The SH2B3 and KCNK5 loci may be implicated in regulation of platelet count, volume, and maturity

Comparative Analysis of Promoters and Enhancers in the Pituitary Glands of the Bama Xiang and Large White Pigs

The epigenetic regulation of gene expression is implicated in complex diseases in humans and various phenotypes in other species. There has been little exploration of regulatory elements in the pig. Here, we performed chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled with high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-Seq) to profile histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) and histone H3 lysine 27 acetylation (H3K27ac) in the pituitary gland of adult Bama Xiang and Large White pigs, which have divergent evolutionary histories and large phenotypic differences. We identified a total of 65,044 non-redundant regulatory regions, including 23,680 H3K4me3 peaks and 61,791 H3K27ac peaks (12,318 proximal and 49,473 distal), augmenting the catalog of pituitary regulatory elements in pigs. We found 793 H3K4me3 and 3,602 H3K27ac peaks that show differential activity between the two breeds, overlapping with genes involved in the Notch signaling pathway, response to growth hormone (GH), thyroid hormone signaling pathway, and immune system, and enriched for binding motifs of transcription factors (TFs), including JunB, ATF3, FRA1, and BATF. We further identified 2,025 non-redundant super enhancers from H3K27ac ChIP-seq data, among which 302 were shared in all samples of cover genes enriched for biological processes related to pituitary function. This study generated a valuable dataset of H3K4me3 and H3K27ac regions in porcine pituitary glands and revealed H3K4me3 and H3K27ac peaks with differential activity between Bama Xiang and Large White pigs.

Novel Approaches to Fine-Tune Therapeutic Targeting of Platelets in Atherosclerosis: A Critical Appraisal

The pathogenesis of atherosclerotic vascular disease is driven by a multitude of risk factors intertwining metabolic and inflammatory pathways. Increasing knowledge about platelet biology sheds light on how platelets take part in these processes from early to later stages of plaque development. Recent insights from experimental studies and mouse models substantiate platelets as initiators and amplifiers in atherogenic leukocyte recruitment. These studies are complemented by results from genetics studies shedding light on novel molecular mechanisms which provide an interesting prospect as novel targets. For instance, experimental studies provide further details how platelet-decorated von Willebrand factor tethered to activated endothelial cells plays a role in atherogenic monocyte recruitment. Novel aspects of platelets as atherogenic inductors of neutrophil extracellular traps and particularities in signaling pathways such as cyclic guanosine monophosphate and the inhibitory adaptor molecule SHB23/LNK associating platelets with atherogenesis are shared. In summary, it was our intention to balance insights from recent experimental data that support a plausible role for platelets in atherogenesis against a paucity of clinical evidence needed to validate this concept in humans.

Myelodysplastic Syndrome/Acute Myeloid Leukemia Arising in Idiopathic Erythrocytosis

The term “idiopathic erythrocytosis (IE)” is applied to those cases where a causal clinical or pathological event cannot be elucidated and likely reflects a spectrum of underlying medical and molecular abnormalities. The clinical course of a patient with IE is described manifesting as a persistent erythrocytosis with a low serum erythropoietin level, mild eosinophilia, and with evidence of a thrombotic event. The patient subsequently developed a myelodysplasic syndrome (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML), an event not observed in erythrocytosis patients other than those with polycythemia vera (PV). Application of a next-generation sequencing (NGS) approach targeted for myeloid malignancies confirmed wild-type JAK2 exons 12–15 and identified a common SH2B3 W262R single-nucleotide polymorphism associated with the development of hematological features of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs). Further NGS analysis detected a CBL L380P mutated clone expanding in parallel with the development of MDS and subsequent AML. Despite the absence of JAK2, MPL exon 10, or CALR exon 9 mutations, a similarity with the disease course of PV/MPN was evident. A clonal link between the erythrocytosis and AML could be neither confirmed nor excluded. Future molecular identification of the mechanisms underlying IE is likely to provide a more refined therapeutic approach.