Thesis (Ph. D.)--Case Western Reserve University, 2007. / [School of Medicine] Department of Genetics. Includes bibliographical references. Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

No description available.

ABSTRACT Nuchal Translucency as a method of First Trimester Screening for Aneuploidy in a South African population Background Chromosomal abnormalities constitute 15% of congenital abnormalities and 50% of pregnancy losses. Twenty-five percent of these will be Trisomy 21. Down’s syndrome has a birth incidence of 2 per 1000 and constitutes 25% of severe mental handicap in the developed world. Whereas the risk assessment focuses on Trisomy 21, the fetuses that screen positive are also known to contain other defects, which include anomalies such as cardiac defects, diaphragmatic hernias, neuromuscular disorders, and rare genetic syndromes. Objective To determine the effectiveness of nuchal translucency (NT) screening in predicting aneuploidy and structural abnormalities in a South African population Setting Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital Fetal Medicine Unit Study design Descriptive Study Methodology The Fetal Medicine Unit database was reviewed and the records of patients who had undergone NT screening between July 2003 and July 2005 were retrieved. There were no exclusions. An adjusted risk was derived from the combination of age-related risk and the risk derived from nuchal translucency screening. A positive screen was denoted by an adjusted risk of more than 1/300 and a negative screen was denoted by an adjusted risk of less than 1/300. Results A total of 428 patients had first trimester screening during this period. Thirteen patients (3%) were lost to follow up. Of the 415 cases that were analyzed, 57 patients screened positive and 356 patients screened negative. In addition, 2 fetuses with acrania were detected. The mean age for both groups of patients was 30.1 years. The crown-rump length of fetuses with a positive screen was statistically significantly shorter than fetuses that screened negative. Of the 57 patients that screened positive 24 elected to have chorionic villus sampling (CVS) which resulted in the detection of 6 chromosomal abnormalities and 2 structural abnormalities. Of the remaining 356 patients, who had screened negative, 2 had an increased adjusted risk, and one chromosomal abnormality was detected in this group. Of the remaining 354 patients, 8 elected to have CVS because of a previous history of chromosomal abnormality. All of them proved to be normal. Conclusions The use of such screening has enabled prenatal karyotyping to be focused on pregnancies at highest risk for chromosomal abnormalities regardless of age.

The gain or loss of whole chromosomes, known as aneuploidy, is a distinguishing feature of cancer cells. The rapid gain or loss of hundreds of genes dramatically alters a cell's genomic landscape and is typically detrimental to cell survival under normal conditions. However, cancer cells display enhanced proliferation and overcome multiple conditions of stress, suggesting aneuploidy may increase cellular fitness. Furthermore, distinct patterns of aneuploidy are found in cancers from different anatomical sites. Despite these observations, scant research has sought to examine the role of aneuploidy in cancer, or determine whether aneuploidy is a driver or passenger mutation, or why certain aneuploidies appear to be selected for and others against. To investigate the role of aneuploidy in cancer cell fitness, we utilized the diploid colorectal cancer (CRC) cell line DLD1 and two trisomic variants carrying an extra copy of either chromosome 7 or chromosome 13, two trisomies frequently seen in colorectal cancer. To assess fitness, we compared proliferation, anchorage-independence, and invasiveness in aneuploid CRC cells versus their diploid counterpart when grown under various culture conditions, including regular media, serum-free media, cytotoxic drug-containing media, and hypoxia. We found that aneuploid cells proliferated better than diploid cells under all but standard culture conditions. Moreover, regardless of growth condition, we found that aneuploid CRC cells formed larger and more numerous colonies in soft agar (anchorage-independent growth), and displayed greater invasiveness (assessed by matrigel invasion assay). Taken together, these results indicate that aneuploidy enhances the fitness of CRC cells under stressful conditions that are likely to occur in the tumor microenvironment. / Master of Science

No description available.

A aneuploidia é uma característica dos tumores sólidos. Ela pode ser resultado de diferentes erros durante a mitose, como a amplificação centrossômica, mitoses multipolares, e anormalidades durante a citocinese. Hoje se sabe que a aneuploidia pode estar relacionada à supressão ou progressão tumoral dependendo do grau da aneuploidia e do contexto genético das células, e assim esforços vem sendo feitos a fim de elucidar quais erros durante a mitose estão relacionados à formação de células aneuploides viáveis e inviáveis. Estudos prévios do nosso grupo mostraram que tratamentos de células em cultura com fibras de crisotila e com vincristina levam a formação de células aneuploides. Agora direcionados nossos esforços para elucidar os mecanismos envolvidos na formação dessas células, investigando alterações nos centrossomos, número de cromossomos, e origens e destinos de mitoses multipolares após o tratamento com crisotila e com vincristina. As fibras de crisotila, em linhagens de células tumorais e normais, levaram a padrões de localização alterados de proteínas relacionadas à abscisão durante a citocinese, e ocorreu a regressão deste processo e consequente formação de apenas uma célula-filha com o dobro do conteúdo de cromossomos e de centrossomos. Nas duas linhagens estudadas essas células tetraploides progrediram no ciclo celular, gerando mitoses multipolares e consequente formação de células aneuploides. O tratamento com vincristina levou a respostas similares e também distintas em células normais e tumorais. Durante a retenção em metáfase ocorreu a fragmentação da matriz pericentriolar, e as células foram encaminhadas à morte celular ou à saída da mitose sem a ocorrência de divisão celular. Entretanto, células de origem normal tetraploides não progrediram no ciclo celular e não formaram mitoses multipolares, enquanto na linhagem tumoral as células apresentaram aumento da expressão de Aurora A e células com conteúdo cromossômico aumentado e aneuploide em mitoses multipolares. As mitoses multipolares formaram uma, duas ou três células e apresentaram diversas anormalidades no processo de divisão. As alterações observadas no número e composição dos centrossomos após o tratamento com as duas linhagens indicaram que processos de amplificação centrossômica ocorreram após o tratamento. Os dados foram compatíveis com a reduplicação dos centrossomos e com a formação de centríolos a partir do aumento da matriz pericentriolar. Os dados reunidos mostram que apenas células tumorais foram capazes de proliferar mesmo após diferentes erros mitóticos, enquanto células normais puderam apenas superar os erros ocasionados pelas fibras de crisotila / Aneuploidy is a feature of solid tumors. Aneuploid cells result from errors during mitosis, such as centrosome amplification, multipolar mitosis and cytokinesis abnormalities. The capability of aneuploidy to promote and to suppress tumorigenesis has driven the efforts to characterize mitotic errors that form viable and not viable aneuploid cells. We have previously shown that chrysotile, an asbestos fiber, and vincristine, a chemotherapeutic agent, are able to induce aneuploidy. Now we directed our focus to discover possible mechanisms involved in aneuploid cell formation. Herein we evaluated centrosome morphology, chromosome number, and origins and fates of multipolar mitosis after chrysotile and vincristine treatment. Chrysotile fibers, in normal and cancer cells, led to mislocalization of proteins involved in abscission, which resulted in cytokinesis regression and tetraploid cells. These cells were able to enter cell cycle, giving rise to multipolar mitosis and aneuploid cells. Vincristine treatment led to specific and common responses in normal and cancer cells. During metaphase arrest, pericentrosomal matrix was fragmented, and the cells could be conducted to mitotic slippage in both lineages. However, normal tetraploid cells could not progress through cell cycle and neither to form multipolar mitosis, while cancer tetraploid cells showed Aurora A overexpression, structural and numerical centrosome abnormalities, multipolar mitosis and high levels of aneuploidy. The results showed that cancer cells could proliferate even after several mitotic errors, while normal cells could only overcome errors induced by chrysotile treatment

Genomic instability and aneuploidy, which are ubiquitous hallmarks of cancer cells, encompass both structural and numerical chromosome aberrations. Strikingly, cancer cells often display recurrent patterns of aneuploidy which are thought to be contingent on selection pressures within the tumour microenvironment maintaining advantageous karyotypes. However, it is currently unknown if individual chromosomes are intrinsically vulnerable to missegregation, and therefore whether chromosome bias may also contribute to pathological aneuploidy patterns. Moreover, the earliest responses to chromosome missegregation in non-transformed cells, and how these are overcome in cancer, has remained elusive due to the difficult nature of isolating nascent aneuploid cells. Results. Individual chromosomes displayed recurrent patterns of biased missegregation in response to a variety of cellular stresses across cell lines. Likewise, a small subset of chromosomes accounted for a large fraction of segregation errors following one specific mechanism driving aneuploidy. This was supported by the discovery that chromosomes 1 and 2 are strikingly susceptible to the premature loss of sister chromatid cohesion during prolonged prometaphase arrest. Additionally, I have elucidated the arrangement of individual metaphase human chromosomes, highlighting missegregation vulnerabilities occurring at the metaphase plate periphery following nocodazole wash-out. Finally, I have developed a novel system for isolating nascent aneuploid cells, suggesting the earliest transcriptome responses to chromosome missegregation in non-transformed human cells involve ATM and BCL2-mediated apoptosis.

Asbesto é um nome geral dado a seis tipos de fibras minerais encontradas naturalmente na crosta terrestre. Estas fibras vêm sendo exploradas industrialmente desde 1970, porém diversos trabalhadores expostos às fibras apresentaram patologias no trato respiratório, como fibroses e carcinomas. Alguns tipos de fibra foram banidos do mercado, porém o tipo de asbesto crisotila ainda pode ser comercializado na maioria dos países. Estudos in vivo e in vitro tentam elucidar as alterações causadas pela exposição à asbesto nos tecidos e nas células que possam estar relacionadas ao aparecimento de doenças, e foi verificado que a exposição às fibras leva a quebras na dupla fita de DNA, estresse oxidativo, formação de células micronucleadas e células aneuploides. O presente estudo teve como objetivo verificar a presença de alterações causadas em células em cultura expostas à crisotila por 48 h e recuperadas em meio livre de fibras por 48 h, 4 dias e 8 dias, além de observar por microscopia em tempo real divisões aberrantes após a exposição as fibras por 24 e 48h. Foram verificadas alterações que permaneceram na cultura mesmo após 8 dias de recuperação, quando não foram mais observadas fibras na cultura, como formação de células aneuploides, diminuição de frequência de células em G0/G1, aumento de células em G2/M e aumento relativo de células em metáfase quanto à porcentagem de células em fases mais tardias da fase M do ciclo. Já aumento da frequência de células micronucleadas ocorreu apenas nos períodos quando foram observadas fibras na cultura. Para análise da formação de mitoses multipolares e destinos destas células foram construídos vetores para expressão de tubulinas fusionadas a proteínas fluorescentes RFP e GFP, padronizadas as condições de transfecção e de aquisição de imagens para que as células tratadas com crisotila fossem observadas por time-lapse. Alguns destinos de mitoses multipolares causadas pelo tratamento com crisotila foram observados, como morte em metáfase, divisão gerando duas ou três células filhas, fusão de células durante a telófase e retenção em metáfase. Os dados sugerem também a indução da amplificação centrossômica, que parece ocorrer inicialmente em células interfásicas, e também devido à fusão de células. / Asbestos is a general name given to six different fibrous silicate minerals found naturally in the earth\'s crust. These fibers are being exploited industrially since 1970, but several workers exposed to the fibers developed diseases in the respiratory tract, such as fibrosis and carcinomas. Some types of fiber were banished from the market, but the type of asbestos chrysotile can still be marketed in most countries. Studies in vivo and in vitro are trying to elucidate the asbestos effects in tissues and cells that could be related to the development of diseases, and these studies verified that asbestos exposure lead to DNA double strand breaks, oxidative stress, multinucleated and aneuploid cell formation. The present work aimed to verify the alterations in culture cells exposed to chrysotile for 48 h and recovered in fiber-free medium for 48 h, 4 days and 8 days, and also observe aberrant mitosis using time-lapse microscopy after 24 h and 48 h of chrysotile exposure. Some alterations were observed and remained in cell culture even after 8 days of recovery when chrysotile fibers were no longer observed - such as aneuploid cell formation, increased frequencies of G2/M cell, decreased frequencies of G1 cells, and increased frequencies of cells in early M phases as metaphase. The induction of micronuclei occurred only during the periods that fibers were observed in cell culture. For the analysis of multipolar mitosis formation and destinies of these cells after chrysotile treatment, DNA vectors for the expression of tubulins fused to fluorescent proteins (GFP and RFP) were constructed, and the conditions for cells transfection and image acquisition for time-lapse microscopy were established. The fate of some multipolar metaphases was observed: cell retention on metaphase, cell cycle progression generating two or three daughter cells, cell fusion during cytokinesis or during telophase after a multipolar anaphase, and cell death. The centrosome amplification was not observed during the M phase of cell cycle, and may occur in interphase, and also despite cell fusion.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Virginia, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available online through Digital Dissertations.

This dissertation illustrates an efficient purification method for citrus limonoids and flavonoids, while examining their effects on cytochrome P450 inhibition and apoptotic induction on human neuroblastoma (SH-SY5Y) and colonic adenocarcinoma (Caco-2) cells. The first study developed a bulk purification method for limonoids, from seeds and molasses of citrus fruits, using a combination of chromatographic techniques. This also resulted in an efficient purification method for naringin and hesperidin from citrus byproducts. The second study investigated the inhibitory effects of purified limonoids and flavonoids on the enzymatic activities of different isoforms of human cytochrome P450. O-Dealkylase and hydroxylase activities of CYP1A2, CYP1B1, CYP3A4 and CYP19, using specific substrates such as ethoxyresorufin (ethoxyresorufin O-dealkylase, EROD), methoxyresorufin (methoxyresorufin O-dealkylase, MROD), and dibenzylfluorescein (DBF), were found to be significantly (P < 0.001) reduced at micromolar levels. A kinetic analysis showed competitive and non-competitive modes of inhibition by limonoids, on CYP19 hydroxylase activity. The results corroborate the active role of limonoids in the redox cycling mechanisms. The third study examined the antioxidant and apoptotic inducing ability of limonoid glucosides on human neuroblastoma cells. Four limonoid glucosides, LG (17beta-D glucopyranoside limonin), OG (obacunone 17beta-D glucopyranoside), NAG (nomilinic acid 17beta-D glucopyranoside), and DNAG (deacetylnomilinic acid 17beta-D glucopyranoside), have shown superoxide scavenging at millimolar levels. Micromolar amounts of LG and OG induced rapid necrosis of SH-SY5Y cells. Cytotoxicity was correlated (P = 0.046) to a concentration and timedependent increase in caspase 3/7 activity. Analyses of DNA content during the S phase of the cell cycle indicated reductions of 86.6% for LG and 82.3% for OG as compared to untreated. The results validate the antineoplastic distinctiveness of limonoid glucosides. In the fourth study, cytotoxic effects of limonoid aglycones and glucosides were assessed on human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma and colon carcinoma (CaCo-2) cell lines and compared with the non-cancerous Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. Significant (P < 0.001) cytotoxic effects were observed only on cancerous cells, over 24 to 36 h. The study revealed a marked increase in the DNA content of aneuploidic cells, which results in cell cycle arrest. The results confirm that glycosides are the most active apoptotic inducing form.