Browsing by Author "Kama, Asavela Olona"

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    Differential Gene Expression Analysis of PMA Treated Pro-monocytic Cell Lines
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Kama, Asavela Olona; Meyer, Vanessa; Gentle, Nikki
    HL-60, THP-1, and U937 are model cell lines that can undergo myeloid differentiation in vitro, allowing the study of myeloid cell function in drug metabolism, cytotoxicity, and the aetiology of infections. However, the differentiated end-state of these cells is not well characterised. Moreover, cell line-specific differences in the level of gene expression may confound results obtained from such studies. The aim of this study was thus to compare changes in gene expression between HL-60, THP-1, and U937 cells in response to the differentiation agent, phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), 48 hours after treatment. Gene expression profiles were compared across all three cell lines prior to and post-PMA treatment. Differential gene expression analysis between treated and untreated cells was performed using DESeq2 (v 4.2). Gene over-representation analysis was performed using cluster Profiler (v 4.0). HL-60, THP-1, and U937 cells had similar expression profiles prior to PMA treatment, but different sets of genes were significantly differentially expressed in these cell lines 48 h after treatment with PMA. A total of 475 genes were consistently differentially expressed across all cell lines. These genes were found to be involved in phagosome formation and cell cycle transition. HL-60, THP-1, and U937 cells had 944, 1231, and 624 uniquely differentially expressed genes, respectively. These genes were predominantly involved in energy metabolism and pathogen recognition. Overall, THP-1 cells showed greater potential to detect viruses, while U937 cells showed greater potential to detect bacteria. From this, it can be concluded that while all three cell lines did indeed undergo myeloid differentiation, the macrophage-like cell state produced in each case differed between cell lines.