Senescent cells accumulate in aging tissues, impairing their ability to undergo repair and regeneration following injury. Previous research has demonstrated that targeting tissue senescence with senolytics can enhance tissue regeneration and repair by selectively eliminating SnCs in specific aged tissues. In this study, we focused on eliminating senescent skin cells in aged mice to assess the effects on subsequent wound healing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTranscriptional profiling demonstrated markedly reduced type I IFN gene expression in untreated mycosis fungoides (MF) skin lesions compared with that in healthy skin. Type I IFN expression in MF correlated with antigen-presenting cell-associated IRF5 before psoralen plus UVA therapy and epithelial ULBP2 after therapy, suggesting an enhancement of epithelial type I IFN. Immunostains confirmed reduced baseline type I IFN production in MF and increased levels after psoralen plus UVA treatment in responding patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe circulating precursor cells that give rise to human resident memory T cells (T) are poorly characterized. We used an in vitro differentiation system and human skin-grafted mice to study T generation from circulating human memory T cell subsets. In vitro T differentiation was associated with functional changes, including enhanced IL-17A production and FOXP3 expression in CD4 T cells and granzyme B production in CD8 T cells, changes that mirrored the phenotype of T cells in healthy human skin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsoralen plus UVA (PUVA) is an effective therapy for mycosis fungoides (MF), the skin-limited variant of cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL). In low-burden patients, PUVA reduced or eradicated malignant T cells and induced clonal expansion of CD8+ T cells associated with malignant T cell depletion. High-burden patients appeared to clinically improve but large numbers of malignant T cells persisted in skin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCells are under constant assault from reactive oxygen species that occur endogenously or arise from environmental agents. An important consequence of such stress is the generation of oxidatively damaged DNA, which is represented by a wide range of non-helix distorting and helix-distorting bulkier lesions that potentially affect a number of pathways including replication and transcription; consequently DNA damage tolerance and repair pathways are elicited to help cells cope with the lesions. The cellular consequences and metabolism of oxidatively damaged DNA can be quite complex with a number of DNA metabolic proteins and pathways involved.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMutations in the c10orf2 gene encoding the human mitochondrial DNA replicative helicase Twinkle are linked to several rare genetic diseases characterized by mitochondrial defects. In this study, we have examined the catalytic activity of Twinkle helicase on model replication fork and DNA repair structures. Although Twinkle behaves as a traditional 5' to 3' helicase on conventional forked duplex substrates, the enzyme efficiently dissociates D-loop DNA substrates irrespective of whether it possesses a 5' or 3' single-stranded tailed invading strand.
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