Nuclear cytoglobin associates with HMGB2 and regulates DNA damage and genome-wide transcriptional output in the vasculature.
Clinton MathaiFrances Jourd'heuilLe Gia Cat PhamKurrim GilliardDennis HowardJoseph BalnisAriel JaitovichSridar V ChitturMark RilleyRuben Peredo-WendeIbrahim AmmouraSandra J ShinMargarida M BarrosoJonathan BarraEvgenia ShishkovaJoshua J CoonReynold I Lopez-SolerDavid Jourd'heuilPublished in: bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology (2023)
Identifying novel regulators of vascular smooth muscle cell function is necessary to further understand cardiovascular diseases. We previously identified cytoglobin, a hemoglobin homolog, with myogenic and cytoprotective roles in the vasculature. The specific mechanism of action of cytoglobin is unclear but does not seem to be related to oxygen transport or storage like hemoglobin. Herein, transcriptomic profiling of injured carotid arteries in cytoglobin global knockout mice revealed that cytoglobin deletion accelerated the loss of contractile genes and increased DNA damage. Overall, we show that cytoglobin is actively translocated into the nucleus of vascular smooth muscle cells through a redox signal driven by NOX4. We demonstrate that nuclear cytoglobin heterodimerizes with the non-histone chromatin structural protein HMGB2. Our results are consistent with a previously unknown function by which a non-erythrocytic hemoglobin inhibits DNA damage and regulates gene programs in the vasculature by modulating the genome-wide binding of HMGB2.
Keyphrases
- dna damage
- genome wide
- smooth muscle
- dna methylation
- vascular smooth muscle cells
- oxidative stress
- dna repair
- skeletal muscle
- copy number
- single cell
- transcription factor
- cardiovascular disease
- gene expression
- public health
- red blood cell
- type diabetes
- metabolic syndrome
- rna seq
- cardiovascular risk factors
- small molecule