Page 1 of 53 Diabetes Integrative Omics analyses reveal epigenetic memory in diabetic renal cells regulating genes associated with kidney dysfunction. Anita Bansal1, Sreeram Balasubramanian2, Sangeeta Dhawan3, Amy Leung1, Zhen Chen1, Rama Natarajan*1. 1Department of Diabetes Complications and Metabolism, Diabetes and Metabolism Research Institute, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, 1500 East Duarte Road, Duarte, CA 91010, 2 Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125, 3Department of Translational Research and Cellular Therapeutics, Diabetes and Metabolism Research Institute, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, 1500 East Duarte Road, Duarte, CA 91010. Correspondence to * Rama Natarajan. Email:
[email protected] 626-218-2289 Keywords Diabetic kidney disease, tubular epithelial cells, metabolic memory, epigenomics Running title: Epigenetic memory in diabetic renal tubular cells Word count: 4949 Number of Figures: 6 1 Diabetes Publish Ahead of Print, published online August 3, 2020 Diabetes Page 2 of 53 Abstract Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is a major complication of diabetes and the leading cause of end- stage renal failure. Epigenetics has been associated with metabolic memory, in which prior periods of hyperglycemia enhance the future risk of developing DKD despite subsequent glycemic control. To understand the mechanistic role of such epigenetic memory in human DKD and identify new therapeutic targets, we profiled gene expression, DNA methylation, and chromatin accessibility in kidney proximal tubule epithelial cells (PTECs) derived from non-diabetic and Type-2 diabetic (T2D) subjects. T2D-PTECs displayed persistent gene expression and epigenetic changes with and without TGFβ1 treatment, even after culturing in vitro under similar conditions as non-diabetic PTECs, signified by deregulation of fibrotic and transport associated genes (TAGs).