This approach is validated on different types of samples, including formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded pathology tissues, and employed to profile histone H4 modifications in cancer samples and normal tissues, identifying previously reported differences, as well as novel ones.
In the lungs, acrylamide exposure resulted in a decrease of histone H4 lysine 20 trimethylation (H4K20me3), a common epigenetic feature of human cancer, while in the livers, there was increased acetylation of histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27ac), a gene transcription activating mark.
In normal RWPE-1 cells and even stronger in cancer DU145 cells, the combined treatment induced both AR gene expression on the mRNA level and increased histone H4 acetylation in AR gene promoter.
Global profiling of histone changes in some human cancers demonstrated that loss of histone H4 acetylation at lysine16 (H4KA16) and trimethylation at lysine 20 (H4KM20) was a common hallmark of cancer.