Gene expression profile of Sox2 and Nestin both were regulated by histone deacetylase in C17.2 neural stem cells

Abstract

Histone deacetylation is a key modulator involved in proliferation, apoptosis and mRNA transcription . However, the effects of histone deacetylation in C17.2 neural stem cells (NSCs) are still not fully understood. In this study, C17.2 NSCs were used to evaluate the effects of nicotinamide and trichostatin A (TSA) on the transcription of several important genes. Here, we confirmed that the mRNA expression of sox1, sox2, p53 and bax in E14.5 NSCs were significantly higher than in C17.2 NSCs. There was no difference between E14.5 and C17.2 NSCs in the transcription of nestin. The transcription levels of p53 and nestin were significantly higher in C17.2 NSCs than in cerebral cortex, hippocampus, cerebellar cortex and olfactory bulb. The expression levels of sox1, sox2 and bax were upregulated in olfactory bulb as compared to the other three brain tissues. To further assess the effects of histone deacetylation in C17.2 NSCs, we used two histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors, nicotinamide and TSA, to explore the differential changes in the expression of genes. The results indicated that the mRNA transcription of sox2, p53, nestin and bax was generally downregulated after exposure to nicotinamide and TSA, but the difference was statistically significant only for sox2 and nestin. In addition, there was no transcription of sox1. Thus our studies demonstration that C17.2 NSCs have different mRNA expression profiles compared to E14.5 NSCs and adult mouse brain tissues. Furthermore, HDAC inhibitors nicotinamide and TSA regulate gene expression through different histone acetylation.