Role and Regulation of Jumonji C domain-containing histone demethylases in Pulmonary Hypertension

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is characterized by increased proliferation and apoptosis resistance of pulmonary vascular cells (pulmonary arterial endothelial cells, -smooth muscle cells and -adventitial fibroblasts). Jumonji C domain-containing histone demethylases (JMJDs) are a novel class of epigenetic regulators, implicated in chromatin regulation and often possess the ability to demethylate lysine residues on histones. Given that the JMJDs and the histone methylation level is important for the proliferative capacity of cancer cells, we postulated the contribution of JMJDs to excessive vascular remodeling unde…