Authors
Peter A Mollica, Martina Zamponi, John A Reid, Deepak K Sharma, Alyson E White, Roy C Ogle, Robert D Bruno, Patrick C Sachs
Publication date
2018/7/1
Journal
Journal of Cell Science
Volume
131
Issue
13
Pages
jcs215343
Publisher
The Company of Biologists Ltd
Description
Huntington's disease (HD) is a rare autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder caused by a cytosine-adenine-guanine (CAG) trinucleotide repeat (TNR) expansion within the HTT gene. The mechanisms underlying HD-associated cellular dysfunction in pluripotency and neurodevelopment are poorly understood. We had previously identified downregulation of selected DNA repair genes in HD fibroblasts relative to wild-type fibroblasts, as a result of promoter hypermethylation. Here, we tested the hypothesis that hypomethylation during cellular reprogramming to the induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) state leads to upregulation of DNA repair genes and stabilization of TNRs in HD cells. We sought to determine how the HD TNR region is affected by global epigenetic changes through cellular reprogramming and early neurodifferentiation. We find that early stage HD-affected neural stem cells (HD-NSCs …
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