. While class B E-box sequences (CACGYG) clearly represent preferred target sequences, there must be additional and more loosely defined modes of DNA binding since many of the target promoters that are efficiently bound by HEY proteins do not contain an Ebox motif. These data clearly establish the three HEY bHLH factors as highly redundant transcriptional repressors in vitro and in vivo, which explains the combinatorial action observed in different tissues with overlapping expression.
KW  - Biologie
Y1  - 2012
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-75341
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kang, Ji Hyoun
A1  - Manousaki, Tereza
A1  - Franchini, Paolo
A1  - Kneitz, Susanne
A1  - Schartl, Manfred
A1  - Meyer, Axel
T1  - Transcriptomics of two evolutionary novelties: how to make a sperm-transfer organ out of an anal fin and a sexually selected "sword" out of a caudal fin
JF  - Ecology and Evolution
N2  - Swords are exaggerated male ornaments of swordtail fishes that have been of great interest to evolutionary biologists ever since Darwin described them in the Descent of Man (1871). They are a novel sexually selected trait derived from modified ventral caudal fin rays and are only found in the genus Xiphophorus. Another phylogenetically more widespread and older male trait is the gonopodium, an intromittent organ found in all poeciliid fishes, that is derived from a modified anal fin. Despite many evolutionary and behavioral studies on both traits, little is known so far about the molecular mechanisms underlying their development. By investigating transcriptomic changes (utilizing a RNA-Seq approach) in response to testosterone treatment in the swordtail fish, Xiphophorus hellerii, we aimed to better understand the architecture of the gene regulatory networks underpinning the development of these two evolutionary novelties. Large numbers of genes with tissue-specific expression patterns were identified. Among the sword genes those involved in embryonic organ development, sexual character development and coloration were highly expressed, while in the gonopodium rather more morphogenesis-related genes were found. Interestingly, many genes and genetic pathways are shared between both developing novel traits derived from median fins: the sword and the gonopodium. Our analyses show that a larger set of gene networks was co-opted during the development and evolution of the older gonopodium than in the younger, and morphologically less complex trait, the sword. We provide a catalog of candidate genes for future efforts to dissect the development of those sexually selected exaggerated male traits in swordtails.
KW  - mouse testis differentiation
KW  - fishes Xiphophorus
KW  - beetle horns
KW  - gonopodium
KW  - RNA-Seq
KW  - swordtails
KW  - Xiphophorus
KW  - key innovation
KW  - male-specific traits
KW  - Co-option
KW  - genus Xiphophorus
KW  - hybrid origin
KW  - Drosophila melanogaster
KW  - expression analysis
KW  - cell proliferation
KW  - preexisting bias
KW  - sex combs
Y1  - 2015
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-144139
VL  - 5
IS  - 4
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Simon, Christian M.
A1  - Rauskolb, Stefanie
A1  - Gunnersen, Jennifer M.
A1  - Holtmann, Bettina
A1  - Drepper, Carsten
A1  - Dombert, Benjamin
A1  - Braga, Massimiliano
A1  - Wiese, Stefan
A1  - Jablonka, Sibylle
A1  - Pühringer, Dirk
A1  - Zielasek, Jürgen
A1  - Hoeflich, Andreas
A1  - Silani, Vincenzo
A1  - Wolf, Eckhard
A1  - Kneitz, Susanne
A1  - Sommer, Claudia
A1  - Toyka, Klaus V.
A1  - Sendtner, Michael
T1  - Dysregulated IGFBP5 expression causes axon degeneration and motoneuron loss in diabetic neuropathy
JF  - Acta Neuropathologica
N2  - Diabetic neuropathy (DNP), afflicting sensory and motor nerve fibers, is a major complication in diabetes.The underlying cellular mechanisms of axon degeneration are poorly understood. IGFBP5, an inhibitory binding protein for insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) is highly up-regulated in nerve biopsies of patients with DNP. We investigated the pathogenic relevance of this finding in transgenic mice overexpressing IGFBP5 in motor axons and sensory nerve fibers. These mice develop motor axonopathy and sensory deficits similar to those seen in DNP. Motor axon degeneration was also observed in mice in which the IGF1 receptor(IGF1R) was conditionally depleted in motoneurons, indicating that reduced activity of IGF1 on IGF1R in motoneurons is responsible for the observed effect. These data provide evidence that elevated expression of IGFBP5 in diabetic nerves reduces the availability of IGF1 for IGF1R on motor axons, thus leading to progressive neurodegeneration. Inhibition of IGFBP5 could thus offer novel treatment strategies for DNP.
KW  - Motor nerve biopsy
KW  - Diabetic polyneuropathy
KW  - Neuropathy
KW  - Neurotrophic factors
KW  - Axonal degeneration
Y1  - 2015
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-154569
VL  - 130
SP  - 373
EP  - 387
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Jessen, Christina
A1  - Kreß, Julia K. C.
A1  - Baluapuri, Apoorva
A1  - Hufnagel, Anita
A1  - Schmitz, Werner
A1  - Kneitz, Susanne
A1  - Roth, Sabine
A1  - Marquardt, André
A1  - Appenzeller, Silke
A1  - Ade, Casten P.
A1  - Glutsch, Valerie
A1  - Wobser, Marion
A1  - Friedmann-Angeli, José Pedro
A1  - Mosteo, Laura
A1  - Goding, Colin R.
A1  - Schilling, Bastian
A1  - Geissinger, Eva
A1  - Wolf, Elmar
A1  - Meierjohann, Svenja
T1  - The transcription factor NRF2 enhances melanoma malignancy by blocking differentiation and inducing COX2 expression
JF  - Oncogene
N2  - The transcription factor NRF2 is the major mediator of oxidative stress responses and is closely connected to therapy resistance in tumors harboring activating mutations in the NRF2 pathway. In melanoma, such mutations are rare, and it is unclear to what extent melanomas rely on NRF2. Here we show that NRF2 suppresses the activity of the melanocyte lineage marker MITF in melanoma, thereby reducing the expression of pigmentation markers. Intriguingly, we furthermore identified NRF2 as key regulator of immune-modulating genes, linking oxidative stress with the induction of cyclooxygenase 2 (COX2) in an ATF4-dependent manner. COX2 is critical for the secretion of prostaglandin E2 and was strongly induced by H\(_2\)O\(_2\) or TNFα only in presence of NRF2. Induction of MITF and depletion of COX2 and PGE2 were also observed in NRF2-deleted melanoma cells in vivo. Furthermore, genes corresponding to the innate immune response such as RSAD2 and IFIH1 were strongly elevated in absence of NRF2 and coincided with immune evasion parameters in human melanoma datasets. Even in vitro, NRF2 activation or prostaglandin E2 supplementation blunted the induction of the innate immune response in melanoma cells. Transcriptome analyses from lung adenocarcinomas indicate that the observed link between NRF2 and the innate immune response is not restricted to melanoma.
KW  - NRF2
KW  - melanoma malignancy
KW  - COX2 expression
Y1  - 2020
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-235064
SN  - 0950-9232
VL  - 39
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Dedukh, Dmitrij
A1  - Da Cruz, Irene
A1  - Kneitz, Susanne
A1  - Marta, Anatolie
A1  - Ormanns, Jenny
A1  - Tichopád, Tomáš
A1  - Lu, Yuan
A1  - Alsheimer, Manfred
A1  - Janko, Karel
A1  - Schartl, Manfred
T1  - Achiasmatic meiosis in the unisexual Amazon molly, Poecilia formosa
JF  - Chromosome Research
N2  - Unisexual reproduction, which generates clonal offspring, is an alternative strategy to sexual breeding and occurs even in vertebrates. A wide range of non-sexual reproductive modes have been described, and one of the least understood questions is how such pathways emerged and how they mechanistically proceed. The Amazon molly, Poecilia formosa, needs sperm from males of related species to trigger the parthenogenetic development of diploid eggs. However, the mechanism, of how the unreduced female gametes are produced, remains unclear. Cytological analyses revealed that the chromosomes of primary oocytes initiate pachytene but do not proceed to bivalent formation and meiotic crossovers. Comparing ovary transcriptomes of P. formosa and its sexual parental species revealed expression levels of meiosis-specific genes deviating from P. mexicana but not from P. latipinna. Furthermore, several meiosis genes show biased expression towards one of the two alleles from the parental genomes. We infer from our data that in the Amazon molly diploid oocytes are generated by apomixis due to a failure in the synapsis of homologous chromosomes. The fact that this failure is not reflected in the differential expression of known meiosis genes suggests the underlying molecular mechanism may be dysregulation on the protein level or misexpression of a so far unknown meiosis gene, and/or hybrid dysgenesis because of compromised interaction of proteins from diverged genomes.
KW  - meiosis
KW  - parthenogenesis
KW  - synaptonemal complex
KW  - recombination
KW  - crossing-over
KW  - achiasmatic
KW  - transcriptome
KW  - oogenesis
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-325128
VL  - 30
IS  - 4
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Adolfi, Mateus C.
A1  - Herpin, Amaury
A1  - Martinez-Bengochea, Anabel
A1  - Kneitz, Susanne
A1  - Regensburger, Martina
A1  - Grunwald, David J.
A1  - Schartl, Manfred
T1  - Crosstalk Between Retinoic Acid and Sex-Related Genes Controls Germ Cell Fate and Gametogenesis in Medaka
JF  - Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology
N2  - Sex determination (SD) is a highly diverse and complex mechanism. In vertebrates, one of the first morphological differences between the sexes is the timing of initiation of the first meiosis, where its initiation occurs first in female and later in male. Thus, SD is intimately related to the responsiveness of the germ cells to undergo meiosis in a sex-specific manner. In some vertebrates, it has been reported that the timing for meiosis entry would be under control of retinoic acid (RA), through activation of Stra8. In this study, we used a fish model species for sex determination and lacking the stra8 gene, the Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes), to investigate the connection between RA and the sex determination pathway. Exogenous RA treatments act as a stress factor inhibiting germ cell differentiation probably by activation of dmrt1a and amh. Disruption of the RA degrading enzyme gene cyp26a1 induced precocious meiosis and oogenesis in embryos/hatchlings of female and even some males. Transcriptome analyzes of cyp26a1–/–adult gonads revealed upregulation of genes related to germ cell differentiation and meiosis, in both ovaries and testes. Our findings show that germ cells respond to RA in a stra8 independent model species. The responsiveness to RA is conferred by sex-related genes, restricting its action to the sex differentiation period in both sexes.
KW  - sex determination
KW  - retinoic acid
KW  - meiosis
KW  - gametogenesis
KW  - medaka
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-222669
SN  - 2296-634X
VL  - 8
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Silva-Vilches, Cinthia
A1  - Pletinckx, Katrien
A1  - Lohnert, Miriam
A1  - Pavlovic, Vladimir
A1  - Ashour, Diyaaeldin
A1  - John, Vini
A1  - Vendelova, Emilia
A1  - Kneitz, Susanne
A1  - Zhou, Jie
A1  - Chen, Rena
A1  - Reinheckel, Thomas
A1  - Mueller, Thomas D.
A1  - Bodem, Jochen
A1  - Lutz, Manfred B.
T1  - Low doses of cholera toxin and its mediator cAMP induce CTLA-2 secretion by dendritic cells to enhance regulatory T cell conversion
JF  - PLoS ONE
N2  - Immature or semi-mature dendritic cells (DCs) represent tolerogenic maturation stages that can convert naive T cells into Foxp3\(^{+}\) induced regulatory T cells (iTreg). Here we found that murine bone marrow-derived DCs (BM-DCs) treated with cholera toxin (CT) matured by up-regulating MHC-II and costimulatory molecules using either high or low doses of CT (CT\(^{hi}\), CT\(^{lo}\)) or with cAMP, a known mediator CT signals. However, all three conditions also induced mRNA of both isoforms of the tolerogenic molecule cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 2 (CTLA-2α and CTLA-2β). Only DCs matured under CT\(^{hi}\) conditions secreted IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-23 leading to the instruction of Th17 cell polarization. In contrast, CT\(^{lo}\)- or cAMP-DCs resembled semi-mature DCs and enhanced TGF-β-dependent Foxp3\(^{+}\) iTreg conversion. iTreg conversion could be reduced using siRNA blocking of CTLA-2 and reversely, addition of recombinant CTLA-2α increased iTreg conversion in vitro. Injection of CT\(^{lo}\)- or cAMP-DCs exerted MOG peptide-specific protective effects in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) by inducing Foxp3\(^{+}\) Tregs and reducing Th17 responses. Together, we identified CTLA-2 production by DCs as a novel tolerogenic mediator of TGF-β-mediated iTreg induction in vitro and in vivo. The CT-induced and cAMP-mediated up-regulation of CTLA-2 also may point to a novel immune evasion mechanism of Vibrio cholerae.
KW  - small interfering RNAs
KW  - toxins
KW  - regulatory T cells
KW  - T cells
KW  - cytokines
KW  - cholera
KW  - cell differentiation
KW  - immune evasion
Y1  - 2017
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-158244
VL  - 12
IS  - 7
ER  -