Therapeutic vaccination based on side population cells transduced by the granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor gene elicits potent antitumor immunity.

Among cancer immunotherapies, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) gene-transduced tumor cell vaccine (GVAX) therapies appear promising and have been shown to be safe and effective in multiple clinical trials. However, the antitumor efficacies of GVAX therapy alone are in some cases limited. Here we showed that GVAX therapy targeting cancer stem cells (CSCs) substantially suppressed tumor development in syngeneic immunocompetent mice recapitulating normal immune systems.

Knockdown of AT-rich interaction domain (ARID) 5B gene expression induced AMPKα2 activation in cardiac myocytes.

This study demonstrated that ARID5B mRNA is present in mouse cardiomyocyte HL-1 cells, and that ARID5B siRNA constantly knocked down ARID5B gene expression to the 40% level of control. AMPKα2 protein was elevated in such ARID5B knockdown HL-1 cells, and this was accompanied by an increase in the level of phosphorylated AMPKα. Since AMPKα2 mRNA levels did not change in ARID5B knockdown cells, the stability of AMPKα2 protein was investigated using inhibitors for protein synthesis and proteasomal degradation.

Global mapping of cell type-specific open chromatin by FAIRE-seq reveals the regulatory role of the NFI family in adipocyte differentiation.

Identification of regulatory elements within the genome is crucial for understanding the mechanisms that govern cell type-specific gene expression. We generated genome-wide maps of open chromatin sites in 3T3-L1 adipocytes (on day 0 and day 8 of differentiation) and NIH-3T3 fibroblasts using formaldehyde-assisted isolation of regulatory elements coupled with high-throughput sequencing (FAIRE-seq). FAIRE peaks at the promoter were associated with active transcription and histone modifications of H3K4me3 and H3K27ac.