👤 Francesca Rappa

Obesity has a major socio-economic health impact. There are profound sex differences in adipose tissue deposition and obesity-related conditions. The underlying mechanisms driving sexual dimorphism in obesity and its associated metabolic disorders remain unclear. Histone variant macroH2A1.1 is a candidate epigenetic mechanism linking environmental and dietary factors to obesity. Here, we used a mouse model genetically depleted of macroH2A1.1 to investigate its potential epigenetic role in sex dimorphic obesity, metabolic disturbances and gut dysbiosis. Whole body macroH2A1 knockout (KO) mice, generated with the Cre/loxP technology, and their control littermates were fed a high fat diet containing 60% of energy derived from fat. The diet was administered for three months starting from 10 to 12 weeks of age. We evaluated the progression in body weight, the food intake, and the tolerance to glucose by means of a glucose tolerance test. Gut microbiota composition, visceral adipose and liver tissue morphology were assessed. In addition, adipogenic gene expression patterns were evaluated in the visceral adipose tissue. Female KO mice for macroH2A1.1 had a more pronounced weight gain induced by high fat diet compared to their littermates, while the increase in body weight in male mice was similar in the two genotypes. Food intake was generally increased upon KO and decreased by high fat diet in both sexes, with the exception of KO females fed a high fat diet that displayed the same food intake of their littermates. In glucose tolerance tests, glucose levels were significantly elevated upon high fat diet in female KO compared to a standard diet, while this effect was absent in male KO. There were no differences in hepatic histology. Upon a high fat diet, in female adipocyte cross-sectional area was larger in KO compared to littermates: activation of proadipogenic genes (ACACB, AGT, ANGPT2, FASN, RETN, SLC2A4) and downregulation of antiadipogenic genes (AXIN1, E2F1, EGR2, JUN, SIRT1, SIRT2, UCP1, CCND1, CDKN1A, CDKN1B, EGR2) was detected. Gut microbiota profiling showed increase in Firmicutes and a decrease in Bacteroidetes in females, but not males, macroH2A1.1 KO mice. MacroH2A1.1 KO mice display sexual dimorphism in high fat diet-induced obesity and in gut dysbiosis, and may represent a useful model to investigate epigenetic and metabolic differences associated to the development of obesity-associated pathological conditions in males and females. Show less

(1) Background: The development of laryngeal cancer is a multistep process involving structural alterations of the epithelial mucosa, from dysplasia (LDy) to invasive carcinoma. In this study, we define new biomarkers, prognostic for malignant transformation, in patients affected by LDy. (2) Methods: We used targeted next-generation sequencing and immunohistochemical analysis to define the mutational and immunological landscape of 15 laryngeal dysplasia progressing to invasive cancer (progressing dysplasia), as well as 31 cases of laryngeal dysplasia that did not progress to carcinoma (non-progressing dysplasia). Two pathologists independently analyzed the presence of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in LDy pre-embedded paraffin-fixed specimens. The RNA-based next-generation sequencing panel OIRRA was used to evaluate the expression of 395 genes related to immune system activation. (3) Results: High TILs are significantly correlated with a higher risk of malignant transformation. The non-brisk pattern was significantly associated with an 86% reduced risk of malignant progression (OR = 0.16, 95% CI: 0.03-0.5, Show less