Opposing roles of nuclear receptor HNF4α isoforms in colitis and colitis-associated colon cancer
- University of Pennsylvania, United States
- University of California, Riverside, United States
- Harvard Medical School, United States
- University of California Riverside, United States
Abstract
HNF4α has been implicated in colitis and colon cancer in humans but the role of the different HNF4α isoforms expressed from the two different promoters (P1 and P2) active in the colon is not clear. Here, we show that P1-HNF4α is expressed primarily in the differentiated compartment of the mouse colonic crypt and P2-HNF4α in the proliferative compartment. Exon swap mice that express only P1- or only P2-HNF4α have different colonic gene expression profiles, interacting proteins, cellular migration, ion transport and epithelial barrier function. The mice also exhibit altered susceptibilities to experimental colitis (DSS) and colitis-associated colon cancer (AOM+DSS). When P2-HNF4α-only mice (which have elevated levels of the cytokine resistin-like β, RELMβ, and are extremely sensitive to DSS) are crossed with Retnlb-/- mice, they are rescued from mortality. Furthermore, P2-HNF4α binds and preferentially activates the RELMβ promoter. In summary, HNF4α isoforms perform non-redundant functions in the colon under conditions of stress, underscoring the importance of tracking them both in colitis and colon cancer.
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Animal experimentation: Care and treatment of animals were in strict accordance with guidelines from the University of California Riverside Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. Institutional protocol number A200140014.
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© 2016, Chellappa et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Opposing roles of nuclear receptor HNF4α isoforms in colitis and colitis-associated colon cancer
eLife 5:e10903.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.10903
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