Expression of acetylated and dimethylated histone H3 in colorectal cancer.
OBJECTIVE
The expression of acetylated and dimethylated histone H3 in colorectal cancer was examined by immunohistochemistry and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP)/Western blot (WB) assay. The correlation between the expression of histone H3 and clinicopathological findings was analyzed.


METHODS
Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded sections obtained from 80 operated cases of colorectal cancer were immunostained with anti-acetylated histone H3 (H3Ac) antibody and anti-dimethylated histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4) antibody. Positive immunoreactivity was evaluated using the Allred scoring system. Furthermore, the expression was confirmed by ChIP/WB assay using formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded sections.


RESULTS
There was good correlation between immunostaining and expression on ChIP/WB assay (p = 0.0005). There was a significant difference between the Allred score of H3K4 and the depth of tumor invasion (p = 0.0003) and the pathological stages (p = 0.0065). In overall survival classified by Allred scores of H3Ac (p = 0.0072) and H3K4 (p = 0.0187), the highest scores represented significantly worse prognoses than the other scores. Specifically, in stages II and III, the highest scores represented significantly worse prognoses than the other scores (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.0173, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
The expression of H3Ac and H3K4 may estimate patient prognosis.
Department of Surgery, Okitama Public General Hospital, Yamagata University Faculty of Medicine, Yamagata, Japan. t_hashimoto@yone-city-hp.jp
Toshio
T
Hashimoto
Mitsunori
M
Yamakawa
Shingo
S
Kimura
Osamu
O
Usuba
Mitsuru
M
Toyono
D000107:Acetylation; D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000473:pathology*; D000368:Aged; D015153:Blotting, Western; D047369:Chromatin Immunoprecipitation; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006657:Histones / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008745:Methylation; D008875:Middle Aged; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models
D006657:Histones