Title: Super-Enhancer-mediated Control of Liver Fibrosis by BET Bromodomain Proteins

Accession Number: GSE58680

Link to Dataset: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE58680

Repository: Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO)

Data Type(s): Gene Expression

Experiment Type(s): Genome binding/occupancy profiling by high throughput sequencing

Organism(s): Homo sapiens

Summary: Here, we investigate the role of enhancers in myofibroblasts, a cell type that dominates the pathogenesis and progression of tissue fibrosis. We reveal that bromodomain and extra-terminal family members (BETs), an important group of epigenetic readers, are critical for super-enhancer-mediated pro-fibrotic gene expression in hepatic stellate cells (HSCs, lipid-containing liver-specific pericytes), upon activation during liver fibrogenesis give rise to myofibroblasts2-4. We observe significantly enriched localization of BETs to hundreds of super-enhancers associated with genes involved in multiple pro-fibrotic pathways. This unique loading pattern consequentially serves as a molecular mechanism by which BETs modulate pro-fibrotic gene expression in myofibroblasts. Strikingly, suppression of BET-enhancer interaction using small-molecule inhibitors such as JQ1 dramatically blocks activation of HSCs into myofibroblasts and significantly compromises the proliferation of activated HSCs.

Publication(s) associated with this dataset:

• Ding N, Hah N, Yu RT, Sherman MH, Benner CW, Leblanc M, He M, Liddle C, Downes M, Evans RM. 2015. BRD4 is a novel therapeutic target for liver fibrosis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 112(51):15713-15718. doi:10.1073/pnas.1522163112 PMID:26644586 PMCID:PMC4697417

Project(s) associated with this dataset:

• University of California-San Diego: Toxicogenomic Analysis of Nuclear Xenobiotic Receptors