Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
Cancer Invest. 2011 Oct;29(8):548-56. doi: 10.3109/07357907.2011.597810. Epub 2011 Aug 15.
To investigate whether alterations in histone modifications occur in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), we measured histone H3/ H4 acetylation and H3K4/H3K27 methylation levels, as well as the expression of chromatin modifier genes in tumor and healthy esophageal tissue from ESCC patients. We found evidence of global H3 and H4 hypoacetylation, H3K4 and H3K27 hypermethylation in ESCC tissue. Both H3 hypoacetylation and H3K27 hypermethylation correlated with the severity and histological differentiation of the tumor, and H3K4 hypermethylation also correlated with tumor differentiation. Our results suggest that aberrant histone modifications may play an important role in the development and progression of ESCC.
为了研究组蛋白修饰的改变是否发生在食管鳞状细胞癌（ESCC）中，我们测量了 ESCC 患者肿瘤和健康食管组织中组蛋白 H3/H4 乙酰化和 H3K4/H3K27 甲基化水平，以及染色质修饰基因的表达。我们发现 ESCC 组织中存在全局 H3 和 H4 低乙酰化、H3K4 和 H3K27 高甲基化的证据。H3 低乙酰化和 H3K27 高甲基化与肿瘤的严重程度和组织学分化相关，H3K4 高甲基化也与肿瘤分化相关。我们的结果表明，异常的组蛋白修饰可能在 ESCC 的发生和发展中起重要作用。
