Heritable transmission of diabetic metabolic memory in zebrafish correlates with DNA hypomethylation and aberrant gene expression.
Metabolic memory (MM) is the phenomenon whereby diabetes complications persist and progress after glycemic recovery is achieved. Here, we present data showing that MM is heritable and that the transmission correlates with hyperglycemia-induced DNA hypomethylation and aberrant gene expression. Streptozocin was used to induce hyperglycemia in adult zebrafish, and then, following streptozocin withdrawal, a recovery phase was allowed to reestablish a euglycemic state. Blood glucose and serum insulin returned to physiological levels during the first 2 weeks of the recovery phase as a result of pancreatic β-cell regeneration. In contrast, caudal fin regeneration and skin wound healing remained impaired to the same extent as in diabetic fish, and this impairment was transmissible to daughter cell tissue. Daughter tissue that was never exposed to hyperglycemia, but was derived from tissue that was, did not accumulate AGEs or exhibit increased levels of oxidative stress. However, CpG island methylation and genome-wide microarray expression analyses revealed the persistence of hyperglycemia-induced global DNA hypomethylation that correlated with aberrant gene expression for a subset of loci in this daughter tissue. Collectively, the data presented here implicate the epigenetic mechanism of DNA methylation as a potential contributor to the MM phenomenon.
Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Chicago Medical School, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, North Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Ansgar S
AS
Olsen
Michael P
MP
Sarras
Alexey
A
Leontovich
Robert V
RV
Intine
D000818:Animals; D018899:CpG Islands; D019175:DNA Methylation; D048909:Diabetes Complications / Q000235:genetics*; D003921:Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology; D015870:Gene Expression; D017127:Glycation End Products, Advanced / Q000378:metabolism; D006943:Hyperglycemia / Q000235:genetics; D012038:Regeneration; D013311:Streptozocin; D051996:Transcription Factor RelA / Q000378:metabolism; D014945:Wound Healing; D015027:Zebrafish
D017127:Glycation End Products, Advanced; D051996:Transcription Factor RelA; D013311:Streptozocin