LRH-1 governs vital transcriptional programs in endocrine sensitive and resistant breast cancer cells: LRH-1 ChIP-seq
Tumor characteristics are decisive in the determination of treatment strategy for breast cancer patients. Patients with estrogen receptor a(ERa)-positive breast cancer can benefit from long-term hormonal treatment. Nonetheless, the majority of patients will develop resistance to these therapies. Here, we investigated the role of the nuclear receptor liver receptor homolog-1 (LRH-1, NR5A2) in anti-estrogen (AE) sensitive and resistant breast cancer cells. We identified genome-wide LRH-1 binding sites using ChIP-seq, uncovering preferential binding to regions distal to transcriptional start sites (TSS). We further characterized these LRH-1 binding sites by integrating overlapping layers of specific chromatin marks, revealing that many LRH-1 binding sites are active and could be involved in long-range enhancer-promoter looping. Combined with transcriptome analysis of LRH-1 depleted cells, these results show that LRH-1 regulates specific subsets of genes involved in cell proliferation in AE-sensitive and AE-resistant breast cancer cells. Furthermore, the LRH-1 transcriptional program is highly associated with a signature of poor outcome and high-grade breast cancer tumors in vivo. Herein we report the genome-wide location and molecular function of LRH-1 in breast cancer cells and reveal its therapeutic potential for the treatment of breast cancers, notably for tumors resistant to treatments currently used in therapies. Overall design: ChIP-seq examination of LRH-1 binding sites with specific chromatin marks in MCF7 breast cancer cells.