Characterization and phylogenetic analysis of Krüppel-like transcription factor (KLF) gene family in tree shrews (Tupaia belangeri chinensis).

Krüppel-like factors (KLFs) are a family of zinc finger transcription factors regulating embryonic development and diseases. The phylogenetics of KLFs has not been studied in tree shrews, an animal lineage with a closer relationship to primates than rodents. Here, we identified 17 KLFs from Chinese tree shrew (Tupaia belangeri chinensis). KLF proteins are highly conserved among humans, monkeys, rats, mice and tree shrews compared to zebrafish and chickens. The CtBP binding site, Sin3A binding site and nuclear localization signals are largely conserved between tree shrews and human beings. Tupaia belangeri (Tb) KLF5 contains several conserved post-transcriptional modification motifs. Moreover, the mRNA and protein expression patterns of multiple tbKLFs are tissue-specific . TbKLF5, like hKLF5, significantly promotes NIH3T3 cell proliferation in vitro. These results provide insight for future studies regarding the structure and function of the tbKLF gene family.

Translocation of microbes and changes of immunocytes in the gut of rapid- and slow-progressor Chinese rhesus macaques infected with SIVmac239.

Human/simian immunodeficiency virus (HIV/SIV) infection can cause severe depletion of CD4(+) T cells in both plasma and mucosa; it also results in damage to the gut mucosa barrier, which makes the condition more conducive to microbial translocation. In this study, we used SIV-infected Chinese rhesus macaques to quantify the extent of microbial translocation and the function of immune cells in the entire gastrointestinal tract and to compare their differences between rapid and slow progressors. The results showed that in the slow progressors, microbial products translocated considerably and deeply into the lamina propria of the gut; the tissue macrophages had no significant differences compared with the rapid progressors, but there was a slightly higher percentage of mucosal CD8(+) T cells and a large amount of extracellular microbial products in the lamina propria of the intestinal mucosa of the slow progressors. The data suggested that although microbial translocation increased markedly, the mucosal macrophages and CD8(+) T cells were insufficient to clear the infiltrated microbes in the slow progressors. Also, therapies aimed at suppressing the translocation of microbial products in the mucosa could help to delay the progression of SIV disease.

Generation and characterization of a breast carcinoma model by PyMT overexpression in mammary epithelial cells of tree shrew, an animal close to primates in evolution.

The tree shrew is becoming an attractive experimental animal model for human breast cancer owing to a closer relationship to primates/humans than rodents. Tree shrews are superior to classical primates because tree shrew are easier to manipulate, maintain and propagate. It is required to establish a high-efficiency tree shrew breast cancer model for etiological research and drug assessment. Our previous studies suggest that 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) and medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) induce breast tumors in tree shrews with a low frequency (<50%) and long latency (∼ 7-month), making these methods less than ideal. We induced mammary tumors in tree shrew (Tupaia belangeri chinensis) by injection of lentivirus expressing the PyMT oncogene into mammary ducts of 22 animals. Most tree shrews developed mammary tumors with a latency of about three weeks, and by 7 weeks all injected tree shrews had developed mammary tumors. Among these, papillary carcinoma is the predominant tumor type. One case showed lymph node and lung metastasis. Interestingly, the expression levels of phosphorylated AKT, ERK and STAT3 were elevated in 41-68% of PyMT-induced mammary tumors, but not all tumors. Finally, we observed that the growth of PyMT-induced tree shrew mammary tumors was significantly inhibited by Cisplatin and Epidoxorubicin. PyMT-induced tree shrew mammary tumor model may be suitable for further breast cancer research and drug development, due to its high efficiency and short latency.

PTEN/PIK3CA genes are frequently mutated in spontaneous and medroxyprogesterone acetate-accelerated 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene-induced mammary tumours of tree shrews.

Tree shrew has increasingly become an attractive experimental animal model for human diseases, particularly for breast cancer due to spontaneous breast tumours and their close relationship to primates and by extension to humans. However, neither normal mammary glands nor breast tumours have been well characterised in the Chinese tree shrew (Tupaia belangeri chinensis). In this study, normal mammary glands from four different developmental stages and 18 spontaneous breast tumours were analysed. Haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and immunohistochemistry (IHC) showed that normal mammary gland morphology and structures of tree shrews were quite similar to those found in humans. Spontaneous breast tumours of tree shrews were identified as being intraductal papilloma, papillary carcinoma, and invasive ductal carcinoma with or without lung metastasis. To further analyse breast cancer tumours among tree shrews, 40 3-4 month-old female tree shrews were orally administrated 20 mg 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) or peanut oil thrice, and then, 15 of these DMBA administrated tree shrews were implanted with medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) pellets. DMBA was shown to induce breast tumours (12%) while the addition of MPA increased the tumour incidence (50%). Of these, three induced breast tumours were intraductal papillary carcinomas and one was invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). The PTEN/PIK3CA (phosphatase and tensin homologue/phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase catalytic subunit alpha), but not TP53 and GATA3, genes are frequently mutated in breast tumours, and the PTEN/PIK3CA gene mutation status correlated with the expression of pAKT in tree shrew breast tumours. These results suggest that tree shrews may be a promising animal model for a subset of human breast cancers with PTEN/PIK3CA gene mutations.

Inhibitory effects of chloroquine on the activation of plasmacytoid dendritic cells in SIVmac239-infected Chinese rhesus macaques.

It is currently widely accepted that immune activation in HIV-infected individuals leads to a severe loss of CD4⁺ T cells and the progression to AIDS. However, the underlying mechanism of this immune activation remains unclear. Experimental data suggest that the activation of plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) by plasma viremia may play a critical role in HIV-induced immune activation. In this study, we found that the level of immune activation was higher in the late phase of SIVmac239 infection compared with chronic infection, which suggests that immune activation might be related to disease progression in SIVmac239-infected non-human primate models. Our work also showed that chloroquine could effectively inhibit the activation of pDCs in vitro and in vivo. However, chloroquine treatment of SIVmac239-infected macaques had no significant influence on the Cellular composition of peripheral blood in these animals.

The ß2-microglobulin-free heterodimerization of rhesus monkey MHC class I A with its normally spliced variant reduces the ubiquitin-dependent degradation of MHC class I A.

The MHC class I (MHC I) molecules play a pivotal role in the regulation of immune responses by presenting antigenic peptides to CTLs and by regulating cytolytic activities of NK cells. In this article, we show that MHC I A in rhesus macaques can be alternatively spliced, generating a novel MHC I A isoform (termed "MHC I A-sv1") devoid of α(3) domain. Despite the absence of ß2-microglobulin (ß2m), the MHC I A-sv1 proteins reached the cell surface of K562-transfected cells as endoglycosidase H-sensitive glycoproteins that could form disulfide-bonded homodimers. Cycloheximide-based protein chase experiments showed that the MHC I A-sv1 proteins were more stable than the full-length MHC I A in transiently or stably transfected cell lines. Of particular interest, our studies demonstrated that MHC I A-sv1 could form ß2m-free heterodimers with its full-length protein in mammalian cells. The formation of heterodimers was accompanied by a reduction in full-length MHC I A ubiquitination and consequent stabilization of the protein. Taken together, these results demonstrated that MHC I A-sv1 and MHC I A can form a novel heterodimeric complex as a result of the displacement of ß2m and illustrated the relevance of regulated MHC I A protein degradation in the ß2m-free heterodimerization-dependent control, which may have some implications for the MHC I A splice variant in the fine tuning of classical MHC I A/TCR and MHC I A/killer cell Ig-like receptor interactions.

Characterization of spontaneous breast tumor in tree shrews (Tupaia belangeri chinenesis).

Breast cancer is a common malignant tumor. It is essential to develop suitable animal models for discovering novel preventive and therapeutic approaches. Tree shrews (Tupaia belangeri chinensis) have a closer evolutionary relationship with humans than do rodents, which have been widely used in laboratory research. Spontaneous breast tumors were identified in tree shrews in 1960s; however, no detailed studies about tree shrew breast tumors have been conducted to date. Here, we characterized a spontaneous breast tumor from tree shrews by Haematoxylin Eosin (H&E) staining. This tumor was identified as a papillary tumor. Immunohistochemical staining (IHC) for progesterone receptor (PR), Ki-67 and cleaved caspase-3 showed that tumor cells were positive for PR, highly proliferative, and less apoptotic compared to normal breast epithelial cells. Thus, the spontaneous tumor of tree shrew is very close to human papillary tumors in terms of morphology and pathology and we concluded that tree shrew may be a suitable animal model for breast cancer research.

Dynamics and functions of CD4⁺CD25 (high) regulatory T lymphocytes in Chinese rhesus macaques during the early stage of infection with SIVmac239.

CD4(+)CD25(high) regulatory T cells (Treg), which are a specialized subset of T cells, play an important role in the prevention of autoimmune diseases, maintenance of immune system homeostasis and tolerance to self-antigens. Chinese rhesus macaques (CRMs) are widely used in preclinical research on potential therapeutic drugs, vaccines and mechanisms of human diseases. However, the basic immunological characterization of Treg cells of CRMs has not been well established. To characterize Treg cells, peripheral blood of 43 adult CRMs was analyzed for CD4+ T lymphocytes by flow cytometry. It was found that Treg cells ranged from 1.52% to 11.1% of CD4+ T cells, and the average value was 5.7%. With our SIV-infected CRM model, through further studies, it was found that Treg cells in peripheral blood increased both in relative and absolute quantities. Moreover, Treg cells maintained their functions by suppressing Th1 cytokine secretion of their target cells. The results show that Treg cells might render cellular immunity against SIV viruses dysfunctional during the early stage after infection.

Effect of plasma viremia on apoptosis and immunophenotype of dendritic cells subsets in acute SIVmac239 infection of Chinese rhesus macaques.

Non-human primates such as Chinese rhesus macaques (Ch Rhs) provide good animal models for research on human infectious diseases. Similar to humans, there are two principal subsets of dendritic cells (DCs) in the peripheral blood of Ch Rhs: myeloid DCs (mDCs) and plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs). In this study, two-color fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analyses were used to identify the main DC subsets, namely CD1c(+) mDCs and pDCs from Ch Rhs. Then, the apoptosis and immunophenotype changes of DCs subsets were first described during the acute phase of SIVmac239 infection. Both the DCs subsets showed decreased CD4 expression and enhanced CCR5 expression; in particular, those of pDCs significantly changed at most time points. Interestingly, the plasma viral loads were negatively correlated with CD4 expression, but were positively correlated with CCR5 expression of pDCs. During this period, both CD1c(+) mDCs and pDCs were activated by enhancing expressions of co-stimulatory molecules, accompanied with increase in CCR7. Either CD80 or CD86 expressed on CD1c(+) mDCs and pDCs was positively correlated with the plasma viral loads. Our analysis demonstrates that the pDCs were more prone to apoptosis after infection during the acute phase of SIVmac239 infection, which may be due to their high expressions of CD4 and CCR5. Both DCs subsets activated through elevating the expression of co-stimulatory molecules, which was beneficial in controlling the replication of SIV. However, a mere broad immune activation initiated by activated DCs may lead to tragic AIDS progression.

Progress of non-human primate animal models of cancers.

Cancer is the second leading disease causing human death. Pre-clinical in vivo studies are essential for translating in vitro laboratory research results into the clinic. Rodents, including the mouse and rat, have been widely used for pre-clinical studies due to their small size, clear genetic backgrounds, rapid propagation, and mature transgenic technologies. However, because rodents are evolutionarily distinct from humans, many pre-clinical research results using rodent models cannot be reproduced in the clinic. Non-human primates (NHPs) may be better animal models than rodents for human cancer research because NHPs and humans share greater similarity in regards to their genetic evolution, immune system, physiology and metabolism. This article reviews the latest progress of cancer research in NHPs by focusing on the carcinogenesis of different NHPs induced by chemical and biological carcinogens. Finally, future research directions for the use of NHPs in cancer research are discussed.

Dendritic cell subsets dynamics and cytokine production in SIVmac239-infected Chinese rhesus macaques.

BACKGROUND: Several studies have demonstrated that SIV infection progresses more slowly to experimental AIDS in Chinese rhesus macaques (Ch Rhs) than in Indian rhesus macaques (Ind Rhs). Here we investigated the dynamic and functional changes in dendritic cell (DC) subsets in SIVmac239-infected Ch Rhs. RESULTS: The numbers of both mDC and pDC strongly fluctuated but were not significantly changed during the acute and chronic phases of infection. However, the concentration of both poly (I:C)-induced IL-12 and HSV-1-induced IFN-α significantly increased in the acute phase of infection but returned to normal levels at the chronic phase of infection. The peak of IFN-α emerged earlier than that of IL-12, and it had a significantly positive correlation with IL-12, which indicated that IFN-α may initiate the immune activation. We also found that only the concentration of IFN-α was positively correlated with CD4+ T-cell counts, but it was negatively correlated with viral load. CONCLUSION: High levels of IFN-α in the early stage of infection may contribute to effective control of virus replication, and normal levels of IFN-α during chronic infection may help Ch Rhs resist the disease progression. The change in DC subsets dynamics and cytokine production may help further our understanding of why Ch Rhs are able to live longer without progressing to an AIDS-like illness.

[Roles of dendritic cell in disease progression of AIDS primate models].

Non-human primate models are widely used in research of AIDS mechanism, transmission, vaccine and drugs. Dendritic cells (DC), as antigen presenting cells linking the innate immunity and acquired immunity, play a pivotal role in AIDS progression. Studies on the change of DC subsets number, phenotype and function in AIDS non-human primate models are important for revealing some mechanism of AIDS progression. This article reviews the progress in DC subsets of non-human primate AIDS models, which will provide an avenue for further study in AIDS.

The influence of age and sex on the cell counts of peripheral blood leukocyte subpopulations in Chinese rhesus macaques.

Non-human primates such as Chinese rhesus macaques are the favorable models for preclinical study of potential therapeutic drugs, vaccines and mechanisms of human diseases. Little is known about the normal levels of leukocyte subpopulations of Chinese rhesus macaques. To obtain these data, 100 blood samples from Chinese rhesus macaques were collected. The normal range of major leukocyte subpopulations, such as T lymphocytes, B lymphocytes, monocytes, myeloid dendritic cells (mDCs) and plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs), were quantitatively analyzed by flow cytometry through BD trucount tubes. The influence of age and sex on the cell counts of leukocyte subpopulations was analyzed. The counts of CD3(+) T cells, CD3(+)CD4(+) T cells, CD3(+)CD8(+) T cells and B cells decreased with age, but those of monocytes, mDCs and pDCs had no significant correlation with age. Significant differences existed in the cell counts of most leukocyte subpopulations between the male and female groups except pDCs. And the values of the females were higher than those of the males. The study provided basic information about the leukocyte subpopulations of Chinese rhesus macaques, and it may be valuable for immunobiological study of Chinese rhesus macaques.