PLX077074

GSE87748: An electrical pulse stimulation protocol to study acute epigenetic response to muscle cell contraction uncovers acute hydroxymethylation of the exercise-responsive gene Nr4a3 [RNA-Seq]

• Organsim human
• Type RNASEQ
• Target gene
• Project ARCHS4

Physical exercise triggers numerous positive adaptations through the regulation of genes controlling muscle structure and function. Epigenetic factors like DNA methylation participate in transcriptional activation by allowing the recruitment of the transcription machinery to gene promoters. Exercise induces dynamic DNA demethylation at gene promoters, but the contribution of the demethylation precursor hydroxymethylcytosine is unknown. Given the evanescent nature of hydroxymethylcytosine, a model of muscle contraction amenable to collection of repeated and acute time series is requested to determine if contraction-induced demethylation is preceded by increased hydroxymethylcytosine levels. Here, we aimed to establish an acute skeletal muscle contraction model that could, at least partly, mimic the effect of acute exercise on gene expression, in order to investigate the effect of muscle contraction in DNA demethylation and hydroxymethylation. We refined an Electrical Pulse Stimulation (EPS) protocol in C2C12 myotubes that we benchmarked to the nuclear receptor subfamily 4 group A member 3 (Nr4a3) gene, a gene selected for having the highest increase in expression in response to acute exercise in humans. Using targeted bisulfite sequencing, we found that a region of the Nr4a3 promoter is rapidly demethylated 60 minutes after EPS and subsequently re-methylated after 120 minutes. Of interest, hydroxymethylation of the differentially methylated region of Nr4a3 promoter after EPS was elevated at 0 minutes and reached lowest levels at 60 minutes after EPS. We established a cell culture-based protocol to mimic acute transcriptional responses to exercise and provide insight into the mechanism by which exercise-responsive genes are demethylated after muscle contraction SOURCE: Lars,Roed,Ingerslev (ingerslev@sund.ku.dk) - Integrative Physiology Copenhagen University