Deregulation of polyamine biosynthesis alters intrinsic histone acetyltransferase and deacetylase activities in murine skin and tumors.

The essential requirement for polyamines for normal cell growth and differentiation may be partly attributed to their influence on gene expression, a process regulated by the acetylation state of nucleosomal histones. We used transgenic mice to examine the effects of constitutive expression of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), a key rate-limiting enzyme in polyamine biosynthesis, on histone acetylation in epithelial cells in skin. As compared with the skin of normal littermate mice, both intrinsic histone acetyltransferase (HAT) and deacetylase activities are elevated in ODC transgenic skin. Skin tumors that form spontaneously in ODC/Ras double transgenic mice exhibit exceptionally high HAT activity having a distinct specificity for Lys-12 in the tail domain of histone H4, which may have implications for gene transcription. However, acetylation of histones by HAT enzymes was impeded in cultured ODC transgenic keratinocytes, and there were only modest changes in levels of acetylated histones in the skin of ODC transgenic mice. Treatment with the ODC enzyme inhibitor alpha-difluoromethylornithine, which results in regression of ODC/Ras tumors, reverses the effects on HAT and deacetylase enzyme function, implicating polyamine biosynthesis in the regulation of histone acetylation. Polyamines do not directly stimulate the enzymatic activity of either p300 or p300/CREB-binding protein (CBP)-associated factor, members of two distinct classes of HAT enzymes, implying that the elevated CBP/p300-associated HAT activity detected in ODC transgenic skin is attributable to indirect influence of polyamines. These results suggest that multiple mechanisms exist by which endogenous polyamines influence chromatin in mammals. Furthermore, they suggest that the elevated polyamine levels inherent in many solid tumors alter chromatin structure, likely affecting gene expression and promoting the neoplastic process.