Ya-qi Wang^1,, Jing-hua Zhang^2,, Zhao-yuan Wan³, Dan Li³

The Notch signaling pathway is a fundamental intercellular signaling system that regulates cell fate decisions in terms of proliferation and differentiation in multiple tissues. Abnormal activation of Notch1 signaling pathway leads to a variety of diseases, including the malignant tumors. Dysregulated Notch receptor activity has been implicated in breast cancer but the epigenetic mechanisms remains not clear. Compared to adjacent tissues, high expression of NIC1 and low expression of H4K16ac were found in cancer tissues. Notch1 knocked down in the breast cancer cell line MCF-7 resulted in increased H4K16ac expression and a parallel reduction in their proliferation and migration capacity. Our study prompting H4K16ac to participate in the signal transduction of Notch1 in breast cancer cells. These results confirm Notch1 as a signal triggering epigenetic mechanisms in breast cancer cells, which may have implications in tumor dissemination, metastasis and proliferation. The identification of specific factors interacting with NOTCH signaling could thus be relevant to fully understanding the role of NOTCH in breast neoplasia.

breast cancer, notch1 signaling in tumorigenesis, epigenetic modification, H4K16ac