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Blood, 1 November 2007, Vol. 110, No. 9, pp. 3391-3397. Prepublished online as a Blood First Edition Paper on July 17, 2007; DOI 10.1182/blood-2007-02-076091. This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: blood-2007-02-076091v1 110/9/3391    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Rights and Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Fathallah, H. Articles by Atweh, G. F. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Fathallah, H. Articles by Atweh, G. F. Related Collections Red Cells Gene Expression Social Bookmarking                   What's this?  Previous Article  |  Table of Contents  |  Next Article  RED CELLS Role of epigenetic modifications in normal globin gene regulation and butyrate-mediated induction of fetal hemoglobin Hassana Fathallah1, Rona S. Weinberg1, Yelena Galperin1, Millicent Sutton1, and George F. Atweh1 1 Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY Butyrate is a prototype of histone deacetylase inhibitors that is believed to reactivate silent genes by inducing epigenetic modifications. Although butyrate was shown to induce fetal hemoglobin (HbF) production in patients with hemoglobin disorders, the mechanism of this induction has not been fully elucidated. Our studies of the epigenetic configuration of the β-globin cluster suggest that DNA methylation and histone H3 acetylation are important for the regulation of developmental stage-specific expression of the β-like globin genes, whereas acetylation of both histones H3 and H4 seem to be important for the regulation of tissue-specific expression. These studies suggest that DNA methylation may be important for the silencing of the β-like globin genes in nonerythroid hematopoietic cells but may not be necessary for their silencing in nonhematopoietic cells. Furthermore, our studies demonstrate that butyrate exposure results in a true reversal of the normal developmental switch from - to β-globin expression. This is associated with increased histone acetylation and decreased DNA methylation of the -globin genes, with opposite changes in the β-globin gene. These studies provide strong support for the role of epigenetic modifications in the normal developmental and tissue-specific regulation of globin gene expression and in the butyrate-mediated pharmacologic induction of HbF production. CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this? This article has been cited by other articles: J. Ross, S. Bottardi, V. Bourgoin, A. Wollenschlaeger, E. Drobetsky, M. Trudel, and E. Milot Differential requirement of a distal regulatory region for pre-initiation complex formation at globin gene promoters Nucleic Acids Res., September 1, 2009; 37(16): 5295 - 5308. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] R. Mabaera and C. H. Lowrey Response: 5-azacytidine induction of human fetal hemoglobin Blood, February 15, 2008; 111(4): 2486 - 2486. [Full Text] [PDF]

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