Folic Acid Overconsupmtion Leads to Decreased Gene Expression in Neuronal Cells
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Folic acid (FA) is a member of the B vitamin family that is found in green foods like brussels sprouts, broccoli and spinach. It is essential to protecting the body from disease by helping to produce and maintain healthy cells. It is it also used to help treat anemia and prevent potential birth defects in pregnant women.
Because of it’s positive health effects, FA has been the subject of many gene expression studies—particularly the potential negative outcomes of overconsumption.
Researchers from the University of South Carolina sought to determine the effect that high levels of folic acid can have on gene expression. Using a type of human neuroblastoma cell called SHSY5Y, they examined the ways that histone methylation and other epigenetic modifications can alter gene activity in chromatin modifying enzymes and dendritic spine densities.
Histone methylation is an epigenetic process that can play a large role in gene expression. Typically, DNA methylation is directly connected to a silencing of gene expression, but methylation to certain specific histone residues can have the same effect.
In this study, the research team treated the SHSY5Y cells with a 2x dose of folic acid for 48 hours and compared those with an untreated control group.
Histone proteins were isolated from 3 control samples and 3 FA treated samples using the EpiQuik Histone Extraction Kit, followed by a Bradford assay to quantify the histone content.
In the 2x FA treated cells, the team discovered that there was a significant decrease in expression of MECP2 and MBD2 (as shown in figure 1 below)—two genes that play a crucial role in mammalian development.
They used the MethylFlash Global DNA Methylation (5-mC) ELISA Kit to quantify global DNA methylation levels in the samples and did find a decrease in DNA methylation levels in the cells treated with 2x FA. In addition, the 2x FA treated cells also demonstrated decreased levels of H3K4me1, H3K4me3, H3K9Ac.
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