NYMC Faculty Publications
DOI
10.1073/pnas.1716016115
Journal Title
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
First Page
613
Last Page
618
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2018
Department
Physiology
Second Department
Cell Biology and Anatomy
Third Department
Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology
Abstract
To elucidate molecular mechanisms responsible for the sexually dimorphic phenotype of soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) expression, we tested the hypothesis that female-specific down-regulation of sEH expression is driven by estrogen-dependent methylation of the Ephx2 gene. Mesenteric arteries isolated from male, female, ovariectomized female (OV), and OV with estrogen replacement (OVE) mice, as well as the human cell line (HEK293T) were used. Methylation-specific PCR and bisulfite genomic sequencing analysis indicate significant increases in DNA/CG methylation in vessels of female and OVE compared with those of male and OV mice. The same increase in CG methylation was also observed in male vessels incubated with a physiological concentration of 17beta-estradiol (17beta-E2) for 48 hours. All vessels that displayed increases in CG methylation were concomitantly associated with decreases in their Ephx2 mRNA and protein, suggesting a methylation-induced gene silencing. Transient transfection assays indicate that the activity of Ephx2 promoter-coding luciferase was significantly attenuated in HEK293T cells treated with 17beta-E2, which was prevented by additional treatment with an estrogen receptor antagonist (ICI). ChIP analysis indicates significantly reduced binding activities of transcription factors (including SP1, AP-1, and NF-kappaB with their binding elements located in the Ephx2 promoter) in vessels of female mice and human cells treated with 17beta-E2, responses that were prevented by ICI and Decitabine (DNA methyltransferase inhibitor), respectively. In conclusion, estrogen/estrogen receptor-dependent methylation of the promoter of Ephx2 gene silences sEH expression, which is involved in specific transcription factor-directed regulatory pathways.
Recommended Citation
Yang, Y., Sun, D., Kandhi, S., Froogh, G., Zhuge, J., Huang, W., Hammock, B., & Huang, A. (2018). Estrogen-Dependent Epigenetic Regulation of Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase via DNA Methylation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115 (3), 613-618. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1716016115
Publisher's Statement
Originally published in PNAS, 115(3), 613-618. The original material can be found here.
