Analysis of hepatic stem cell specific histone modifications as a basis for identification of molecular targets to block hepatic carcinogenesis

我们发现了一些组蛋白修饰，改变了其在胚胎肝干细胞和成年肝细胞之间的定位和数量。我们在基因组水平上鉴定了他们的靶基因，证明了抑制性组蛋白标记H3K27me3的绝大多数靶基因是相互排斥的。综合分析表明，一些参与代谢的功能基因被H3K27me3抑制，一些早期发育相关和促进细胞周期的基因与肝干细胞中明显的组蛋白标志物的转录激活模式相关。

We found some histone modifications that change its localization and amount between embryonic hepatic stem cells and adult hepatocytes. We identified their target genes at genomic level, demonstrating vast majority of the targets of a repressive histone mark, H3K27me3, are mutually exclusive. An integrated analysis revealed that some functional genes involved in metabolisms were repressed by H3K27me3 and that some early development-related and cell cycle-promoting genes were associated with distinct transcription activating pattern of the histone marks in the hepatic stem cells.