Histone methyltransferase KMT1A restrains entry of alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma cells into a myogenic differentiated state.

ABSTRACT: Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (ARMS) is an aggressive pediatric muscle cancer, which arrested during the process of skeletal muscle differentiation. In muscle myoblast cells, ectopic expression of the histone H3 lysine 9 (H3K9) methytransferase KMT1A blocks differentiation by repressing a myogenic gene expression program. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that activation of a KMT1A-mediated program of transcriptional repression prevents ARMS cells from differentiating. We investigated whether KMT1A represses the expression of differentiation-associated genes in ARMS cells, thereby blocking muscle differentiation. Our results show that expression of KMT1A is induced in human ARMS cancer cell lines when cultured under differentiation-permissible conditions. shRNA-mediated knockdown of KMT1

SUBMITTER: Lee MH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3107367 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature