Poster #030
Senescence in Prenatal Trisomy 21 Human Small Intestine
Mentors: Denise Al Alam, PhD and Najibe Abou Antoun, MS; PI: Denise Al Alam, PhD
Trisomy 21(T21) is the most common chromosomal anomaly. Individuals with T21 experience gastrointestinal issues and accelerated aging traits. Recent studies showed increased cellular senescence in T21 human developing lungs, but no research was done within the prenatal T21 human small intestine. Senescence markers were analyzed at the gene and protein levels in Four pairs of T21 and non-T21 prenatal T21 human SI tissue and organoids and compared to same age non-T21samples. RT-qPCR results showed increased levels of senescence marker CDKN1A within T21 tissues. Immunofluorescent staining of gH2AX, DNA damage marker, shows higher expression in T21 tissue. Interestingly, organoids demonstrated opposite results suggesting that they require micro-environmental factors to accurately represent the SI features. Prenatal T21 human small intestine shows a trend of higher senescence markers expression.