Browsing by Author "Stitt, Alan W."

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells to cells similar to cord-blood endothelial colony-forming cells
    (Nature Publishing Group, 2014-11) Prasain, Nutan; Lee, Man Ryul; Vemula, Sasidhar; Meador, Jonathan Luke; Yoshimoto, Momoko; Ferkowicz, Michael J.; Fett, Alexa; Gupta, Manav; Rapp, Brian M.; Saadatzadeh, Mohammad Reza; Ginsberg, Michael; Elemento, Olivier; Lee, Younghee; Voytik-Harbin, Sherry L.; Chung, Hyung Min; Hong, Ki Sung; Reid, Emma; O'Neill, Christina L.; Medina, Reinhold J.; Stitt, Alan W.; Murphy, Michael P.; Rafii, Shahin; Broxmeyer, Hal E.; Yoder, Mervin C.; Department of Pediatrics, IU School of Medicine
    The ability to differentiate human pluripotent stem cells into endothelial cells with properties of cord-blood endothelial colony-forming cells (CB-ECFCs) may enable the derivation of clinically relevant numbers of highly proliferative blood vessel-forming cells to restore endothelial function in patients with vascular disease. We describe a protocol to convert human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) or embryonic stem cells (hESCs) into cells similar to CB-ECFCs at an efficiency of >10(8) ECFCs produced from each starting pluripotent stem cell. The CB-ECFC-like cells display a stable endothelial phenotype with high clonal proliferative potential and the capacity to form human vessels in mice and to repair the ischemic mouse retina and limb, and they lack teratoma formation potential. We identify Neuropilin-1 (NRP-1)-mediated activation of KDR signaling through VEGF165 as a critical mechanism for the emergence and maintenance of CB-ECFC-like cells.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Mapping the daily rhythmic transcriptome in the diabetic retina
    (Elsevier, 2024) Silk, Ryan P.; Winter, Hanagh R.; Dkhissi-Benyahya, Ouria; Evans-Molina, Carmella; Stitt, Alan W.; Tiwari, Vijay K.; Simpson, David A.; Beli, Eleni; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Retinal function changes dramatically from day to night, yet clinical diagnosis, treatments, and experimental sampling occur during the day. To begin to address this gap in our understanding of disease pathobiology, this study investigates whether diabetes affects the retina's daily rhythm of gene expression. Diabetic, Ins2Akita/J mice, and non-diabetic littermates were kept under a 12 h:12 h light/dark cycle until 4 months of age. mRNA sequencing was conducted in retinas collected every 4 h throughout the 24 hr light/dark cycle. Computational approaches were used to detect rhythmicity, predict acrophase, identify differential rhythmic patterns, analyze phase set enrichment, and predict upstream regulators. The retinal transcriptome exhibited a tightly regulated rhythmic expression with a clear 12-hr transcriptional axis. Day-peaking genes were enriched for DNA repair, RNA splicing, and ribosomal protein synthesis, night-peaking genes for metabolic processes and growth factor signaling. Although the 12-hr transcriptional axis is retained in the diabetic retina, it is phase advanced for some genes. Upstream regulator analysis for the phase-shifted genes identified oxygen-sensing mechanisms and HIF1alpha, but not the circadian clock, which remained in phase with the light/dark cycle. We propose a model in which, early in diabetes, the retina is subjected to an internal desynchrony with the circadian clock and its outputs are still light-entrained whereas metabolic pathways related to neuronal dysfunction and hypoxia are phase advanced. Further studies are now required to evaluate the chronic implications of such desynchronization on the development of diabetic retinopathy.