Open AccessSuper-enhancer Acquisition Drives FOXC2 Expression in Middle Ear Cholesteatoma
Author(s) -
Tomomi YamamotoFukuda,
Naotaro Akiyama,
Hiromi Kojima
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of the association for research in otolaryngology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.498
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1525-3961
pISSN - 1438-7573
DOI - 10.1007/s10162-021-00801-7
Subject(s) - enhancer , histone , cholesteatoma , acetylation , biology , histone h3 , chromatin immunoprecipitation , chromatin , epigenetics , cancer research , regulation of gene expression , chromatin remodeling , microbiology and biotechnology , gene expression , genetics , gene , medicine , promoter , radiology
Distinct histone modifications regulate gene expression in certain diseases, but little is known about histone epigenetics in middle ear cholesteatoma. It is known that histone acetylation destabilizes the nucleosome and chromatin structure and induces gene activation. The association of histone acetylation with chronic inflammatory diseases has been indicated in recent studies. In this study, we examined the localization of variously modified histone H3 acetylation at lysine 9, 14, 18, 23, and 27 in paraffin-embedded sections of human middle ear cholesteatoma (cholesteatoma) tissues and the temporal bones of an animal model of cholesteatoma immunohistochemically. As a result, we found that there was a significant increase of the expression levels of H3K27ac both in human cholesteatoma tissues and the animal model. In genetics, super-enhancers are clusters of enhancers that drive the transcription of genes involved in cell identity. Super-enhancers were originally defined using the H3K27ac signal, and then we used H3K27ac chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing to map the active cis-regulatory landscape in human cholesteatoma. Based on the results, we identified increased H3K27ac signals as super-enhancers of the FOXC2 loci, as well as increased protein of FOXC2 in cholesteatoma. Recent studies have indicated that menin-MLL inhibitor could suppress tumor growth through the control of histone H3 modification. In this study, we demonstrated that the expression of FOXC2 was inhibited by menin-MLL inhibitor in vivo. These findings indicate that FOXC2 expression under histone modifications promoted the pathogenesis of cholesteatoma and suggest that it may be a therapeutic target of cholesteatoma.