Sugiyama Kei-Ichi, Grúz Petr, Sato Kaoru, Honma Masamitsu
Division of Genome Safety Science, National Institute of Health Sciences, Japan.
Division of Pharmacology, National Institute of Health Sciences, Japan.
Biochem Biophys Rep. 2025 Jun 3;43:102070. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrep.2025.102070. eCollection 2025 Sep.
Carminic acid, which is an anthracene derivative, is a dye used as a food additive. Although anthracene is considered not to be epigenetic modifier, some anthracene derivatives affect yeast flocculation that is under the epigenetic regulation. FLO assay can detect the expression of gene that mediates the flocculation phenotype influenced by epigenetic regulation. FLO reporter assays showed that 5-20 μM carminic acid induced the promoter in wild type yeast as well as in the yeast transformed with human DNA methyltransferase genes, in the absence of rat liver homogenates. Furthermore, in mouse embryonic stem cell line EB3, carminic acid decreased the expression of which is also under epigenetic regulation, and induced slight morphological changes. These results suggest that carminic acid, but not its metabolites, has the potential to alter the epigenetic state of the genome.
胭脂红酸是一种蒽衍生物，是用作食品添加剂的一种染料。尽管蒽被认为不是表观遗传修饰剂，但一些蒽衍生物会影响处于表观遗传调控下的酵母絮凝。FLO检测可以检测受表观遗传调控影响的介导絮凝表型的基因的表达。FLO报告基因检测表明，在没有大鼠肝脏匀浆的情况下，5-20μM的胭脂红酸在野生型酵母以及用人DNA甲基转移酶基因转化的酵母中诱导了启动子。此外，在小鼠胚胎干细胞系EB3中，胭脂红酸降低了同样处于表观遗传调控下的的表达，并诱导了轻微的形态变化。这些结果表明，胭脂红酸而非其代谢产物具有改变基因组表观遗传状态的潜力。
