Alterations of histone H1 phosphorylation during bladder carcinogenesis.

There is a crucial need for development of prognostic and predictive biomarkers in human bladder carcinogenesis in order to personalize preventive and therapeutic strategies and improve outcomes. Epigenetic alterations, such as histone modifications, are implicated in the genetic dysregulation that is fundamental to carcinogenesis. Here we focus on profiling the histone modifications during the progression of bladder cancer. Histones were extracted from normal human bladder epithelial cells, an immortalized human bladder epithelial cell line (hTERT), and four human bladder cancer cell lines (RT4, J82, T24, and UMUC3) ranging from superficial low-grade to invasive high-grade cancers. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) profiling revealed a statistically significant increase in phosphorylation of H1 linker histones from normal human bladder epithelial cells to low-grade superficial to high-grade invasive bladder cancer cells. This finding was further validated by immunohistochemical staining of the normal epithelium and transitional cell cancer from human bladders. Cell cycle analysis of histone H1 phosphorylation by Western blotting showed an increase of phosphorylation from G(0)/G(1) phase to M phase, again supporting this as a proliferative marker. Changes in histone H1 phosphorylation status may further clarify epigenetic changes during bladder carcinogenesis and provide diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers or targets for future therapeutic interventions.