Rudhira/Breast Carcinoma Amplified Sequence 3 (BCAS3) is a cytoskeletal protein that promotes directional cell migration and angiogenesis in vitro and is implicated in human carcinomas and coronary artery disease. To study the role of Rudhira during development in vivo, we generated the first knockout mouse for rudhira and show that Rudhira is essential for mouse development. Rudhira null embryos die at embryonic day (E) 9.5 accompanied by severe vascular patterning defects in embryonic and extra-embryonic tissues. To identify the molecular processes downstream of rudhira, we analyzed the transcriptome of intact knockout yolk sacs. Genome-wide transcriptome analysis showed that Rudhira functions in angiogenesis and its related processes such as cell adhesion, extracellular matrix organization, peptidase activity and TGFβ signaling. Since Rudhira is also expressed in endothelial cells (ECs), we further generated Tie2Cre-mediated endothelial knockout (CKO) of rudhira. CKO embryos survive to E11.5 and similar to the global knockout, display gross vascular patterning defects, showing that endothelial Rudhira is vital for development. Further, Rudhira knockdown ECs in culture fail to sprout in a spheroid-sprouting assay, strongly supporting its role in vascular patterning. Our study identifies an essential role for Rudhira in blood vessel remodeling and provides a mouse model for cardiovascular development.

Cancer metabolism adapts the metabolic network of its tissue-of-origin. However, breast cancer is not a disease of a singular origin. Multiple epithelial populations serve as the culprit cell-of-origin for specific breast cancer subtypes, yet knowledge surrounding the metabolic network of normal mammary epithelial cells is limited. Here, we show that mammary populations have cell type-specific metabolic programs. Primary human breast cell proteomes of basal, luminal progenitor, and mature luminal populations revealed their unique enrichment of metabolic proteins. Luminal progenitors had higher abundance of electron transport chain subunits and capacity for oxidative phosphorylation, whereas basal cells were more glycolytic. Targeting oxidative phosphorylation and glycolysis with inhibitors exposed distinct metabolic vulnerabilities of the mammary lineages.Computational analysis indicated that breast cancer subtypes retain metabolic features of their putative cell-of-origin. Lineage-restricted metabolic identities of normal mammary cells partly explain breast cancer metabolic heterogeneity and rationalize targeting subtype-specific metabolic vulnerabilities to advance breast cancer therapy..

A serious shortcoming in the derivation of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines has been the availability of human embryos. About 60% of human embryos generated by in vitro fertilization (IVF) fail to develop normally and are unusable for fertility treatment. Such embryos often retain sufficient pluripotent cells that can generate genetically normal, pluripotent hESC lines with stable phenotype. We describe here a simple protocol for isolating pluripotent stem cells from abnormally developed grade III human embryos that are an unutilized byproduct of in vitro fertility treatment. Embryos that progress to the blastocyst stage are subjected to immunosurgery or mechanical surgery to isolate the inner cell mass (ICM). Isolated cells are plated on to fibroblast feeders in hESC derivation media. Pluripotent cells that grow from the ICM are isolated mechanically and cultured to obtain a stable hESC line. In this way, we derived two sibling hESC lines BJNhem19 and BJNhem20 that represent the Indian ethnic background and show stable phenotype upon long-term continuous culture of over 225 passages.

Bone marrow (BM) is the primary site of hematopoiesis and is responsible for a lifelong supply of all blood cell lineages. The process of hematopoiesis follows key intrinsic programs that also integrate instructive signals from the BM niche. First identified as an erythropoietin potentiating factor, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP) protein family has expanded to 4 members and has widely come to be viewed as a classical regulator of tissue homeostasis. By virtue of metalloprotease inhibition, TIMPs not only regulate extracellular matrix turnover but also control growth factor bioavailability. The four mammalian TIMPs possess overlapping enzyme inhibition profiles and have never been studied for their cumulative role in hematopoiesis. Here, we show that TIMPs are critical for post-natal B lymphopoiesis in the BM. TIMP-deficient mice have defective B-cell development arising at the pro-B cell stage. Expression analysis of TIMPless hematopoietic cell subsets pointed to an altered B-cell program in the Lineage−c-Kit+Sca-1+ cell (LSK) fraction. Serial and competitive BM transplants identified a defect in TIMP- deficient HSPCs for B lymphopoiesis. In parallel, reverse BM transplants uncovered the extrinsic role of stromal TIMPs in pro- and pre-B cell development. TIMP-deficiency disrupted CXCL12 localization to LepR+ cells, and increased soluble CXCL12 within the BM niche. It also compromised the number and morphology of LepR+ cells. These data provide new evidence that TIMPs control the cellular and biochemical makeup of the BM niche along with influencing the LSK transcriptional program required for optimal B-lymphopoiesis.