Umbilical cord blood exosomes from very preterm infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia aggravate lung injury in mice.

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is characterized by abnormal development of the blood vessels and alveoli in lungs, which largely occurs in premature infants. Exosomes (EXO) from very preterm infants (VPI) with BPD (BPD-EXO) impair angiogenic activities of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) via EXO-miRNAs cargo. This study aimed to determine whether and how BPD-EXO affect the development of BPD in a mouse model. We showed that treating BPD mice with BPD-EXO chronically and irreversibly aggravated lung injury. BPD-EXO up-regulated 139 and down-regulated 735 genes in the mouse lung tissue. These differentially expressed genes were enriched to the MAPK pathway (e.g., Fgf9 and Cacna2d3), which is critical to angiogenesis and vascular remodeling. BPD-EXO suppressed expression of Fgf9 and Cacna2d3 in HUVECs and inhibited migration, tube formation, and increased cell apoptosis in HUVECs. These data demonstrate that BPD-EXO aggravate lung injury in BPD mice and impair lung angiogenesis, plausibly leading to adverse outcomes of VPI with BPD. These data also suggest that BPD-EXO could serve as promising targets for predicting and treating BPD.

Umbilical cord blood-derived exosomes from healthy term pregnancies protect against hyperoxia-induced lung injury in mice.

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a chronic, devastating disease primarily occurring in premature infants. To date, intervention strategies to prevent or treat BPD are limited. We aimed to determine the effects of umbilical cord blood-derived exosomes (UCB-EXOs) from healthy term pregnancies on hyperoxia-induced lung injury and to identify potential targets for BPD intervention. A mouse model of hyperoxia-induced lung injury was created by exposing neonatal mice to hyperoxia after birth until the 14th day post birth. Age-matched neonatal mice were exposed to normoxia as the control. Hyperoxia-induced lung injury mice were intraperitoneally injected with UCB-EXO or vehicle daily for 3 days, starting on day 4 post birth. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were insulted with hyperoxia to establish an in vitro model of BPD to investigate angiogenesis dysfunction. Our results showed that UCB-EXO alleviated lung injuries in hyperoxia-insulted mice by reducing histopathological grade and collagen contents in the lung tissues. UCB-EXO also promoted vascular growth and increased miR-185-5p levels in the lungs of hyperoxia-insulted mice. Additionally, we found that UCB-EXO elevated miR-185-5p levels in HUVECs. MiR-185-5p overexpression inhibited cell apoptosis, whereas promoted cell migration in HUVECs exposed to hyperoxia. The luciferase reporter assay results revealed that miR-185-5p directly targeted cyclin-dependent kinase 6 (CDK6), which was downregulated in the lungs of hyperoxia-insulted mice. Together, these data suggest that UCB-EXO from healthy term pregnancies protect against hyperoxia-induced lung injuries via promoting neonatal pulmonary angiogenesis partially by elevating miR-185-5p.

DNA N6-methyladenine involvement and regulation of hepatocellular carcinoma development.

DNA N6-methyladenine (6 mA) is a new type of DNA methylation identified in various eukaryotic cells. However, its alteration and genomic distribution features in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain elusive. In this study, we found that N6AMT1 overexpression increased HCC cell viability, suppressed apoptosis, and enhanced migration and invasion, whereas ALKBH1 overexpression induced the opposite effects. Further, 23,779 gain-of-6 mA regions and 11,240 loss-of-6 mA regions were differentially identified in HCC tissues. The differential gain and loss of 6 mA regions were considerably enriched in intergenic regions. Moreover, 7% of the differential 6 mA modifications were associated with tumors, with 60 associated with oncogenes and 57 with tumor suppressor genes (TSGs), and 17 were common to oncogenes and TSGs. The candidate genes affected by 6 mA were filtered by gene ontology (GO) and RNA-seq. Using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), BCL2 and PARTICL were found to be correlated with DNA 6 mA in certain HCC processes.