on February 8, 2017
This work was performed by Cristina Leoni, Sara Montagner et al. in the lab of Silvia Monticelli – watch the movie by Cristina explaining her paper in four minutes, which also won the second place at the GCB Slam 2017 in Bern!
Leoni et al. showed how DNA methylation regulates gene expression in mast cells, which are central effector cells in asthmatic and allergic responses. Methylation of the genomic DNA is an epigenetic process in which a methyl group is covalently linked to a cytosine base in the DNA, and such modification in our genome has a critical impact in the control of gene expression. Indeed, enzymes involved in catalyzing this process are implicated in the pathogenesis of a variety of diseases and in regulating the function of immune cells. This new study demonstrates that DNA methylation and the DNA methyltransferase enzyme DNMT3A are key modulators of the ability of mast cells to respond to acute and chronic stimuli in models of mast cell activation mimicking anaphylaxis and dermatitis. In other words, mast cells with a normal methylation pattern can respond adequately to stimuli from the environment, while mast cells with an altered methylation pattern respond with exaggerated responses to normal stimuli, leading to unrestrained inflammation.
This study was made possible by the help of outstanding collaborators, by funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and by contributions from the Ceresio Foundation (Lugano).
This article has been featured by the Science Journal! Clik here to know more
Article
Dnmt3a restrains mast cell inflammatory responses
C. Leoni, S. Montagner, A. Rinaldi, F. Bertoni, S. Polletti, C. Balestrieri, S. Monticelli
in Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A (2017)
Commented in Science (PMID: 28232567 )
