Aberrant expression and activity of histone deacetylases (HDACs) in lungs of patients with sporadic Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF)

Introduction: Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are a family of enzymes that remove acetyl groups from an ε-N-acetyl lysine amino acid on histones, resulting in chromatin condensation and epigenetic repression of gene transcription. HDACs can also catalyze deacetylation of many non-histone proteins, such as the tumor suppressor p53, resulting in inhibition of its pro-apoptotic activity. HDACs thus greatly contribute to the control of gene expression and cellular signaling. Here, we describe for the first time an expression analysis of Class-I, Class-II and Class-III-HDACs in lungs from patients with sporadic Idiopath…