Bridging tissue repair and epithelial carcinogenesis: epigenetic memory and field cancerization.

The epigenome coordinates spatial-temporal specific gene expression during development and in adulthood, for the maintenance of homeostasis and upon tissue repair. The upheaval of the epigenetic landscape is a key event in the onset of many pathologies including tumours, where epigenetic changes cooperate with genetic aberrations to establish the neoplastic phenotype and to drive cell plasticity during its evolution. DNA methylation, histone modifiers and readers or other chromatin components are indeed often altered in cancers, such as carcinomas that develop in epithelia.

Tissue memory relies on stem cell priming in distal undamaged areas.

Epithelial cells that participated in wound repair elicit a more efficient response to future injuries, which is believed to be locally restricted. Here we show that cell adaptation resulting from a localized tissue damage has a wide spatial impact at a scale not previously appreciated. We demonstrate that a specific stem cell population, distant from the original injury, originates long-lasting wound memory progenitors residing in their own niche.

Single-Cell Sequencing for Everybody.

Over the past 7 years, single-cell sequencing has become very popular. For this reason, many laboratories of different biological disciplines that span from neurobiology to developmental biology from immunology to tumor biology have been approaching this technique. For someone new to this field that wants to investigate heterogeneity in what appears to be a single-cell population, the choice of the best protocol can be difficult, due to the high abundance of available protocols, instruments, and options.

IRF4 Mediates the Oncogenic Effects of STAT3 in Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphomas.

Systemic anaplastic large cell lymphomas (ALCL) are a category of T-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphomas which can be divided into anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) positive and ALK negative subgroups, based on ALK gene rearrangements. Among several pathways aberrantly activated in ALCL, the constitutive activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is shared by all ALK positive ALCL and has been detected in a subgroup of ALK negative ALCL. To discover essential mediators of STAT3 oncogenic activity that may represent feasible targets for ALCL therapies, we combined gene expression profiling analysis and RNA interference functional approaches.