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

我们发现在胚胎肝干细胞和成体肝细胞之间，一些组蛋白修饰改变了其定位和数量。我们在基因组水平上鉴定了它们的靶基因，证明了抑制性组蛋白标记H3K27me3的绝大多数靶标是互斥的。综合分析发现，H3K27me3抑制了一些代谢相关的功能基因，一些早期发育相关和细胞周期促进基因与肝干细胞组蛋白标记的不同转录激活模式相关。

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.