Heterochromatin Protects Retinal Pigment Epithelium Cells
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Heterochromatin protects retinal pigment epithelium PNAS PLUS cells from oxidative damage by silencing p53 target genes Lili Gonga,1,2, Fangyuan Liua,1, Zhen Xionga,1, Ruili Qia,1, Zhongwen Luoa,1, Xiaodong Gonga, Qian Niea,b, Qian Suna, Yun-Fei Liua, Wenjie Qinga,b, Ling Wanga,b,c, Lan Zhanga, Xiangcheng Tanga, Shan Huanga, Gen Lia, Hong Ouyanga, Mengqing Xianga,d,e, Quan Dong Nguyenf, Yizhi Liua,2, and David Wan-Cheng Lia,b,c,2 aState Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510060 Guangdong, China; bKey Laboratory of Protein Chemistry and Developmental Biology, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081 Hunan, China; cTruhlsen Eye Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198; dCenter for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ 08854; eDepartment of Pediatrics, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ 08854; and fByers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA 94303 Edited by Michael Karin, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA, and approved February 20, 2018 (received for review September 6, 2017) Oxidative stress (OS)-induced retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cell thought to be maintained in a transcriptionally silenced state by apoptosis is critically implicated in the pathogenesis of age-related the repressive H3K9me3 mark; however, aberrant satellite macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness in the transcription can cause heterochromatin disorganization and elderly. Heterochromatin, a compact and transcriptional inert chro- genome instability, which have been linked to carcinogenesis (8, matin structure, has been recently shown to be dynamically regu- 9). We and others have recently found that repression of satellite lated in response to stress stimuli. The functional mechanism of is a critical mechanism by which tumor suppressors protect ge- heterochromatin on OS exposure is unclear, however. Here we show nome stability (8, 10). that OS increases heterochromatin formation both in vivo and in The H3K9me3 mark has been detected on p53-regulated gene vitro, which is essential for protecting RPE cells from oxidative promoters, which can be abrogated on p53 activation by MDM2- damage. Mechanistically, OS-induced heterochromatin selectively mediated SUV39H1 degradation (11, 12). How ubiquitously accumulates at p53-regulated proapoptotic target promoters and distributed heterochromatin accumulates at specific p53 target inhibits their transcription. Furthermore, OS-induced desumoylation loci and mediates stress response is currently unknown, however. – of p53 promotes p53 heterochromatin interaction and regulates The interaction of p53 with chromatin is tightly regulated by its p53 promoter selection, resulting in the locus-specific recruitment posttranslational medications, among which sumoylation has of heterochromatin and transcription repression. Together, our find- been shown to prevent p53 binding to DNA in vitro (13). Nev- ings demonstrate a protective function of OS-induced heterochroma- ertheless, the function of p53 sumoylation in vivo is largely un- tin formation in which p53 desumoylation-guided promoter selection defined, as both activation and inhibition of its downstream gene and subsequent heterochromatin recruitment play a critical role. We transcription were observed (13–15). propose that targeting heterochromatin provides a plausible thera- peutic strategy for the treatment of AMD. Significance age-related macular degeneration | oxidative stress | RPE | heterochromatin | p53 Oxidative stress-induced damage to retinal pigmented epithelial (RPE) cells is critically implicated in the pathogenesis of age- related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blind- CELL BIOLOGY he retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is the pigmented cell ness in the elderly. Here we report that oxidative stress-induced layer of the retina that supports and nourishes photorecep- T heterochromatin formation is essential to promote RPE survival. tors (1). Because of the intense illumination from focal light, the Mechanistically, oxidative damage-induced formation of het- high oxygen tension in the macular area, and the phagocytosis of erochromatin occurs at the 53 target promoters of apoptosis photoreceptor outer segments, RPE cells are particularly sensi- genes and is regulated by p53 sumoylation. Our study demon- tive to oxidative stress (OS). Strong evidence supports the hy- strates mechanistic links among chromatin conformation, p53 pothesis that cumulative OS-induced RPE apoptosis is a major sumoylation, and RPE cell death. We propose that targeting factor in the etiology of age-related macular degeneration heterochromatin provides a novel strategy for AMD treatment. (AMD), the primary cause of blindness in elderly persons (2, 3). Although OS-induced gene regulation in RPE cells has been well Author contributions: L.G., Y.L., and D.W.-C.L. designed research; L.G., F.L., Z.X., R.Q., Z.L., studied, little is known about the functions of gene-poor het- X.G., Q.N., Q.S., Y.-F.L., W.Q., L.W., X.T., and S.H. performed research; L.Z., G.L., and H.O. erochromatin during this process. In fact, heterochromatin, contributed new reagents/analytic tools; L.G., M.X., Q.D.N., Y.L., and D.W.-C.L. analyzed data; and L.G., Y.L., and D.W.-C.L. wrote the paper. which is generally associated with the maintenance of gene si- The authors declare no conflict of interest. lencing, is also dynamically regulated in response to stress (4). Chromatin is divided into euchromatin and heterochromatin This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. based on differential compaction during interphase, with het- This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND). erochromatin being highly condensed, existing in transcriptional Data deposition: The ChIP-seq data have been deposited into NCBI-SRA database (acces- inert conformation (5). Heterochromatin is generated and sion no. SRP132687). maintained by epigenetic modifications, mainly trimethylation of 1L.G., F.L., Z.X., R.Q., and Z.L. contributed equally to this work. histone 3 lysine 9 (H3K9me3), in which suppressor of variegation 2To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: [email protected], gonglili@ 3–9 homolog 1 (Drosophila) (SUV39H1) is the principle meth- mail.sysu.edu.cn, or [email protected]. yltransferase (6). Embedded within heterochromatin is a group This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10. of highly repetitive DNA sequences, known as satellite DNAs, 1073/pnas.1715237115/-/DCSupplemental. that give rise to noncoding satellite RNAs (7). Satellite DNA is Published online April 5, 2018. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1715237115 PNAS | vol. 115 | no. 17 | E3987–E3995 Downloaded by guest on September 26, 2021 In the present study, we used mouse models and cultured human matin functionally silenced satellite transcription both in vitro RPE cells to investigate the functional mechanism of heterochro- and in vivo. matin on OS exposure. We found that OS-induced heterochro- matin formation occurs both in vitro and in vivo. Pharmaceutical Heterochromatin Is Needed to Protect RPE from OS-Induced Apoptosis. and genetic approaches demonstrated that the formation of het- To determine the biological functions of OS-induced hetero- erochromatin was essential for the survival of OS-exposed RPE chromatin formation, we first treated mice by oral gavage with cells. Mechanistically, the OS-induced H3K9me3 heterochromatin vehicle control or chaetocin, a selective inhibitor of SUV39 on p53 target promoters silenced the transcription of p53-dependent methyltransferases that methylate H3K9 (20). Chaetocin alone apoptotic genes, which was regulated by the desumoylation of p53. had no obvious effect on RPE morphology; however, chaetocin Together, our results present a mechanism regulating the interaction treatment dramatically sensitized RPE cells to OS, leading to between p53 and heterochromatin during OS exposure, which has a disruption of the RPE structure under low levels of NaIO3 and previously unknown protective function. marked RPE degeneration at higher dosages (Fig. 2A). We next assessed the effects of chaetocin on hRPE cells. Similar to the Results effects observed in mouse RPE, exposure to chaetocin alone did OS Increases Heterochromatin Formation in RPE Cells. To ascertain not affect hRPE cell viability, but it did increase apoptosis in OS- RPE heterochromatin status on OS exposure, mice were injected exposed cells (Fig. 2B). Overexpression of satellite transcripts is a with sodium iodate (NaIO3), a stable oxidizing agent that targets hallmark of heterochromatin destabilization; thus, we transfected primarily the RPE (16). Consistent with previous reports, NaIO3 human and mouse satellite into hRPE cells, and detected in- injection led to significant thinning of the retina and disruption creased apoptosis also in satellite-overexpressing cells on OS ex- of the RPE structure (Fig. 1 A and B). Interestingly, we observed posure (Fig. 2C and Fig. S3). Together, these results suggest that dramatically increased H3K9me3 immunofluorescence (IF) sig- heterochromatin maintenance is required for RPE survival upon nals in RPE cells on OS exposure (Fig. 1 B, a). The number of OS exposure. H3K9me3-positive RPE cells was increased by approximately We