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Polychlorinated biphenyls affect histone modification pattern in early development of rats: a role for androgen
Lavinia Casati1, Ramon Sendra, Alessandra Colciago
1Department of Endocrinology, Pathophysiology & Applied Biology, INBB Research Unit, University of Milano, Milano, Italy. lavinia.casati@unimi.it
Background:
The epigenome represents an important target of environmental pollution. Early-life exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) modifies sex steroid enzymes and receptor transcription patterns. Steroid receptors, such as androgen receptor (AR), function as coregulators of histone modification enzymes.
Aim:
To clarify if a PCB early-life exposure might affect the epigenome in rat liver, we analyzed some histone post-translational modifications (H3K4me3 and H4K16Ac) and the corresponding histone remodeling enzymes, and the AR as a histone enzyme coregulator.
Results:
We observed a decrease of H4K16Ac and H3K4me3 levels, possibly linked to the induction of chromatin-modifying enzymes SirtT1 and Jarid1b, and a decrease of AR. PCBs also seem to induce AR transcriptional activity. Some of the observed effects are sex dimorphic.
Conclusion:
Our data suggest that an early-life exposure to PCB sometimes modifies the epigenome in the offspring liver in a dimorphic way. AR might be involved in modulating PCB effects on the epigenome.
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