A multistep computational approach reveals a neuro-mesenchymal cell population in the embryonic hematopoietic stem cell niche.

The first hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) emerge in the Aorta-Gonad-Mesonephros (AGM) region of the mid-gestation mouse embryo. However, the precise nature of their supportive mesenchymal microenvironment remains largely unexplored. Here, we profiled transcriptomes of laser micro-dissected aortic tissues at three developmental stages and individual AGM cells. Computational analyses allowed the identification of several cell subpopulations within the E11.5 AGM mesenchyme, with the presence of a yet unidentified subpopulation characterized by the dual expression of genes implicated in adhesive or neuronal functions. We confirmed the identity of this cell subset as a neuro-mesenchymal population, through morphological and lineage tracing assays. Loss of function in the zebrafish confirmed that Decorin, a characteristic extracellular matrix component of the neuro-mesenchyme, is essential for HSPC development. We further demonstrated that this cell population is not merely derived from the neural crest, and hence, is a bona fide novel subpopulation of the AGM mesenchyme.

Type 1 interferons and Foxo1 down-regulation play a key role in age-related T-cell exhaustion in mice.

Foxo family transcription factors are critically involved in multiple processes, such as metabolism, quiescence, cell survival and cell differentiation. Although continuous, high activity of Foxo transcription factors extends the life span of some species, the involvement of Foxo proteins in mammalian aging remains to be determined. Here, we show that Foxo1 is down-regulated with age in mouse T cells. This down-regulation of Foxo1 in T cells may contribute to the disruption of naive T-cell homeostasis with age, leading to an increase in the number of memory T cells. Foxo1 down-regulation is also associated with the up-regulation of co-inhibitory receptors by memory T cells and exhaustion in aged mice. Using adoptive transfer experiments, we show that the age-dependent down-regulation of Foxo1 in T cells is mediated by T-cell-extrinsic cues, including type 1 interferons. Taken together, our data suggest that type 1 interferon-induced Foxo1 down-regulation is likely to contribute significantly to T-cell dysfunction in aged mice.

Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis and Radiomics Quality Score Assessment of CT Radiomics-Based Models Predicting Tumor EGFR Mutation Status in Patients with Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.

Assessment of the quality and current performance of computed tomography (CT) radiomics-based models in predicting epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation status in patients with non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). Two medical literature databases were systematically searched, and articles presenting original studies on CT radiomics-based models for predicting EGFR mutation status were retrieved. Forest plots and related statistical tests were performed to summarize the model performance and inter-study heterogeneity. The methodological quality of the selected studies was assessed via the Radiomics Quality Score (RQS). The performance of the models was evaluated using the area under the curve (ROC AUC). The range of the Risk RQS across the selected articles varied from 11 to 24, indicating a notable heterogeneity in the quality and methodology of the included studies. The average score was 15.25, which accounted for 42.34% of the maximum possible score. The pooled Area Under the Curve (AUC) value was 0.801, indicating the accuracy of CT radiomics-based models in predicting the EGFR mutation status. CT radiomics-based models show promising results as non-invasive alternatives for predicting EGFR mutation status in NSCLC patients. However, the quality of the studies using CT radiomics-based models varies widely, and further harmonization and prospective validation are needed before the generalization of these models.

Plastic used in in vitro fertilization procedures induces massive placental gene expression alterations.

BACKGROUND: The exposure to plastic derivatives during human life is deleterious. Infants conceived using ART (IVF or ICSI) have twice as many risks of major birth defects compared to naturally conceived infants. Could plastic ware used during ART trigger defects in the fetal development? METHODS: Three groups of blastocysts were transferred to pseudopregnant mice. One was obtained after IVF and embryo development in plastic ware, the second in glass ware. The third, was obtained in vivo by natural mating. On day 16.5 of pregnancy, females were sacrificed and fetal organs collected for gene expression analysis. Fetal sex was determined by RT-PCR. RNA was extracted from a pool of five placental or brain samples coming from at least two litters from the same group and analyzed by hybridisation onto the mouse Affymetrix 430.2.0 GeneChips, confirmed by RT-qPCR for 22 genes. FINDINGS: This study highlights a major impact of plastic ware on placental gene expression (1121 significantly deregulated genes), while glassware was much closer to in vivo offspring (only 200 significantly deregulated genes). Gene Ontology indicated that the modified placental genes were mostly involved in stress, inflammation and detoxification. A sex specific analysis revealed in addition a more drastic effect on female than male placentas. In the brains, whatever the comparison, less than 50 genes were found deregulated. INTERPRETATION: Embryos incubated in plastic ware resulted in pregnancy with massive alterations of placental gene expression profile in concerted biological functions. There were no obvious effects on the brains. Besides other effects, this suggests that plastic ware in ART could be a cause of the increased level of pregnancy disorders observed recurrently in ART pregnancies. FUNDING: This study was funded by two grants from the Agence de la Biomedecine in 2017 and 2019.

Mechanisms of esophageal stricture after extensive endoscopic resection: a transcriptomic analysis.

Background and study aims Esophageal stricture is the most frequent adverse event after endoscopic resection for early esophageal neoplasia. Currently available treatments for the prevention of esophageal stricture are poorly effective and associated with major adverse events. Our aim was to identify transcripts specifically overexpressed or repressed in patients who have developed a post-endoscopic esophageal stricture, as potential targets for stricture prevention. Patients and methods We conducted a prospective single-center study in a tertiary endoscopy center. Patients scheduled for an endoscopic resection and considered at risk of esophageal stricture were offered inclusion in the study. The healthy mucosa and resection bed were biopsied on Days 0, 14, and 90. A transcriptomic analysis by microarray was performed, and the differences in transcriptomic profile compared between patients with and without esophageal strictures. Results Eight patients, four with esophageal stricture and four without, were analyzed. The mean ± SD circumferential extension of the mucosal defect was 85 ±â€Š11 %. The transcriptomic analysis in the resection bed at day 14 found an activation of the interleukin (IL)-1 group (Z score = 2.159, P  = 0.0137), while interferon-gamma (INFγ) and NUPR1 were inhibited (Z score = -2.375, P  = 0.0022 and Z score = -2.333, P  = 0.00131) in the stricture group. None of the activated or inhibited transcripts were still significantly so in any of the groups on Day 90. Conclusions Our data suggest that IL-1 inhibition or INFγ supplementation could constitute promising targets for post-endoscopic esophageal stricture prevention.

Pan-Genomic Regulation of Gene Expression in Normal and Pathological Human Placentas.

In this study, we attempted to find genetic variants affecting gene expression (eQTL = expression Quantitative Trait Loci) in the human placenta in normal and pathological situations. The analysis of gene expression in placental diseases (Pre-eclampsia and Intra-Uterine Growth Restriction) is hindered by the fact that diseased placental tissue samples are generally taken at earlier gestations compared to control samples. The difference in gestational age is considered a major confounding factor in the transcriptome regulation of the placenta. To alleviate this significant problem, we propose here a novel approach to pinpoint disease-specific cis-eQTLs. By statistical correction for gestational age at sampling as well as other confounding/surrogate variables systematically searched and identified, we found 43 e-genes for which proximal SNPs influence expression level. Then, we performed the analysis again, removing the disease status from the covariates, and we identified 54 e-genes, 16 of which are identified de novo and, thus, possibly related to placental disease. We found a highly significant overlap with previous studies for the list of 43 e-genes, validating our methodology and findings. Among the 16 disease-specific e-genes, several are intrinsic to trophoblast biology and, therefore, constitute novel targets of interest to better characterize placental pathology and its varied clinical consequences. The approach that we used may also be applied to the study of other human diseases where confounding factors have hampered a better understanding of the pathology.

CRISPR/Cas9-mediated inactivation of the phosphatase activity of soluble epoxide hydrolase prevents obesity and cardiac ischemic injury.

INTRODUCTION: Although the physiological role of the C-terminal hydrolase domain of the soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH-H) is well investigated, the function of its N-terminal phosphatase activity (sEH-P) remains unknown. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess in vivo the physiological role of sEH-P. METHODS: CRISPR/Cas9 was used to generate a novel knock-in (KI) rat line lacking the sEH-P activity. RESULTS: The sEH-P KI rats has a decreased metabolism of lysophosphatidic acids to monoacyglycerols. KI rats grew almost normally but with less weight and fat mass gain while insulin sensitivity was increased compared to wild-type rats. This lean phenotype was more marked in males than in female KI rats and mainly due to decreased food consumption and enhanced energy expenditure. In fact, sEH-P KI rats had an increased lipolysis allowing to supply fatty acids as fuel to potentiate brown adipose thermogenesis under resting condition and upon cold exposure. The potentiation of thermogenesis was abolished when blocking PPARγ, a nuclear receptor activated by intracellular lysophosphatidic acids, but also when inhibiting simultaneously sEH-H, showing a functional interaction between the two domains. Furthermore, sEH-P KI rats fed a high-fat diet did not gain as much weight as the wild-type rats, did not have increased fat mass and did not develop insulin resistance or hepatic steatosis. In addition, sEH-P KI rats exhibited enhanced basal cardiac mitochondrial activity associated with an enhanced left ventricular contractility and were protected against cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury. CONCLUSION: Our study reveals that sEH-P is a key player in energy and fat metabolism and contributes together with sEH-H to the regulation of cardiometabolic homeostasis. The development of pharmacological inhibitors of sEH-P appears of crucial importance to evaluate the interest of this promising therapeutic strategy in the management of obesity and cardiac ischemic complications.

Particle Swarm Optimization and Two-Way Fixed-Effects Analysis of Variance for Efficient Brain Tumor Segmentation.

Segmentation of brain tumor images, to refine the detection and understanding of abnormal masses in the brain, is an important research topic in medical imaging. This paper proposes a new segmentation method, consisting of three main steps, to detect brain lesions using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In the first step, the parts of the image delineating the skull bone are removed, to exclude insignificant data. In the second step, which is the main contribution of this study, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique is applied, to detect the block that contains the brain lesions. The fitness function, used to determine the best block among all candidate blocks, is based on a two-way fixed-effects analysis of variance (ANOVA). In the last step of the algorithm, the K-means segmentation method is used in the lesion block, to classify it as a tumor or not. A thorough evaluation of the proposed algorithm was performed, using: (1) a private MRI database provided by the Kouba imaging center-Algiers (KICA); (2) the multimodal brain tumor segmentation challenge (BraTS) 2015 database. Estimates of the selected fitness function were first compared to those based on the sum-of-absolute-differences (SAD) dissimilarity criterion, to demonstrate the efficiency and robustness of the ANOVA. The performance of the optimized brain tumor segmentation algorithm was then compared to the results of several state-of-the-art techniques. The results obtained, by using the Dice coefficient, Jaccard distance, correlation coefficient, and root mean square error (RMSE) measurements, demonstrated the superiority of the proposed optimized segmentation algorithm over equivalent techniques.

Increased NOS coupling by the metabolite tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) reduces preeclampsia/IUGR consequences.

Preeclampsia (PE) is a high-prevalence pregnancy disease characterized by placental insufficiency, gestational hypertension, and proteinuria. Overexpression of the A isoform of the STOX1 transcription factor (STOX1A) recapitulates PE in mice, and STOX1A overexpressing trophoblasts recapitulate PE patients hallmarks in terms of gene expression and pathophysiology. STOX1 overexpression induces nitroso-redox imbalance and mitochondrial hyper-activation. Here, by a thorough analysis on cell models, we show that STOX1 overexpression in trophoblasts alters inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), nitric oxide (NO) content, the nitroso-redox balance, the antioxidant defense, and mitochondrial function. This is accompanied by specific alterations of the Krebs cycle leading to reduced l-malate content. By increasing NOS coupling using the metabolite tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) we restore this multi-step pathway in vitro. Moving in vivo on two different rodent models (STOX1 mice and RUPP rats, alike early onset and late onset preeclampsia, respectively), we show by transcriptomics that BH4 directly reverts STOX1-deregulated gene expression including glutathione metabolism, oxidative phosphorylation, cholesterol metabolism, inflammation, lipoprotein metabolism and platelet activation, successfully treating placental hypotrophy, gestational hypertension, proteinuria and heart hypertrophy. In the RUPP rats we show that the major fetal issue of preeclampsia, Intra Uterine Growth Restriction (IUGR), is efficiently corrected. Our work posits on solid bases BH4 as a novel potential therapy for preeclampsia.

Discovery and validation of a transcriptional signature identifying homologous recombination-deficient breast, endometrial and ovarian cancers.

BACKGROUND: Molecular alterations leading to homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) are heterogeneous. We aimed to identify a transcriptional profile shared by endometrial (UCEC), breast (BRCA) and ovarian (OV) cancers with HRD. METHODS: Genes differentially expressed with HRD genomic score (continuous gHRD score) in UCEC/BRCA/OV were identified using edgeR, and used to train a RNAseq score (ridge-regression model) predictive of the gHRD score (PanCanAtlas, N = 1684 samples). The RNAseq score was applied in independent gynaecological datasets (CARPEM/CPTAC/SCAN/TCGA, N = 4038 samples). Validations used ROC curves, linear regressions and Pearson correlations. Overall survival (OS) analyses used Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox models. RESULTS: In total, 656 genes were commonly up/downregulated with gHRD score in UCEC/BRCA/OV. Upregulated genes were enriched for nuclear/chromatin/DNA-repair processes, while downregulated genes for cytoskeleton (gene ontologies). The RNAseq score correlated with gHRD score in independent gynaecological cancers (R² = 0.4-0.7, Pearson correlation = 0.64-0.86, all P < 10-11), and was predictive of gHRD score >42 (RNAseq HRD profile; AUC = 0.95/0.92/0.78 in UCEC/BRCA/OV). RNAseq HRD profile was associated (i) with better OS in platinum-treated advanced TP53-mutated-UCEC (P < 0.001) and OV (P = 0.013), and (ii) with poorer OS (P < 0.001) and higher benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy in Stage I-III BRCA (interaction test, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: UCEC/BRCA/OV with HRD-associated genomic scars share a common transcriptional profile. RNAseq signatures might be relevant for identifying HRD-gynaecological cancers, for prognostication and for therapeutic decision.

Endothelial and hematopoietic hPSCs differentiation via a hematoendothelial progenitor.

BACKGROUND: hPSC-derived endothelial and hematopoietic cells (ECs and HCs) are an interesting source of cells for tissue engineering. Despite their close spatial and temporal embryonic development, current hPSC differentiation protocols are specialized in only one of these lineages. In this study, we generated a hematoendothelial population that could be further differentiated in vitro to both lineages. METHODS: Two hESCs and one hiPSC lines were differentiated into a hematoendothelial population, hPSC-ECs and blast colonies (hPSC-BCs) via CD144+-embryoid bodies (hPSC-EBs). hPSC-ECs were characterized by endothelial colony-forming assay, LDL uptake assay, endothelial activation by TNF-α, nitric oxide detection and Matrigel-based tube formation. Hematopoietic colony-forming cell assay was performed from hPSC-BCs. Interestingly, we identified a hPSC-BC population characterized by the expression of both CD144 and CD45. hPSC-ECs and hPSC-BCs were analyzed by flow cytometry and RT-qPCR; in vivo experiments have been realized by ischemic tissue injury model on a mouse dorsal skinfold chamber and hematopoietic reconstitution in irradiated immunosuppressed mouse from hPSC-ECs and hPSC-EB-CD144+, respectively. Transcriptomic analyses were performed to confirm the endothelial and hematopoietic identity of hESC-derived cell populations by comparing them against undifferentiated hESC, among each other's (e.g. hPSC-ECs vs. hPSC-EB-CD144+) and against human embryonic liver (EL) endothelial, hematoendothelial and hematopoietic cell subpopulations. RESULTS: A hematoendothelial population was obtained after 84 h of hPSC-EBs formation under serum-free conditions and isolated based on CD144 expression. Intrafemorally injection of hPSC-EB-CD144+ contributed to the generation of CD45+ human cells in immunodeficient mice suggesting the existence of hemogenic ECs within hPSC-EB-CD144+. Endothelial differentiation of hPSC-EB-CD144+ yields a population of > 95% functional ECs in vitro. hPSC-ECs derived through this protocol participated at the formation of new vessels in vivo in a mouse ischemia model. In vitro, hematopoietic differentiation of hPSC-EB-CD144+ generated an intermediate population of > 90% CD43+ hPSC-BCs capable to generate myeloid and erythroid colonies. Finally, the transcriptomic analyses confirmed the hematoendothelial, endothelial and hematopoietic identity of hPSC-EB-CD144+, hPSC-ECs and hPSC-BCs, respectively, and the similarities between hPSC-BC-CD144+CD45+, a subpopulation of hPSC-BCs, and human EL hematopoietic stem cells/hematopoietic progenitors. CONCLUSION: The present work reports a hPSC differentiation protocol into functional hematopoietic and endothelial cells through a hematoendothelial population. Both lineages were proven to display characteristics of physiological human cells, and therefore, they represent an interesting rapid source of cells for future cell therapy and tissue engineering.

Transcriptional profiling of ß-2M-SPα-6+THY1+ spermatogonial stem cells in human spermatogenesis.

Male infertility is responsible for approximately half of all cases of reproductive issues. Spermatogenesis originates in a small pool of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs), which are of interest for therapy of infertility but remain not well defined in humans. Using multiparametric analysis of the side population (SP) phenotype and the α-6 integrin, THY1, and ß-2 microglobulin cell markers, we identified a population of human primitive undifferentiated spermatogonia with the phenotype ß-2 microglobulin (ß-2M)-SPα-6+THY1+, which is highly enriched in stem cells. By analyzing the expression signatures of this SSC-enriched population along with other germinal progenitors, we established an exhaustive transcriptome of human spermatogenesis. Transcriptome profiling of the human ß-2M-SPα-6+THY1+ population and comparison with the profile of mouse undifferentiated spermatogonia provide insights into the molecular networks and key transcriptional regulators regulating human SSCs, including the basic-helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcriptional repressor HES1, which we show to be implicated in maintenance of SSCs in vitro.

Abnormal migration behavior linked to Rac1 signaling contributes to primordial germ cell exhaustion in Fanconi anemia pathway-deficient Fancg-/- embryos.

Fanconi anemia (FA) is a rare human genetic disorder characterized by bone marrow failure, predisposition to cancer and developmental defects including hypogonadism. Reproductive defects leading to germ cell aplasia are the most consistent phenotypes seen in FA mouse models. We examined the role of the nuclear FA core complex gene Fancg in the development of primordial germ cells (PGCs), the embryonic precursors of adult gametes, during fetal development. PGC maintenance was severely impaired in Fancg-/- embryos. We observed a defect in the number of PGCs starting at E9.5 and a strong attrition at E11.5 and E13.5. Remarkably, we observed a mosaic pattern reflecting a portion of testicular cords devoid of PGCs in E13.5 fetal gonads. Our in vitro and in vivo data highlight a potential role of Fancg in the proliferation and in the intrinsic cell motility abilities of PGCs. The random migratory process is abnormally activated in Fancg-/- PGCs, altering the migration of cells. Increased cell death and PGC attrition observed in E11.5 Fancg-/- embryos are features consistent with delayed migration of PGCs along the migratory pathway to the genital ridges. Moreover, we show that an inhibitor of RAC1 mitigates the abnormal migratory pattern observed in Fancg-/- PGCs.

Nebulized curcumin protects neonatal lungs from antenatal insult in rats.

Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) increases the risk of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), one of the major complications of prematurity. Antenatal low-protein diet (LPD) exposure in rats induces IUGR and mimics BPD-related alveolarization disorders. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ) plays a key role in normal lung development and was found deregulated following LPD exposure. The objective of this article was to investigate the effects of nebulized curcumin, a natural PPARγ agonist, to prevent IUGR-related abnormal lung development. We studied rat pups antenatally exposed to an LPD or control diet (CTL) and treated with nebulized curcumin (50 mg/kg) or vehicle from postnatal (P) days 1 to 5. The primary readouts were lung morphometric analyses at P21. Immunohistochemistry (P21) and microarrays (P6 and P11) were compared within animals exposed to LPD versus controls, with and without curcumin treatment. Quantitative morphometric analyses revealed that LPD induced abnormal alveolarization as evidenced by a significant increase in mean linear intercept (MLI) observed in P21 LPD-exposed animals. Early curcumin treatment prevented this effect, and two-way ANOVA analysis demonstrated significant interaction between diet and curcumin both for MLI [F(1,39) = 12.67, P = 0.001] and radial alveolar count at P21 [F(1,40) = 6.065, P = 0.0182]. Immunohistochemistry for fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4), a major regulator of PPARγ pathway, showed a decreased FABP4+ alveolar cell density in LPD-exposed animals treated by curcumin. Transcriptomic analysis showed that early curcumin significantly prevented the activation of profibrotic pathways observed at P11 in LPD-exposed animals. Nebulized curcumin appears to be a promising strategy to prevent alveolarization disorders in IUGR rat pups, targeting pathways involved in lung development.

Urothelial Cancer Associated 1 (UCA1) and miR-193 Are Two Non-coding RNAs Involved in Trophoblast Fusion and Placental Diseases.

A bioinformatics screen for non-coding genes was performed from microarrays analyzing on the one hand trophoblast fusion in the BeWo cell model, and on the other hand, placental diseases (preeclampsia and Intra-Uterine Growth Restriction). Intersecting the deregulated genes allowed to identify two miRNA (mir193b and miR365a) and one long non-coding RNA (UCA1) that are pivotal for trophoblast fusion, and deregulated in placental diseases. We show that miR-193b is a hub for the down-regulation of 135 cell targets mainly involved in cell cycle progression and energy usage/nutrient transport. UCA1 was explored by siRNA knock-down in the BeWo cell model. We show that its down-regulation is associated with the deregulation of important trophoblast physiology genes, involved in differentiation, proliferation, oxidative stress, vacuolization, membrane repair and endocrine production. Overall, UCA1 knockdown leads to an incomplete gene expression profile modification of trophoblast cells when they are induced to fuse into syncytiotrophoblast. Then we performed the same type of analysis in cells overexpressing one of the two major isoforms of the STOX1 transcription factor, STOX1A and STOX1B (associated previously to impaired trophoblast fusion). We could show that when STOX1B is abundant, the effects of UCA1 down-regulation on forskolin response are alleviated.

Investigation of steatosis profiles induced by pesticides using liver organ-on-chip model and omics analysis.

Several studies have reported a correlation between pesticides exposure and metabolic disorders. Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and permethrin (PMT), two pesticides highly prevalent in the environment, have been associated to dysregulation of liver lipids and glucose metabolisms and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, the effects of DDT/PMT mixtures and mechanisms mediating their action remain unclear. Here, we used multi-omic to investigate the liver damage induced by DDT, PMT and their mixture in rat liver organ-on-chip. Organ-on-chip allow the reproduction of in vivo-like micro-environment. Two concentrations, 15 and 150 µM, were used to expose the hepatocytes for 24 h under perfusion. The transcriptome and metabolome analysis suggested a dose-dependent effect for all conditions, with a profile close to control for pesticides low-doses. The comparison between control and high-doses detected 266/24, 256/24 and 1349/30 genes/metabolites differentially expressed for DDT150, PMT150 and Mix150 (DDT150/PMT150). Transcriptome modulation reflected liver inflammation, steatosis, necrosis, PPAR signaling and fatty acid metabolism. The metabolome analysis highlighted common signature of three treatments including lipid and carbohydrates production, and a decrease in amino acids and krebs cycle intermediates. Our study illustrates the potential of organ-on-chip coupled to multi-omics for toxicological studies and provides new tools for chemical risk assessment.

Alternative splicing in normal and pathological human placentas is correlated to genetic variants.

Two major obstetric diseases, preeclampsia (PE), a pregnancy-induced endothelial dysfunction leading to hypertension and proteinuria, and intra-uterine growth-restriction (IUGR), a failure of the fetus to acquire its normal growth, are generally triggered by placental dysfunction. Many studies have evaluated gene expression deregulations in these diseases, but none has tackled systematically the role of alternative splicing. In the present study, we show that alternative splicing is an essential feature of placental diseases, affecting 1060 and 1409 genes in PE vs controls and IUGR vs controls, respectively, many of those involved in placental function. While in IUGR placentas, alternative splicing affects genes specifically related to pregnancy, in preeclamptic placentas, it impacts a mix of genes related to pregnancy and brain diseases. Also, alternative splicing variations can be detected at the individual level as sharp splicing differences between different placentas. We correlate these variations with genetic variants to define splicing Quantitative Trait Loci (sQTL) in the subset of the 48 genes the most strongly alternatively spliced in placental diseases. We show that alternative splicing is at least partly piloted by genetic variants located either in cis (52 QTL identified) or in trans (52 QTL identified). In particular, we found four chromosomal regions that impact the splicing of genes in the placenta. The present work provides a new vision of placental gene expression regulation that warrants further studies.

Multi-Block Color-Binarized Statistical Images for Single-Sample Face Recognition.

Single-Sample Face Recognition (SSFR) is a computer vision challenge. In this scenario, there is only one example from each individual on which to train the system, making it difficult to identify persons in unconstrained environments, mainly when dealing with changes in facial expression, posture, lighting, and occlusion. This paper discusses the relevance of an original method for SSFR, called Multi-Block Color-Binarized Statistical Image Features (MB-C-BSIF), which exploits several kinds of features, namely, local, regional, global, and textured-color characteristics. First, the MB-C-BSIF method decomposes a facial image into three channels (e.g., red, green, and blue), then it divides each channel into equal non-overlapping blocks to select the local facial characteristics that are consequently employed in the classification phase. Finally, the identity is determined by calculating the similarities among the characteristic vectors adopting a distance measurement of the K-nearest neighbors (K-NN) classifier. Extensive experiments on several subsets of the unconstrained Alex and Robert (AR) and Labeled Faces in the Wild (LFW) databases show that the MB-C-BSIF achieves superior and competitive results in unconstrained situations when compared to current state-of-the-art methods, especially when dealing with changes in facial expression, lighting, and occlusion. The average classification accuracies are 96.17% and 99% for the AR database with two specific protocols (i.e., Protocols I and II, respectively), and 38.01% for the challenging LFW database. These performances are clearly superior to those obtained by state-of-the-art methods. Furthermore, the proposed method uses algorithms based only on simple and elementary image processing operations that do not imply higher computational costs as in holistic, sparse or deep learning methods, making it ideal for real-time identification.