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377 Publications visible to you, out of a total of 377

Abstract (Expand)

COVID-19 poses a major challenge to individuals and societies around the world. Yet, it is difficult to obtain a good overview of studies across different medical fields of research such as clinical trials, epidemiology, and public health. Here, we describe a consensus metadata model to facilitate structured searches of COVID-19 studies and resources along with its implementation in three linked complementary web-based platforms. A relational database serves as central study metadata hub that secures compatibilities with common trials registries (e.g. ICTRP and standards like HL7 FHIR, CDISC ODM, and DataCite). The Central Search Hub was developed as a single-page application, the other two components with additional frontends are based on the SEEK platform and MICA, respectively. These platforms have different features concerning cohort browsing, item browsing, and access to documents and other study resources to meet divergent user needs. By this we want to promote transparent and harmonized COVID-19 research.

Authors: C. O. Schmidt, J. Darms, A. Shutsko, M. Lobe, R. Nagrani, B. Seifert, B. Lindstadt, M. Golebiewski, S. Koleva, T. Bender, C. R. Bauer, U. Sax, X. Hu, M. Lieser, V. Junker, S. Klopfenstein, A. Zeleke, D. Waltemath, I. Pigeot, J. Fluck

Date Published: 27th May 2021

Publication Type: Journal

Abstract (Expand)

The FAIRDOMHub is a repository for publishing FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) Data, Operating procedures and Models (https://fairdomhub.org/) for the Systems Biology community. It is a web-accessible repository for storing and sharing systems biology research assets. It enables researchers to organize, share and publish data, models and protocols, interlink them in the context of the systems biology investigations that produced them, and to interrogate them via API interfaces. By using the FAIRDOMHub, researchers can achieve more effective exchange with geographically distributed collaborators during projects, ensure results are sustained and preserved and generate reproducible publications that adhere to the FAIR guiding principles of data stewardship.

Authors: K. Wolstencroft, O. Krebs, J. L. Snoep, N. J. Stanford, F. Bacall, M. Golebiewski, R. Kuzyakiv, Q. Nguyen, S. Owen, S. Soiland-Reyes, J. Straszewski, D. D. van Niekerk, A. R. Williams, L. Malmstrom, B. Rinn, W. Muller, C. Goble

Date Published: 3rd Dec 2016

Publication Type: Not specified

Abstract (Expand)

The FAIRDOMHub is a repository for publishing FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) Data, Operating procedures and Models (https://fairdomhub.org/) for the Systems Biology community. It is a web-accessible repository for storing and sharing systems biology research assets. It enables researchers to organize, share and publish data, models and protocols, interlink them in the context of the systems biology investigations that produced them, and to interrogate them via API interfaces. By using the FAIRDOMHub, researchers can achieve more effective exchange with geographically distributed collaborators during projects, ensure results are sustained and preserved and generate reproducible publications that adhere to the FAIR guiding principles of data stewardship.

Authors: K. Wolstencroft, O. Krebs, J. L. Snoep, N. J. Stanford, F. Bacall, M. Golebiewski, R. Kuzyakiv, Q. Nguyen, S. Owen, S. Soiland-Reyes, J. Straszewski, D. D. van Niekerk, A. R. Williams, L. Malmstrom, B. Rinn, W. Muller, C. Goble

Date Published: 4th Jan 2017

Publication Type: Journal

Abstract (Expand)

The prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), recently also re-defined as metabolic dysfunction associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD), is rapidly increasing, affecting ~25% of the world population. MALFD/NAFLD represents a spectrum of liver pathologies including the more benign hepatic steatosis and the more advanced non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). NASH is associated with enhanced risk for liver fibrosis and progression to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatic stellate cells (HSC) activation underlies NASH-related fibrosis. Here, we discuss the profibrogenic pathways, which lead to HSC activation and fibrogenesis, with a particular focus on the intercellular hepatocyte-HSC and macrophage-HSC crosstalk.

Authors: P. Subramanian, J. Hampe, F. Tacke, T. Chavakis

Date Published: 23rd Jun 2022

Publication Type: Journal

Abstract (Expand)

Motivation Biological tissues are dynamic and highly organized. Multi-scale models are helpful tools to analyze and understand the processes determining tissue dynamics. These models usually depend on parameters that need to be inferred from experimental data to achieve a quantitative understanding, to predict the response to perturbations, and to evaluate competing hypotheses. However, even advanced inference approaches such as Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) are difficult to apply due to the computational complexity of the simulation of multi-scale models. Thus, there is a need for a scalable pipeline for modeling, simulating, and parameterizing multi-scale models of multi-cellular processes. Results Here, we present FitMultiCell, a computationally efficient and user-friendly open-source pipeline that can handle the full workflow of modeling, simulating, and parameterizing for multi-scale models of multi-cellular processes. The pipeline is modular and integrates the modeling and simulation tool Morpheus and the statistical inference tool pyABC. The easy integration of high-performance infrastructure allows to scale to computationally expensive problems. The introduction of a novel standard for the formulation of parameter inference problems for multi-scale models additionally ensures reproducibility and reusability. By applying the pipeline to multiple biological problems, we demonstrate its broad applicability, which will benefit in particular image-based systems biology. Availability FitMultiCell is available open-source at https://gitlab.com/fitmulticell/fit Supplementary data are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7646287

Authors: Emad Alamoudi, Yannik Schälte, Robert Müller, Jörn Starruß, Nils Bundgaard, Frederik Graw, Lutz Brusch, Jan Hasenauer

Date Published: 21st Feb 2023

Publication Type: Misc

Abstract (Expand)

MOTIVATION: Biological tissues are dynamic and highly organized. Multi-scale models are helpful tools to analyse and understand the processes determining tissue dynamics. These models usually depend on parameters that need to be inferred from experimental data to achieve a quantitative understanding, to predict the response to perturbations, and to evaluate competing hypotheses. However, even advanced inference approaches such as approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) are difficult to apply due to the computational complexity of the simulation of multi-scale models. Thus, there is a need for a scalable pipeline for modeling, simulating, and parameterizing multi-scale models of multi-cellular processes. RESULTS: Here, we present FitMultiCell, a computationally efficient and user-friendly open-source pipeline that can handle the full workflow of modeling, simulating, and parameterizing for multi-scale models of multi-cellular processes. The pipeline is modular and integrates the modeling and simulation tool Morpheus and the statistical inference tool pyABC. The easy integration of high-performance infrastructure allows to scale to computationally expensive problems. The introduction of a novel standard for the formulation of parameter inference problems for multi-scale models additionally ensures reproducibility and reusability. By applying the pipeline to multiple biological problems, we demonstrate its broad applicability, which will benefit in particular image-based systems biology. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: FitMultiCell is available open-source at https://gitlab.com/fitmulticell/fit.

Authors: E. Alamoudi, Y. Schalte, R. Muller, J. Starruss, N. Bundgaard, F. Graw, L. Brusch, J. Hasenauer

Date Published: 1st Nov 2023

Publication Type: Journal

Abstract (Expand)

BACKGROUND: Automated image analysis enables quantitative measurement of steatosis in histological images. However, spatial heterogeneity of steatosis can make quantitative steatosis scores unreliable. To improve the reliability, we have developed novel scores that are "focused" on steatotic tissue areas. METHODS: Focused scores use concepts of tile-based hotspot analysis in order to compute statistics about steatotic tissue areas in an objective way. We evaluated focused scores on three data sets of images of rodent liver sections exhibiting different amounts of dietary-induced steatosis. The same evaluation was conducted with the standard steatosis score computed by most image analysis methods. RESULTS: The standard score reliably discriminated large differences in steatosis (intraclass correlation coefficient ICC = 0.86), but failed to discriminate small (ICC = 0.54) and very small (ICC = 0.14) differences. With an appropriate tile size, mean-based focused scores reliably discriminated large (ICC = 0.92), small (ICC = 0.86) and very small (ICC = 0.83) differences. Focused scores based on high percentiles showed promise in further improving the discrimination of very small differences (ICC = 0.93). CONCLUSIONS: Focused scores enable reliable discrimination of small differences in steatosis in histological images. They are conceptually simple and straightforward to use in research studies.

Authors: A. Homeyer, S. Hammad, L. O. Schwen, U. Dahmen, H. Hofener, Y. Gao, S. Dooley, A. Schenk

Date Published: 20th Sep 2018

Publication Type: Not specified

Abstract

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Authors: Tao Lin, Shanshan Wang, Stefan Munker, Kyounghwa Jung, Ricardo U. Macías‐Rodríguez, Astrid Ruiz‐Margáin, Robert Schierwagen, Hui Liu, Chen Shao, Chunlei Fan, Rilu Feng, Xiaodong Yuan, Sai Wang, Franziska Wandrer, Christoph Meyer, Ralf Wimmer, Roman Liebe, Jens Kroll, Long Zhang, Tobias Schiergens, Peter ten Dijke, Andreas Teufel, Alexander Marx, Peter R. Mertens, Hua Wang, Matthias P.A. Ebert, Heike Bantel, Enrico De Toni, Jonel Trebicka, Steven Dooley, Donghun Shin, Huiguo Ding, Hong‐Lei Weng

Date Published: 1st Feb 2022

Publication Type: Journal

Abstract

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Authors: Sai Wang, Rilu Feng, Shanshan Wang, Hui Liu, Chen Shao, Yujia Li, Link Frederik, Stefan Munker, Roman Liebe, Christoph Meyer, Elke Burgermeister, Matthias Ebert, Steven Dooley, Huiguo Ding, Honglei Weng

Date Published: 2022

Publication Type: Journal

Abstract (Expand)

Objective Multidrug resistance protein 2 (MRP2) is a bottleneck in bilirubin excretion. Its loss is sufficient to induce hyperbilirubinaemia, a prevailing characteristic of acute liver failure (ALF) characteristic of acute liver failure (ALF) that is closely associated with clinical outcome. This study scrutinises the transcriptional regulation of MRP2 under different pathophysiological conditions. Design Hepatic MRP2, farnesoid X receptor (FXR) and Forkhead box A2 (FOXA2) expression and clinicopathologic associations were examined by immunohistochemistry in 14 patients with cirrhosis and 22 patients with ALF. MRP2 regulatory mechanisms were investigated in primary hepatocytes, Fxr −/− mice and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated mice. Results Physiologically, homeostatic MRP2 transcription is mediated by the nuclear receptor FXR/retinoid X receptor complex. Fxr −/− mice lack apical MRP2 expression and rapidly progress into hyperbilirubinaemia. In patients with ALF, hepatic FXR expression is undetectable, however, patients without infection maintain apical MRP2 expression and do not suffer from hyperbilirubinaemia. These patients express FOXA2 in hepatocytes. FOXA2 upregulates MRP2 transcription through binding to its promoter. Physiologically, nuclear FOXA2 translocation is inhibited by insulin. In ALF, high levels of glucagon and tumour necrosis factor α induce FOXA2 expression and nuclear translocation in hepatocytes. Impressively, ALF patients with sepsis express low levels of FOXA2, lose MRP2 expression and develop severe hyperbilirubinaemia. In this case, LPS inhibits FXR expression, induces FOXA2 nuclear exclusion and thus abrogates the compensatory MRP2 upregulation. In both Fxr −/− and LPS-treated mice, ectopic FOXA2 expression restored apical MRP2 expression and normalised serum bilirubin levels. Conclusion FOXA2 replaces FXR to maintain MRP2 expression in ALF without sepsis. Ectopic FOXA2 expression to maintain MRP2 represents a potential strategy to prevent hyperbilirubinaemia in septic ALF.

Authors: Sai Wang, Rilu Feng, Shan Shan Wang, Hui Liu, Chen Shao, Yujia Li, Frederik Link, Stefan Munker, Roman Liebe, Christoph Meyer, Elke Burgermeister, Matthias Ebert, Steven Dooley, Huiguo Ding, Honglei Weng

Date Published: 20th Apr 2022

Publication Type: Journal

Abstract (Expand)

In this work, we introduce an entirely data-driven and automated approach to reveal disease-associated biomarker and risk factor networks from heterogeneous and high-dimensional healthcare data. Our workflow is based on Bayesian networks, which are a popular tool for analyzing the interplay of biomarkers. Usually, data require extensive manual preprocessing and dimension reduction to allow for effective learning of Bayesian networks. For heterogeneous data, this preprocessing is hard to automatize and typically requires domain-specific prior knowledge. We here combine Bayesian network learning with hierarchical variable clustering in order to detect groups of similar features and learn interactions between them entirely automated. We present an optimization algorithm for the adaptive refinement of such group Bayesian networks to account for a specific target variable, like a disease. The combination of Bayesian networks, clustering, and refinement yields low-dimensional but disease-specific interaction networks. These networks provide easily interpretable, yet accurate models of biomarker interdependencies. We test our method extensively on simulated data, as well as on data from the Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP-TREND), and demonstrate its effectiveness using non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and hypertension as examples. We show that the group network models outperform available biomarker scores, while at the same time, they provide an easily interpretable interaction network.

Authors: A. K. Becker, M. Dorr, S. B. Felix, F. Frost, H. J. Grabe, M. M. Lerch, M. Nauck, U. Volker, H. Volzke, L. Kaderali

Date Published: 13th Feb 2021

Publication Type: Journal

Abstract (Expand)

The purpose of this study was to analyze full-field-of-view maps of renal shear wave speed (SWS) measured by time-harmonic elastography (THE) in healthy volunteers in terms of reproducibility, regional variation and physiologic effects. The kidneys of 37 healthy volunteers were investigated by multifrequency THE. The complete renal parenchyma, as well as cortex and medulla, was analyzed. A subgroup was investigated to test reproducibility (n = 3). Significant differences between SWS in cortex, medulla and full parenchyma were observed (2.10 +/- 0.17, 1.35 +/- 0.11 and 1.71 +/- 0.16 m/s, all p values < 0.001) with mean intra-volunteer standard deviations of repeated measurements of 0.04 m/s (1.6%), 0.06 m/s (4.0%) and 0.08 m/s (4.5%), respectively. No effects of kidney anatomy, age, body mass index, blood pressure and heart rate on SWS were observed. THE allows generation of full-field-of-view SWS maps of native kidneys with high reproducibility.

Authors: S. R. Marticorena Garcia, M. Grossmann, S. T. Lang, M. Nguyen Trong, M. Schultz, J. Guo, B. Hamm, J. Braun, I. Sack, H. Tzschatzsch

Date Published: 27th Feb 2018

Publication Type: Not specified

Abstract (Expand)

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Zone-dependent differences in the expression of metabolic enzymes along the porto-central axis of the acinus are a long-known feature of liver metabolism. A prominent example is the preferential localization of the enzyme glutamine synthetase in pericentral hepatocytes, where it converts potentially toxic ammonia to the valuable amino acid glutamine. However, with the exception of a few key regulatory enzymes, a comprehensive and quantitative assessment of zonal differences in the abundance of metabolic enzymes and much more importantly, an estimation of the associated functional differences between portal and central hepatocytes is missing thus far. APPROACH & RESULTS: We addressed this problem by establishing a new method for the separation of periportal and pericentral hepatocytes that yields sufficiently pure fractions of both cell populations. Quantitative shotgun proteomics identified hundreds of differentially expressed enzymes in the two cell populations. We used zone-specific proteomics data for scaling of the maximal activities to generate portal and central instantiations of a comprehensive kinetic model of central hepatic metabolism (Hepatokin1). CONCLUSION: The model simulations revealed significant portal-to-central differences in almost all metabolic pathways involving carbohydrates, fatty acids, amino acids and detoxification.

Authors: N. Berndt, E. Kolbe, R. Gajowski, J. Eckstein, F. Ott, D. Meierhofer, H. G. Holzhutter, M. Matz-Soja

Date Published: 14th Apr 2020

Publication Type: Not specified

Abstract (Expand)

Exploring the cell biology of hepatocytes in vitro could be a powerful strategy to dissect the molecular mechanisms underlying the structure and function of the liver in vivo. However, this approach relies on appropriate in vitro cell culture systems that can recapitulate the cell biological and metabolic features of the hepatocytes in the liver whilst being accessible to experimental manipulations. Here, we adapted protocols for high-resolution fluorescence microscopy and quantitative image analysis to compare two primary hepatocyte culture systems, monolayer and collagen sandwich, with respect to the distribution of two distinct populations of early endosomes (APPL1 and EEA1-positive), endocytic capacity, metabolic and signaling activities. In addition to the re-acquisition of hepatocellular polarity, primary hepatocytes grown in collagen sandwich but not in monolayer culture recapitulated the apico-basal distribution of EEA1 endosomes observed in liver tissue. We found that such distribution correlated with the organization of the actin cytoskeleton in vitro and, surprisingly, was dependent on the nutritional state in vivo. Hepatocytes in collagen sandwich also exhibited faster kinetics of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) internalization, showed improved insulin sensitivity and preserved their ability for glucose production, compared to hepatocytes in monolayer cultures. Although no in vitro culture system can reproduce the exquisite structural features of liver tissue, our data nevertheless highlight the ability of the collagen sandwich system to recapitulate key structural and functional properties of the hepatocytes in the liver and, therefore, support the usage of this system to study aspects of hepatocellular biology in vitro.

Authors: A. Zeigerer, A. Wuttke, G. Marsico, S. Seifert, Y. Kalaidzidis, M. Zerial

Date Published: 1st Dec 2016

Publication Type: Not specified

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