@article {332, title = {Prospective Study Reveals Host Microbial Determinants of Clinical Response to Fecal Microbiota Transplant Therapy in Type 2 Diabetes Patients.}, journal = {Front Cell Infect Microbiol}, volume = {12}, year = {2022}, month = {2022}, pages = {820367}, abstract = {

Background: Increasing evidence shows that alterations in gut microbiome (GM) contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) successfully treats various human diseases. However, the benefits of FMT therapy to T2DM patients remain unknown.

Methods: We enrolled 17 patients with T2DM for nonblinded, one-armed intervention trial of FMT. A total of 20 healthy individuals were recruited as the baseline control. HbA1c\% and metabolic parameter change were evaluated in 17 T2DM patients 12 weeks after they received FMT from healthy donors. The GM composition was characterized by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing from fecal samples prior to and 12 weeks after FMT treatment.

Results: We found that the GM of T2DM patients was reconstituted by FMT. We observed a statistically significant decrease in HbA1c\% (from 7.565 {\textpm} 0.148 to 7.190 {\textpm} 0.210, p\<0.01), blood glucose (from 8.483 {\textpm} 0.497 to 7.286 {\textpm} 0.454 mmol/L, p\<0.01), and uric acid (from 309.4 {\textpm} 21.5 to 259.1 {\textpm} 15.8 {\textmu}mol/L, p\<0.01) while a significant increase in postprandial C-peptide (from 4.503 {\textpm} 0.600 to 5.471 {\textpm} 0.728 ng/ml, p\<0.01) at 12 weeks after FMT. Closely evaluating the changes in these assays, we found individual variability in response to FMT treatment. Out of 17 T2DM patients, 11 were found to significantly improve T2DM symptoms. The FMT responders have significantly higher levels of the family and the genus (family ) in their pretreated fecal in comparison to nonresponders, which could predict the clinical response with an area under the curve of 0.83.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that certain T2DM patients can potentially benefit from FMT, and the pretreated abundance of and in the fecal of patients may serve as potential biomarkers for selecting T2DM patients to receive FMT.

}, keywords = {Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Fecal Microbiota Transplantation, Feces, Glycated Hemoglobin A, Humans, Prospective Studies, RNA, Ribosomal, 16S, Treatment Outcome}, issn = {2235-2988}, doi = {10.3389/fcimb.2022.820367}, author = {Ding, Dafa and Yong, Huijuan and You, Na and Lu, Wei and Yang, Xu and Ye, Xiaolong and Wang, Yayun and Cai, Tingting and Zheng, Xiaoling and Chen, Hui and Cui, Bota and Zhang, Faming and Liu, Xingyin and Mao, Jian-Hua and Lu, Yibing and Chang, Hang} } @article {330, title = {Contribution of trace element exposure to gestational diabetes mellitus through disturbing the gut microbiome.}, journal = {Environ Int}, volume = {153}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 08}, pages = {106520}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: A healthy gut microbiome is critical for glucose metabolism during pregnancy. In vivo studies indicate that trace element affects the composition and function of the gut microbiome and potentially leads to metabolic disorders but their relationships are largely unknown. We aimed to investigate whether the gut microbiome plays a role in the relationship between trace element exposure and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).

METHODS: In a prospective cohort study, serum levels of 22 trace elements and the fecal gut microbiome composition were assessed in 837 pregnant women in the second trimester between 22 and 24\ weeks of pregnancy prior to GDM diagnosis. Regression and mediation analysis were used to explore the link between element exposure, the gut microbiome, and GDM.

RESULTS: 128 pregnant women (15.3\%) were diagnosed with GDM. No individual trace elements were found significantly associated with GDM. In contrast, the composition of the gut microbiome was dramatically altered in women later diagnosed with GDM and characterized by lower alpha diversity and lower abundance of co-abundance groups (CAGs) composed of genera belonging to Ruminococcaceae, Coriobacteriales, and Lachnospiraceae. Rubidium (Rb) was positively associated with alpha diversity indices while mercury (Hg) and vanadium (V) showed negative associations. Elements including rubidium (Rb), thallium (Tl), arsenic (As), and antimony (Sb) were significantly correlated with GDM-related CAGs and mediation analysis revealed that Rb and Sb were inversely related to GDM risk by altering abundance levels of CAGs enriched for Lachnospiraceae, Coriobacteriales, and Ruminococcaceae.

CONCLUSION: Our study indicates that trace element exposure is associated with specific gut microbiome features that may contribute to GDM development, which could provide a new avenue for intervening in environmental exposure-related GDM.

}, keywords = {Diabetes, Gestational, Feces, Female, Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Humans, Pregnancy, Prospective Studies, Trace Elements}, issn = {1873-6750}, doi = {10.1016/j.envint.2021.106520}, author = {Zhang, Yuqing and Chen, Ting and Zhang, Yiyun and Hu, Qi and Wang, Xu and Chang, Hang and Mao, Jian-Hua and Snijders, Antoine M and Xia, Yankai} } @article {327, title = {Development and Validation of an Unsupervised Feature Learning System for Leukocyte Characterization and Classification: A Multi-Hospital Study}, volume = {129}, year = {2021}, month = {2021/06/01}, pages = {1837 - 1856}, abstract = {

The characterization and classification of white blood cells (WBC) are critical for the diagnosis of anemia, leukemia, and many other hematologic diseases. We developed WBC-Profiler, an unsupervised feature learning system for quantitative analysis of leukocytes. We demonstrate, through independent validation, that WBC-Profiler enables automatic extraction of complex and robust signatures from microscopic images without human-intervention and, thereafter, effective construction of interpretable leukocyte profiles, which decouples large scale complex leukocyte characterization from limitations in both human-based feature engineering/optimization and the end-to-end solutions provided by many modern deep neural networks. Further evaluation in a real-world clinical setting confirms that, compared with 23 clinicians from 8 hospitals (class-average-sensitivity, 0.798; class-average-specificity, 0.963; cell-average-timecost: 3.158\  s), WBC-Profiler performs with significantly improved accuracy and speed (class-average-sensitivity, 0.890; class-average-specificity, 0.980; cell-average-timecost: 0.375\  s). Our findings suggest that WBC-Profiler has the potential clinical implications.

}, isbn = {1573-1405}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s11263-021-01449-9}, author = {Yan, Hong and Mao, Xuanyu and Yang, Xu and Xia, Yongquan and Wang, Chengbin and Wang, Junjun and Xia, Rui and Xu, Xuejing and Wang, Zhiqiang and Li, Zhiyang and Zhao, Xie and Li, Yan and Liu, Guoye and He, Li and Wang, Zhongyu and Wang, Zhiqiong and Li, Zhiqiang and Cai, Weidong and Shen, Han and Chang, Hang} } @article {331, title = {Distinct Clinical Impact and Biological Function of Angiopoietin and Angiopoietin-like Proteins in Human Breast Cancer.}, journal = {Cells}, volume = {10}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 09 29}, abstract = {

Secreted angiopoietin/angiopoietin-like (/) proteins are involved in many biological processes. However, the role of these proteins in human breast cancers (BCs) remains largely unclear. Here, we conducted integrated omics analyses to evaluate the clinical impact of / proteins and to elucidate their biological functions. In BCs, we identified rare mutations in / genes, frequent gains of , , and , and frequent losses of , , and , but observed that , , and were robustly downregulated in multiple datasets. The expression levels of , , and were positively correlated with overall survival (OS), while the expression levels of were negatively correlated with OS. Additionally, the expression levels of and were positively correlated with distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), while the expression levels of and were negatively correlated with DMFS. The prognostic impacts of / genes depended on the molecular subtypes and on clinical factors. We discovered that various / genes were co-expressed with various genes involved in different pathways. Finally, with the exception of , the remaining genes showed significant correlations with cancer-associated fibroblasts, endothelial cells, and microenvironment score, whereas only was significantly correlated with immune score. Our findings provide strong evidence for the distinct clinical impact and biological function of / proteins, but the question of whether some of them could be potential therapeutic targets still needs further investigation in BCs.

}, keywords = {Angiopoietin-like Proteins, Angiopoietins, Breast Neoplasms, Female, Humans, Prognosis}, issn = {2073-4409}, doi = {10.3390/cells10102590}, author = {Yang, Hui and Zhang, Melody and Mao, Xuan-Yu and Chang, Hang and Perez-Losada, Jesus and Mao, Jian-Hua} } @article {324, title = {Gut microbiome partially mediates and coordinates the effects of genetics on anxiety-like behavior in Collaborative Cross mice.}, journal = {Sci Rep}, volume = {11}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 01 11}, pages = {270}, abstract = {

Growing evidence suggests that the gut microbiome (GM) plays a critical role in health and disease. However, the contribution of GM to psychiatric disorders, especially anxiety, remains unclear. We used the Collaborative Cross (CC) mouse population-based model to identify anxiety associated host genetic and GM factors. Anxiety-like behavior of 445 mice across 30 CC strains was measured using the light/dark box assay and documented by video. A custom tracking system was developed to quantify seven anxiety-related phenotypes based on video. Mice were assigned to a low or high anxiety group by consensus clustering using seven anxiety-related phenotypes. Genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) identified 141 genes (264 SNPs) significantly enriched for anxiety and depression related functions. In the same CC cohort, we measured GM composition and identified five families that differ between high and low anxiety mice. Anxiety level was predicted with 79\% accuracy and an AUC of 0.81. Mediation analyses revealed that the genetic contribution to anxiety was partially mediated by the GM.\ Our findings indicate that GM partially mediates and coordinates the effects of genetics on anxiety.

}, keywords = {Animals, Anxiety, Behavior, Animal, Collaborative Cross Mice, Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Mice}, issn = {2045-2322}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-020-79538-x}, author = {Jin, X and Zhang, Y and Celniker, S E and Xia, Y and Mao, J-H and Snijders, A M and Chang, Hang} } @article {325, title = {Host genetics and gut microbiota cooperatively contribute to azoxymethane-induced acute toxicity in Collaborative Cross mice.}, journal = {Arch Toxicol}, volume = {95}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 03}, pages = {949-958}, abstract = {

Azoxymethane (AOM) is a widely used carcinogen to study chemical-induced colorectal carcinogenesis and is an agent for studying fulminant hepatic failure. The inter-strain susceptibility to acute toxicity by AOM has been reported, but its association with host genetics or gut microbiota remains largely unexplored. Here a cohort of genetically diverse Collaborative Cross (CC) mice was used to assess the contribution of host genetics and the gut microbiome to AOM-induced acute toxicity. We observed variation in AOM-induced acute liver failure across CC strains. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis revealed three chromosome regions significantly associated with AOM toxicity. Genes located within these QTL, including peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (Ppara), were enriched for enzyme activator and nucleoside-triphosphatase regulator activity. We further demonstrated that the protein level of PPARα in liver tissues from sensitive strains was remarkably lower compared to levels in resistant strains, consistent with protective role of PPAR family in liver injury. We discovered that the abundance levels of gut microbial families Anaeroplasmataceae, Ruminococcaceae, Lactobacillaceae, Akkermansiaceae and Clostridiaceae were significantly higher in the sensitive strains\ compared to the resistant strains. Using a random forest classifier method, we determined that the relative abundance levels of these microbial families predicted AOM toxicity with the area under the receiver-operating curve (AUC) of 0.75. Combining the three genetic loci and five microbial families increased the predictive accuracy of AOM toxicity (AUC of 0.99). Moreover, we found that Ruminococcaceae and Lactobacillaceae acted as mediators between host genetics and AOM toxicity. In conclusion, this study shows that host genetics and specific microbiome members play a critical role in AOM-induced acute toxicity, which provides a framework for analysis of the health effects from environmental toxicants.

}, keywords = {Animals, Azoxymethane, Carcinogens, Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury, Collaborative Cross Mice, Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Liver Failure, Acute, Male, Mice, Quantitative Trait Loci, Species Specificity}, issn = {1432-0738}, doi = {10.1007/s00204-021-02972-x}, author = {Zhong, Chenhan and He, Li and Lee, Sun-Young and Chang, Hang and Zhang, Yuqing and Threadgill, David W and Yuan, Ying and Zhou, Fuling and Celniker, Susan E and Xia, Yankai and Snijders, Antoine M and Mao, Jian-Hua} } @article {328, title = {Thirdhand cigarette smoke leads to age-dependent and persistent alterations in the cecal microbiome of mice.}, journal = {Microbiologyopen}, volume = {10}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 06}, pages = {e1198}, abstract = {

The gut microbiome composition is influenced by many factors including environmental exposures. Here, we investigated the effect of thirdhand cigarette smoke (THS) and exposure age on gut microbiome diversity. C57BL/6 mice were exposed to THS at human exposure relevant levels for three weeks during three different life stages: postnatal (0-3\ weeks of age), pubescent (4-7\ weeks of age), and adult (9-12\ weeks of age), respectively. Cecal microbiome profiles were assessed at 17\ weeks of age by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. We found that age at THS exposure strongly influenced the cecal microbiome composition. Although postnatal THS exposure significantly influenced the microbial composition, pubescent and adulthood exposures only had minor effects. The microbiome of postnatally THS-exposed mice significantly increased several degradation pathways that regulate glycolysis and pyruvate decarboxylation, and significantly decreased coenzyme A biosynthesis and pyrimidine deoxyribonucleoside salvage. Our results indicate that mouse postnatal development is particularly susceptible to persistent THS exposure effects on the gut microbiome.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Animals, Bacteria, Cecum, Environmental Exposure, Female, Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Humans, Male, Mice, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Smoke, Tobacco, Tobacco Smoke Pollution}, issn = {2045-8827}, doi = {10.1002/mbo3.1198}, author = {He, Li and Zhou, Yan-Xia and Zhang, Yuqing and Hang, Bo and Chang, Hang and Schick, Suzaynn F and Celniker, Susan E and Xia, Yankai and Snijders, Antoine M and Mao, Jian-Hua} } @article {309, title = {Genetic and metabolic links between the murine microbiome and memory.}, journal = {Microbiome}, volume = {8}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 04 17}, pages = {53}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Recent evidence has linked the gut microbiome to host behavior via the gut-brain axis [1-3]; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unexplored. Here, we determined the links between host genetics, the gut microbiome and memory using the genetically defined Collaborative Cross (CC) mouse cohort, complemented with microbiome and metabolomic analyses in conventional and germ-free (GF) mice.

RESULTS: A genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) identified 715 of 76,080 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that were significantly associated with short-term memory using the passive avoidance model. The identified SNPs were enriched in genes known to be involved in learning and memory functions. By 16S rRNA gene sequencing of the gut microbial community in the same CC cohort, we identified specific microorganisms that were significantly correlated with longer latencies in our retention test, including a positive correlation with Lactobacillus. Inoculation of GF mice with individual species of Lactobacillus (L. reuteri F275, L. plantarum BDGP2 or L. brevis BDGP6) resulted in significantly improved memory compared to uninoculated or E. coli DH10B inoculated controls. Untargeted metabolomics analysis revealed significantly higher levels of several metabolites, including lactate, in the stools of Lactobacillus-colonized mice, when compared to GF control mice. Moreover, we demonstrate that dietary lactate treatment alone boosted memory in conventional mice. Mechanistically, we show that both inoculation with Lactobacillus or lactate treatment significantly increased the levels of the neurotransmitter, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), in the hippocampus of the mice.

CONCLUSION: Together, this study provides new evidence for a link between Lactobacillus and memory and our results open possible new avenues for treating memory impairment disorders using specific gut microbial inoculants and/or metabolites. Video Abstract.

}, issn = {2049-2618}, doi = {10.1186/s40168-020-00817-w}, author = {Mao, Jian-Hua and Kim, Young-Mo and Zhou, Yan-Xia and Hu, Dehong and Zhong, Chenhan and Hang Chang and Brislawn, Colin J and Fansler, Sarah and Langley, Sasha and Wang, Yunshan and Peisl, B Y Loulou and Celniker, Susan E and Threadgill, David W and Wilmes, Paul and Orr, Galya and Metz, Thomas O and Jansson, Janet K and Snijders, Antoine M} } @article {322, title = {Identification of a novel 15-gene expression signature predicting overall survival of human colorectal cancer.}, journal = {Clin Transl Med}, volume = {10}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Dec}, pages = {e258}, issn = {2001-1326}, doi = {10.1002/ctm2.258}, author = {Jiang, Chengfei and Zhao, Yue and Yuan, Binbin and Chang, Hang and Hang, Bo and Snijders, Antoine M and Mao, Jian-Hua and Zou, Xiaoping and Wang, Pin} } @article {310, title = {Match Feature U-Net: Dynamic Receptive Field Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation}, journal = {Symmetry}, volume = {12}, year = {2020}, pages = {1230}, abstract = {

Medical image segmentation is a fundamental task in medical image analysis. Dynamic receptive field is very helpful for accurate medical image segmentation, which needs to be further studied and utilized. In this paper, we propose Match Feature U-Net, a novel, symmetric encoder{\textendash} decoder architecture with dynamic receptive field for medical image segmentation. We modify the Selective Kernel convolution (a module proposed in Selective Kernel Networks) by inserting a newly proposed Match operation, which makes similar features in different convolution branches have corresponding positions, and then we replace the U-Net{\textquoteright}s convolution with the redesigned Selective Kernel convolution. This network is a combination of U-Net and improved Selective Kernel convolution. It inherits the advantages of simple structure and low parameter complexity of U-Net, and enhances the efficiency of dynamic receptive field in Selective Kernel convolution, making it an ideal model for medical image segmentation tasks which often have small training data and large changes in targets size. Compared with state-of-the-art segmentation methods, the number of parameters in Match Feature U-Net (2.65 M) is 34\% of U-Net (7.76 M), 29\% of UNet++ (9.04 M), and 9.1\% of CE-Net (29 M). We evaluated the proposed architecture in four medical image segmentation tasks: nuclei segmentation in microscopy images, breast cancer cell segmentation, gland segmentation in colon histology images, and disc/cup segmentation. Our experimental results show that Match Feature U-Net achieves an average Mean Intersection over Union (MIoU) gain of 1.8, 1.45, and 2.82 points over U-Net, UNet++, and CE-Net, respectively.

}, issn = {2073-8994}, doi = {10.3390/sym12081230}, url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2073-8994/12/8/1230}, author = {Qin, Xiaofei and Wu, Chengzi and Hang Chang and Lu, Hao and Zhang, Xuedian} } @article {308, title = {Thirdhand smoke: Genotoxicity and carcinogenic potential.}, journal = {Chronic Dis Transl Med}, volume = {6}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Mar}, pages = {27-34}, abstract = {

Thirdhand smoke (THS), the residual tobacco smoke remaining in the environment after tobacco has been smoked, represents a hidden and underestimated public health hazard. Evidence supports its widespread presence in indoor environments. Exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS), a precursor of THS, has been well documented as a risk factor for human cancers, especially lung cancer. However, the concept of THS as a distinct entity that poses health risks for small children has developed only recently and the associations of THS with cancer risk and other chronic diseases are poorly understood due to limited numbers of studies to date. In this perspective, we mainly summarize all published studies on the genotoxicity and carcinogenic potential of THS exposure. These studies begin to fill the knowledge gap in our understanding of cancer risk of THS. Accumulating data from existing and future studies will help reduce the tobacco-related cancer incidence through changes in lifestyle and tobacco control policies.

}, issn = {2589-0514}, doi = {10.1016/j.cdtm.2019.08.002}, author = {Hang, Bo and Wang, Pin and Zhao, Yue and Hang Chang and Mao, Jian-Hua and Snijders, Antoine M} } @article {302, title = {Unsupervised Transfer Learning via Multi-Scale Convolutional Sparse Coding for Biomedical Applications.}, journal = {IEEE Trans Pattern Anal Mach Intell}, volume = {40}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 May}, pages = {1182-1194}, abstract = {

The capabilities of (I) learning transferable knowledge across domains; and (II) fine-tuning the pre-learned base knowledge towards tasks with considerably smaller data scale are extremely important. Many of the existing transfer learning techniques are supervised approaches, among which deep learning has the demonstrated power of learning domain transferrable knowledge with large scale network trained on massive amounts of labeled data. However, in many biomedical tasks, both the data and the corresponding label can be very limited, where the unsupervised transfer learning capability is urgently needed. In this paper, we proposed a novel multi-scale convolutional sparse coding (MSCSC) method, that (I) automatically learns filter banks at different scales in a joint fashion with enforced scale-specificity of learned patterns; and (II) provides an unsupervised solution for learning transferable base knowledge and fine-tuning it towards target tasks. Extensive experimental evaluation of MSCSC demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed MSCSC in both regular and transfer learning tasks in various biomedical domains.

}, issn = {1939-3539}, doi = {10.1109/TPAMI.2017.2656884}, author = {Hang Chang and Han, Ju and Zhong, Cheng and Snijders, Antoine M and Mao, Jian-Hua} } @article {303, title = {When machine vision meets histology: A comparative evaluation of model architecture for classification of histology sections.}, journal = {Med Image Anal}, volume = {35}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 01}, pages = {530-543}, abstract = {

Classification of histology sections in large cohorts, in terms of distinct regions of microanatomy (e.g., stromal) and histopathology (e.g., tumor, necrosis), enables the quantification of tumor composition, and the construction of predictive models of genomics and clinical outcome. To tackle the large technical variations and biological heterogeneities, which are intrinsic in large cohorts, emerging systems utilize either prior knowledge from pathologists or unsupervised feature learning for invariant representation of the underlying properties in the data. However, to a large degree, the architecture for tissue histology classification remains unexplored and requires urgent systematical investigation. This paper is the first attempt to provide insights into three fundamental questions in tissue histology classification: I. Is unsupervised feature learning preferable to human engineered features? II. Does cellular saliency help? III. Does the sparse feature encoder contribute to recognition? We show that (a) in I, both Cellular Morphometric Feature and features from unsupervised feature learning lead to superior performance when compared to SIFT and [Color, Texture]; (b) in II, cellular saliency incorporation impairs the performance for systems built upon pixel-/patch-level features; and (c) in III, the effect of the sparse feature encoder is correlated with the robustness of features, and the performance can be consistently improved by the multi-stage extension of systems built upon both Cellular Morphmetric Feature and features from unsupervised feature learning. These insights are validated with two cohorts of Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) and Kidney Clear Cell Carcinoma (KIRC).

}, keywords = {Color, Histological Techniques, Humans, Pattern Recognition, Automated, Unsupervised Machine Learning}, issn = {1361-8423}, doi = {10.1016/j.media.2016.08.010}, author = {Zhong, Cheng and Han, Ju and Borowsky, Alexander and Parvin, Bahram and Wang, Yunfu and Hang Chang} } @article {242, title = {When machine vision meets histology: A comparative evaluation of model architecture for classification of histology sections.}, journal = {Med Image Anal}, volume = {35}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Sep 9}, pages = {530-543}, abstract = {

Classification of histology sections in large cohorts, in terms of distinct regions of microanatomy (e.g., stromal) and histopathology (e.g., tumor, necrosis), enables the quantification of tumor composition, and the construction of predictive models of genomics and clinical outcome. To tackle the large technical variations and biological heterogeneities, which are intrinsic in large cohorts, emerging systems utilize either prior knowledge from pathologists or unsupervised feature learning for invariant representation of the underlying properties in the data. However, to a large degree, the architecture for tissue histology classification remains unexplored and requires urgent systematical investigation. This paper is the first attempt to provide insights into three fundamental questions in tissue histology classification: I. Is unsupervised feature learning preferable to human engineered features? II. Does cellular saliency help? III. Does the sparse feature encoder contribute to recognition? We show that (a) in I, both Cellular Morphometric Feature and features from unsupervised feature learning lead to superior performance when compared to SIFT and [Color, Texture]; (b) in II, cellular saliency incorporation impairs the performance for systems built upon pixel-/patch-level features; and (c) in III, the effect of the sparse feature encoder is correlated with the robustness of features, and the performance can be consistently improved by the multi-stage extension of systems built upon both Cellular Morphmetric Feature and features from unsupervised feature learning. These insights are validated with two cohorts of Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) and Kidney Clear Cell Carcinoma (KIRC).

}, issn = {1361-8423}, doi = {10.1016/j.media.2016.08.010}, author = {Zhong, Cheng and Han, Ju and Borowsky, Alexander and Parvin, Bahram and Wang, Yunfu and Hang Chang} } @article {90, title = {Methods for delineating cellular regions and classifying regions of histopathology and microanatomy}, number = {US 14/493,208}, year = {2015}, url = {http://www.google.com/patents/US20150110381}, author = {Parvin, B. and Hang Chang and Zhou, Y.} } @conference {24, title = {Nuclei segmentation via sparsity constrained convolutional regression}, booktitle = {12th {IEEE} International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging, {ISBI} 2015, Brooklyn, NY, USA, April 16-19, 2015}, year = {2015}, doi = {10.1109/ISBI.2015.7164109}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ISBI.2015.7164109}, author = {Yin Zhou and Hang Chang and Kenneth E. Barner and Bahram Parvin} } @article {19, title = {Stacked Predictive Sparse Decomposition for Classification of Histology Sections}, journal = {International Journal of Computer Vision}, volume = {113}, year = {2015}, pages = {3{\textendash}18}, doi = {10.1007/s11263-014-0790-9}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11263-014-0790-9}, author = {Hang Chang and Yin Zhou and Alexander Borowsky and Kenneth E. Barner and Paul T. Spellman and Bahram Parvin} } @conference {25, title = {Classification of Histology Sections via Multispectral Convolutional Sparse Coding}, booktitle = {2014 {IEEE} Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, {CVPR} 2014, Columbus, OH, USA, June 23-28, 2014}, year = {2014}, doi = {10.1109/CVPR.2014.394}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/CVPR.2014.394}, author = {Yin Zhou and Hang Chang and Kenneth E. Barner and Paul T. Spellman and Bahram Parvin} } @article {76, title = {Stress signaling from human mammary epithelial cells contributes to phenotypes of mammographic density}, journal = {Cancer Res}, volume = {74}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Sep 15}, pages = {5032-44}, abstract = {

Telomere malfunction and other types of DNA damage induce an activin A-dependent stress response in mortal nontumorigenic human mammary epithelial cells that subsequently induces desmoplastic-like phenotypes in neighboring fibroblasts. Some characteristics of this fibroblast/stromal response, such as reduced adipocytes and increased extracellular matrix content, are observed not only in tumor tissues but also in disease-free breast tissues at high risk for developing cancer, especially high mammographic density tissues. We found that these phenotypes are induced by repression of the fatty acid translocase CD36, which is seen in desmoplastic and disease-free high mammographic density tissues. In this study, we show that epithelial cells from high mammographic density tissues have more DNA damage signaling, shorter telomeres, increased activin A secretion and an altered DNA damage response compared with epithelial cells from low mammographic density tissues. Strikingly, both telomere malfunction and activin A expression in epithelial cells can repress CD36 expression in adjacent fibroblasts. These results provide new insights into how high mammographic density arises and why it is associated with breast cancer risk, with implications for the definition of novel invention targets (e.g., activin A and CD36) to prevent breast cancer.

}, keywords = {Antigens, Breast Neoplasms, CD36, DNA Damage, Epithelial Cells, Female, Human, Humans, Mammary Glands, Phenotype, Signal Transduction}, issn = {1538-7445}, doi = {10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-13-3390}, author = {DeFilippis, Rosa Anna and Fordyce, Colleen and Patten, Kelley and Hang Chang and Zhao, Jianxin and Fontenay, Gerald V and Kerlikowske, Karla and Parvin, Bahram and Tlsty, Thea D} } @article {205, title = {FAM83D promotes cell proliferation and motility by downregulating tumor suppressor gene FBXW7.}, journal = {Oncotarget}, volume = {4}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Dec}, pages = {2476-86}, abstract = {

Amplification of chromosome 20q is frequently found in various types of human cancers, including breast cancer. The list of candidate oncogenes in 20q has expanded over the past decade. Here, we investigate whether FAM83D (family with sequence similarity 83, member D) on chromosome 20q plays any role in breast cancer development. The expression level of FAM83D is significantly elevated in breast cancer cell lines and primary human breast cancers. High expression levels of FAM83D are significantly associated with poor clinical outcome and distant metastasis in breast cancer patients. We show that ectopic expression of FAM83D in human mammary epithelial cells promotes cell proliferation, migration and invasion along with epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Ablation of FAM83D in breast cancer cells induces apoptosis and consequently inhibits cell proliferation and colony formation. Mechanistic studies reveal that overexpression of FAM83D downregulates FBXW7 expression levels through a physical interaction, which results in elevated protein levels of oncogenic substrates downstream to FBXW7, such as mTOR, whose inhibition by rapamycin can suppress FAM83D-induced cell migration and invasion. The results demonstrate that FAM83D has prognostic value for breast cancer patients and is a novel oncogene in breast cancer development that at least in part acts through mTOR hyper-activation by inhibiting FBXW7.

}, keywords = {Apoptosis, Breast Neoplasms, Cell Cycle Proteins, Cell Growth Processes, Cell Line, Chromosomal Proteins, Down-Regulation, Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition, F-Box Proteins, Genes, Humans, Microtubule-Associated Proteins, Non-Histone, Prognosis, Transfection, Tumor, Tumor Suppressor, Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases}, issn = {1949-2553}, doi = {10.18632/oncotarget.1581}, author = {Wang, Zeran and Liu, Yueyong and Zhang, Pengju and Zhang, Weiguo and Wang, Weijing and Curr, Kenneth and Wei, Guangwei and Jiang-Hua Mao} } @conference {28, title = {Stacked Predictive Sparse Coding for Classification of Distinct Regions in Tumor Histopathology}, booktitle = {{IEEE} International Conference on Computer Vision, {ICCV} 2013, Sydney, Australia, December 1-8, 2013}, year = {2013}, doi = {10.1109/ICCV.2013.28}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICCV.2013.28}, author = {Hang Chang and Yin Zhou and Paul T. Spellman and Bahram Parvin} } @article {82, title = {CD36 repression activates a multicellular stromal program shared by high mammographic density and tumor tissues}, journal = {Cancer Discov}, volume = {2}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Sep}, pages = {826-39}, abstract = {

UNLABELLED: Although high mammographic density is considered one of the strongest risk factors for invasive breast cancer, the genes involved in modulating this clinical feature are unknown. Tissues of high mammographic density share key histologic features with stromal components within malignant lesions of tumor tissues, specifically low adipocyte and high extracellular matrix (ECM) content. We show that CD36, a transmembrane receptor that coordinately modulates multiple protumorigenic phenotypes, including adipocyte differentiation, angiogenesis, cell-ECM interactions, and immune signaling, is greatly repressed in multiple cell types of disease-free stroma associated with high mammographic density and tumor stroma. Using both in vitro and in vivo assays, we show that CD36 repression is necessary and sufficient to recapitulate the above-mentioned phenotypes observed in high mammographic density and tumor tissues. Consistent with a functional role for this coordinated program in tumorigenesis, we observe that clinical outcomes are strongly associated with CD36 expression.

SIGNIFICANCE: CD36 simultaneously controls adipocyte content and matrix accumulation and is coordinately repressed in multiple cell types within tumor and high mammographic density stroma, suggesting that activation of this stromal program is an early event in tumorigenesis. Levels of CD36 and extent of mammographic density are both modifiable factors that provide potential for intervention.

}, keywords = {Adipocytes, Animals, Antigens, Breast Neoplasms, CD36, Cell Differentiation, Female, Humans, Knockout, Mammography, Mice, Risk Factors, Signal Transduction, Stromal Cells}, issn = {2159-8290}, doi = {10.1158/2159-8290.CD-12-0107}, author = {DeFilippis, Rosa Anna and Hang Chang and Dumont, Nancy and Rabban, Joseph T and Chen, Yunn-Yi and Fontenay, Gerald V and Berman, Hal K and Gauthier, Mona L and Zhao, Jianxin and Hu, Donglei and Marx, James J and Tjoe, Judy A and Ziv, Elad and Febbraio, Maria and Kerlikowske, Karla and Parvin, Bahram and Tlsty, Thea D} } @article {83, title = {Identification of fluorescent compounds with non-specific binding property via high throughput live cell microscopy}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {7}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {e28802}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: Compounds exhibiting low non-specific intracellular binding or non-stickiness are concomitant with rapid clearing and in high demand for live-cell imaging assays because they allow for intracellular receptor localization with a high signal/noise ratio. The non-stickiness property is particularly important for imaging intracellular receptors due to the equilibria involved.

METHOD: Three mammalian cell lines with diverse genetic backgrounds were used to screen a combinatorial fluorescence library via high throughput live cell microscopy for potential ligands with high in- and out-flux properties. The binding properties of ligands identified from the first screen were subsequently validated on plant root hair. A correlative analysis was then performed between each ligand and its corresponding physiochemical and structural properties.

RESULTS: The non-stickiness property of each ligand was quantified as a function of the temporal uptake and retention on a cell-by-cell basis. Our data shows that (i) mammalian systems can serve as a pre-screening tool for complex plant species that are not amenable to high-throughput imaging; (ii) retention and spatial localization of chemical compounds vary within and between each cell line; and (iii) the structural similarities of compounds can infer their non-specific binding properties.

CONCLUSION: We have validated a protocol for identifying chemical compounds with non-specific binding properties that is testable across diverse species. Further analysis reveals an overlap between the non-stickiness property and the structural similarity of compounds. The net result is a more robust screening assay for identifying desirable ligands that can be used to monitor intracellular localization. Several new applications of the screening protocol and results are also presented.

}, keywords = {Animals, Arabidopsis, Cell Line, Cell Survival, Combinatorial Chemistry Techniques, Fluorescent Dyes, Humans, Ligands, Mice, Microscopy, Small Molecule Libraries}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0028802}, author = {Nath, Sangeeta and Spencer, Virginia A and Ju Han and Hang Chang and Zhang, Kai and Fontenay, Gerald V and Anderson, Charles and Hyman, Joel M and Nilsen-Hamilton, Marit and Chang, Young-Tae and Parvin, Bahram} } @conference {36, title = {Comparison of sparse coding and kernel methods for histopathological classification of gliobastoma multiforme}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 8th {IEEE} International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: From Nano to Macro, {ISBI} 2011, March 30 - April 2, 2011, Chicago, Illinois, {USA}}, year = {2011}, doi = {10.1109/ISBI.2011.5872505}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ISBI.2011.5872505}, author = {Ju Han and Hang Chang and Leandro A. Loss and Kai Zhang and Frederick L. Baehner and Joe W. Gray and Paul T. Spellman and Bahram Parvin} } @article {177, title = {Radiation acts on the microenvironment to affect breast carcinogenesis by distinct mechanisms that decrease cancer latency and affect tumor type.}, journal = {Cancer Cell}, volume = {19}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 May 17}, pages = {640-51}, abstract = {

Tissue microenvironment is an important determinant of carcinogenesis. We demonstrate that ionizing radiation, a known carcinogen, affects cancer frequency and characteristics by acting on the microenvironment. Using a mammary chimera model in which an irradiated host is transplanted with oncogenic Trp53 null epithelium, we show accelerated development of aggressive tumors whose molecular signatures were distinct from tumors arising in nonirradiated hosts. Molecular and genetic approaches show that TGFβ mediated tumor acceleration. Tumor molecular signatures implicated TGFβ, and genetically reducing TGFβ abrogated the effect on latency. Surprisingly, tumors from irradiated hosts were predominantly estrogen receptor negative. This effect was TGFβ independent and linked to mammary stem cell activity. Thus, the irradiated microenvironment affects latency and clinically relevant features of cancer through distinct and unexpected mechanisms.

}, keywords = {Animal, Animals, Breast Neoplasms, Cell Transformation, Dose-Response Relationship, Epithelial Cells, Estrogen, Female, Gene Expression Profiling, Gene Expression Regulation, Gene Regulatory Networks, Inbred BALB C, Knockout, Mammary Glands, Mice, Neoplasms, Neoplastic, Radiation, Radiation Chimera, Radiation-Induced, Reaction Time, Receptors, Time Factors, Transforming Growth Factor beta1, Tumor Burden, Tumor Microenvironment, Tumor Suppressor Protein p53, Whole-Body Irradiation}, issn = {1878-3686}, doi = {10.1016/j.ccr.2011.03.011}, author = {Nguyen, David H and Oketch-Rabah, Hellen A and Illa-Bochaca, Irineu and Geyer, Felipe C and Reis-Filho, Jorge S and Jiang-Hua Mao and Ravani, Shraddha A and Zavadil, Jiri and Borowsky, Alexander D and Jerry, D Joseph and Dunphy, Karen A and Seo, Jae Hong and Haslam, Sandra and Medina, Daniel and Barcellos-Hoff, Mary Helen} }