scholarly journals Implications of Liver Injury in Risk-Stratification and Management of Patients with COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiaofang Shao ◽  
Yuan Liang ◽  
Yan Li ◽  
Rong Ding ◽  
Mengyan Zhu ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundInfection with SARS-CoV-2 has been associated with liver dysfunction, aggravation of liver burden, and liver injury. This study aimed to assess the effects of liver injuries on the clinical outcomes of patients with COVID-19.MethodsA total of 1,564 patients with severe or critical COVID-19 from Huoshenshan Hospital, Wuhan, were enrolled. Chronic liver disease (CLD) was confirmed by consensus diagnostic criteria. Laboratory test results were compared between different groups. scRNA-seq data and bulk gene expression profiles were used to identify cell types associated with liver injury.ResultsA total of 10.98% of patients with severe or critical COVID-19 developed liver injury after admission that was associated with significantly higher rates of mortality (21.74%, p<0.001) and intensive care unit admission (26.71%, p<0.001). A pre-existing CLD was not associated with a higher risk. However, fatty liver disease and cirrhosis were associated with higher risks, supported by evidences from single cell and bulk transcriptome analysis that showed more TMPRSS2+ cells in these tissues. By generating a model, we were able to predict the risk and severity of liver injury during hospitalization.ConclusionWe demonstrate that liver injury occurring during therapy in patients with COVID-19 is significantly associated with the severity of disease and mortality, but the presence of CLD is not associated. We provide a risk-score model that can predict whether patients with COVID-19 will develop liver injury or proceed to higher risk stages during subsequent hospitalizations. These findings may prove beneficial for the clinical management of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Joanna B. Trojanek ◽  
Jacek Michałkiewicz ◽  
Renata Grzywa-Czuba ◽  
Wojciech Jańczyk ◽  
Lidia Gackowska ◽  
...  

Gene expression profiles of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their tissue inhibitors (TIMPs) were evaluated in peripheral blood leukocytes of children with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Gene expression patterns were correlated with their plasma protein counterparts, systemic parameters of liver injury, and selected markers of inflammation. The MMP-2, MMP-9, MMP-12, MMP-14, TIMP-1, TIMP-2, TGF-β, and IL-6 transcripts levels were tested by the real-time PCR. Plasma concentrations of MMP-9, TIMP-1, MMP-9/TIMP-1 ratio, MMP-2/TIMP-2 ratio, sCD14, leptin, resistin, IL-1 beta, and IL-6 and serum markers of liver injury were estimated by ELISA. The MMP-9, TIMP-2 expression levels, plasma amounts of MMP-9, TIMP-1, and the MMP-9/TIMP-1 ratio were increased in children with NAFLD. Concentrations of AST, ALT, GGT, and leptin were elevated in serum patients with NAFLD, while concentration of other inflammatory or liver injury markers was unchanged. The MMP-2 and MMP-9 levels correlated with serum liver injury parameters (ALT and GGT concentrations, respectively); there were no other correlations between MMP/TIMP gene expression profiles, their plasma counterparts, and serum inflammatory markers. Association of MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression with serum liver injury parameters (ALT, GGT) may suggest leukocyte engagement in the early stages of NAFLD development which possibly precedes subsequent systemic inflammatory responses.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bing He ◽  
Ping Chen ◽  
Sonia Zambrano ◽  
Dina Dabaghie ◽  
Yizhou Hu ◽  
...  

AbstractMolecular characterization of the individual cell types in human kidney as well as model organisms are critical in defining organ function and understanding translational aspects of biomedical research. Previous studies have uncovered gene expression profiles of several kidney glomerular cell types, however, important cells, including mesangial (MCs) and glomerular parietal epithelial cells (PECs), are missing or incompletely described, and a systematic comparison between mouse and human kidney is lacking. To this end, we use Smart-seq2 to profile 4332 individual glomerulus-associated cells isolated from human living donor renal biopsies and mouse kidney. The analysis reveals genetic programs for all four glomerular cell types (podocytes, glomerular endothelial cells, MCs and PECs) as well as rare glomerulus-associated macula densa cells. Importantly, we detect heterogeneity in glomerulus-associated Pdgfrb-expressing cells, including bona fide intraglomerular MCs with the functionally active phagocytic molecular machinery, as well as a unique mural cell type located in the central stalk region of the glomerulus tuft. Furthermore, we observe remarkable species differences in the individual gene expression profiles of defined glomerular cell types that highlight translational challenges in the field and provide a guide to design translational studies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan-chi Teng ◽  
Alfredo Leonardo Porfírio-Sousa ◽  
Giulia Magri Ribeiro ◽  
Marcela Corso Arend ◽  
Lindolfo da Silva Meirelles ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) affects millions of people and compromises quality of life. Critical limb ischemia (CLI), which is the most advanced stage of PAD, can cause nonhealing ulcers and strong chronic pain, and it shortens the patients’ life expectancy. Cell-based angiogenic therapies are becoming a real therapeutic approach to treat CLI. Pericytes are cells that surround vascular endothelial cells to reinforce vessel integrity and regulate local blood pressure and metabolism. In the past decade, researchers also found that pericytes may function as stem or progenitor cells in the body, showing the potential to differentiate into several cell types. We investigated the gene expression profiles of pericytes during the early stages of limb ischemia, as well as the alterations in pericyte subpopulations to better understand the behavior of pericytes under ischemic conditions. Methods In this study, we used a hindlimb ischemia model to mimic CLI in C57/BL6 mice and explore the role of pericytes in regeneration. To this end, muscle pericytes were isolated at different time points after the induction of ischemia. The phenotypes and transcriptomic profiles of the pericytes isolated at these discrete time points were assessed using flow cytometry and RNA sequencing. Results Ischemia triggered proliferation and migration and upregulated the expression of myogenesis-related transcripts in pericytes. Furthermore, the transcriptomic analysis also revealed that pericytes induce or upregulate the expression of a number of cytokines with effects on endothelial cells, leukocyte chemoattraction, or the activation of inflammatory cells. Conclusions Our findings provide a database that will improve our understanding of skeletal muscle pericyte biology under ischemic conditions, which may be useful for the development of novel pericyte-based cell and gene therapies.


Author(s):  
Ana M. Sotoca ◽  
Michael Weber ◽  
Everardus J. J. van Zoelen

Human mesenchymal stem cells have a high potential in regenerative medicine. They can be isolated from a variety of adult tissues, including bone marrow, and can be differentiated into multiple cell types of the mesodermal lineage, including adipocytes, osteocytes, and chondrocytes. Stem cell differentiation is controlled by a process of interacting lineage-specific and multipotent genes. In this chapter, the authors use full genome microarrays to explore gene expression profiles in the process of Osteo-, Adipo-, and Chondro-Genic lineage commitment of human mesenchymal stem cells.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 881-896 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongxu He ◽  
Aiqin Mao ◽  
Chang-Bo Zheng ◽  
Hao Kan ◽  
Ka Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract The aorta, with ascending, arch, thoracic and abdominal segments, responds to the heartbeat, senses metabolites and distributes blood to all parts of the body. However, the heterogeneity across aortic segments and how metabolic pathologies change it are not known. Here, a total of 216 612 individual cells from the ascending aorta, aortic arch, and thoracic and abdominal segments of mouse aortas under normal conditions or with high blood glucose levels, high dietary salt, or high fat intake were profiled using single-cell RNA sequencing. We generated a compendium of 10 distinct cell types, mainly endothelial (EC), smooth muscle (SMC), stromal and immune cells. The distributions of the different cells and their intercommunication were influenced by the hemodynamic microenvironment across anatomical segments, and the spatial heterogeneity of ECs and SMCs may contribute to differential vascular dilation and constriction that were measured by wire myography. Importantly, the composition of aortic cells, their gene expression profiles and their regulatory intercellular networks broadly changed in response to high fat/salt/glucose conditions. Notably, the abdominal aorta showed the most dramatic changes in cellular composition, particularly involving ECs, fibroblasts and myeloid cells with cardiovascular risk factor-related regulons and gene expression networks. Our study elucidates the nature and range of aortic cell diversity, with implications for the treatment of metabolic pathologies.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daiwei Tang ◽  
Seyoung Park ◽  
Hongyu Zhao

Abstract Motivation A number of computational methods have been proposed recently to profile tumor microenvironment (TME) from bulk RNA data, and they have proved useful for understanding microenvironment differences among therapeutic response groups. However, these methods are not able to account for tumor proportion nor variable mRNA levels across cell types. Results In this article, we propose a Nonnegative Matrix Factorization-based Immune-TUmor MIcroenvironment Deconvolution (NITUMID) framework for TME profiling that addresses these limitations. It is designed to provide robust estimates of tumor and immune cells proportions simultaneously, while accommodating mRNA level differences across cell types. Through comprehensive simulations and real data analyses, we demonstrate that NITUMID not only can accurately estimate tumor fractions and cell types’ mRNA levels, which are currently unavailable in other methods; it also outperforms most existing deconvolution methods in regular cell type profiling accuracy. Moreover, we show that NITUMID can more effectively detect clinical and prognostic signals from gene expression profiles in tumor than other methods. Availability and implementation The algorithm is implemented in R. The source code can be downloaded at https://github.com/tdw1221/NITUMID. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Rex Sumsion ◽  
Michael S. Bradshaw ◽  
Jeremy T. Beales ◽  
Emi Ford ◽  
Griffin R. G. Caryotakis ◽  
...  

2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (18_suppl) ◽  
pp. 10036-10036
Author(s):  
H. G. Hass ◽  
J. Jobst ◽  
O. Nehls ◽  
A. Frilling ◽  
J. T. Hartmann ◽  
...  

10036 Background: Cholangiocarcinomas (CCC) are the second most common primary hepatic malignancy with a still poor prognosis and arise from biliary epithelia or cholangiocytes. Until now, less is known about the molecular pathways leeding to CCC. Methods: Oligonucleotide arrays were used to analyze gene expression profiles of 8 intrahepatic CCCs. After isolation of tRNA and transcription into cDNA, biotin-labelled cRNA probes were hybridized to GeneArrays (Affymetrix U 133A) containing probes of more than 22.000 genes/ESTs. For two-dimensional cluster analysis we used special software programs (Genexplore, GeneSpring). Dysregulated genes were determined by presence in more than 70% and a 2-fold change in relation to the corresponding non-malignant liver tissue. Lightcycler analysis were performed to validate the expression datas of dysregulated genes. Results: A total of 694 dysregulated genes (330 up-/364 down-regulated, compared with corresponding non-malignant tissue) were detected. As the gene with the highest and most consistent upregulation we were able to identify osteopontin (OPN) with an average 5-fold overexpression in all CCC tissues. OPN is an acidic phosphoprotein that is secreted by osteoblasts, macrophages and many other cell types and binds to a variety of cell surface receptors (integrins/CD44). OPN is multifunctional, with activities in cell migration, regulation of bone metabolism, immune cell function and control of tumor cell phenotype. Elevated OPN levels were seen in different tumors but until now no data exist about the expression in CCCs. As one possible interaction in human carcinogenesis, OPN has recently been shown to be a novel substrate for some MMPs, which play an importand role in tumor invasion and metastasis. Conclusions: This is the first report about an overexpression of OPN in CCC and our data indicate an important role in cholangiocarcinogenesis. Further studies are needed to illucidate the moleculargenetic mechanisms of OPN interactions in CCC. No significant financial relationships to disclose.


2005 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 2327-2335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yumiko Hosogi ◽  
Margaret J. Duncan

ABSTRACT Porphyromonas gingivalis, a gram-negative oral anaerobe, is strongly associated with adult periodontitis. The adherence of the organism to host epithelium signals changes in both cell types as bacteria initiate infection and colonization and epithelial cells rally their defenses. We hypothesized that the expression of a defined set of P. gingivalis genes would be consistently up-regulated during infection of HEp-2 human epithelial cells. P. gingivalis genome microarrays were used to compare the gene expression profiles of bacteria that adhered to HEp-2 cells and bacteria that were incubated alone. Genes whose expression was temporally up-regulated included those involved in the oxidative stress response and those encoding heat shock proteins that are essential to maintaining cell viability under adverse conditions. The results suggest that contact with epithelial cells induces in P. gingivalis stress-responsive pathways that promote the survival of the bacterium.


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