Liver histone H3 methylation and acetylation may associate with type 2 diabetes development.

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a complicated systemic disease, and the exact pathogenetic molecular mechanism is unclear. Distinct histone modifications regulate gene expression in certain diseases, but little is known about histone epigenetics in diabetes. In the current study, C57BL/6 J mice were used to build T2D model, then treated with exendin-4 (10 μg/kg). Histone H3K9 and H3K23 acetylation, H3K4 monomethylation and H3K9 dimethylation were explored by Western blotting of liver histone extracts. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to examine expression levels of diabetes-related genes, while chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) was applied to analyze H3 and H3K9 acetylation, H3K4 monomethylation, and H3K9 dimethylation in the promoter of facilitated glucose transporter member 2 (Glut2) gene. The results showed that liver's total H3K4 monomethylation and H3K9 dimethylation was increased in diabetic mice, which was abrogated with the treatment of exendin-4. In contrast, H3K9 and H3K23 acetylation were reduced in diabetic mice, while exendin-4 only alleviated the reduction of H3K9 acetylation. Our data indicated that the progression of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) is associated with global liver histone H3K9 and H3K23 acetylation, H3K4 monomethylation, and H3K9 dimethylation. Exploiting exact histone modify enzyme inhibitors, which may represent a novel strategy to prevent T2D.