Dr Melissa Brown, from UQ's School of Molecular and Microbial Sciences, and her team have discovered how a particular gene associated with breast cancer behaves, which may lead to better testing for the debilitating disease.
Dr Brown and Dr Juliet French at UQ, together with their colleagues at The University of Oxford, studied the BRCA1 gene and found that it exists in a looped formation.
Our studies suggest that BRCA1 looks a bit like a bow when the gene is switched off, and that part of this bow' disappears when the gene is switched on, Dr Brown said.
Interestingly, the shape of the bow changes in different breast cancer cells, raising the possibility that this gene looping may contribute to the cancer process.
She said ongoing studies would identify the specific DNA sequences and DNA binding molecules involved in BRCA1 gene looping.
The status of these sequences in a larger cohort of breast cancer patients will also be determined, she said.
This information may lead to more sensitive pre-symptomatic testing for breast cancer and the identification of new therapeutic targets.
uq.au/
After ten days, approximately 90 percent of the embryoid bodies mixed with retinoic acid-loaded microspheres began to display the hollow structure signifying differentiation, compared to 6 percent of the untreated bodies, 10 percent of the bodies coated with soluble retinoic acid, and 30 percent of the bodies mixed with empty microspheres. In addition, thirty percent of the embryoid bodies mixed with retinoic acid-loaded microspheres were completely hollow in the center, compared to nearly zero percent for the other groups.
These results suggest that if you can control the signaling by presenting molecules locally on the inside of the embryoid body from biodegradable microspheres, you can effectively change the course and synchrony of differentiation, said McDevitt.
To examine the cells in more detail, McDevitt teamed with Georgia Tech School of Biology chair John McDonald and research scientist Nathan Bowen to conduct microarray gene expression studies to determine cell phenotype.
The results revealed enhanced expression of fibroblast growth factor 5 (FGF-5) “ a marker for primitive ectoderm “ in the embryoid bodies mixed with retinoic acid-loaded microspheres compared to the other treatment groups after 10 days. The researchers also confirmed increased or inhibited expression of many additional markers.
The importance of these findings is that we've shown that biomaterial-based approaches to regulate stem cell microenvironments can significantly improve differentiation methods, said McDevitt. Our ultimate goal is to improve the efficiency of this differentiation process into specific cell types for cell replacement therapies.
gtresearchnews.gatech/