The Methylome and Transcriptome of Fetal Skin: Implications for Scarless Healing

Abstract

Aim: Fetal skin is known to heal without scarring. In mice, the phenomenon is observed until the 16–17 day of gestation – the day of transition from scarless to normal healing. The study aims to identify key methylome and transcriptome changes following the transition. Materials & methods: Methylome and transcriptome profiles were analyzed in murine dorsal skin using microarray approach. Results & conclusion: The genes associated with inflammatory response and hyaluronate degradation showed increased DNA methylation before the transition, while those involved in embryonic morphogenesis, neuron differentiation and synapse functions did so after. A number of the methylome alterations were retained until adulthood and correlated with gene expression, while the functional associations imply that scarless healing depends on epigenetic regulation.

Keywords::

• fetal skin
• genome-wide DNA methylation profiling
• genome-wide gene expression profiling
• scarless skin wound healing

E15: Embryonic day 15; E18: Embryonic day 18.

Data accessibility

The raw and normalized genome-wide DNA methylation and gene expression data supporting the results of this article are available in the Gene Expression Omnibus repository under accession number GSE67878 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?token=kpuvqumqdrmrhyx&acc=GSE67878).

Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.2217/epi-2016-0068

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank J Renata Ochocka and A Piotrowski for their help and access to the Microarray Laboratory of the Department of Biology and Pharmaceutical Botany, Medical University of Gdańsk, funded by the Foundation for Polish Science (FOCUS 4/2008 and FOCUS 4/08/2009 grants).

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This study was supported by a research grant of the National Science Centre of Poland (no. DEC-2011/01/B/NZ2/05352) and in part by a grant of the National Centre for Research and Development of Poland (no. STRATEGMED 1/235077/9/NCBR/2014). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The ethical approval for the collection of murine adult and fetal tissues (no. 5/2013) was issued by the Local Ethics Commission for Experimentation on Animals at the Medical University of Gdansk, Poland. All experiments were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by a research grant of the National Science Centre of Poland (no. DEC-2011/01/B/NZ2/05352) and in part by a grant of the National Centre for Research and Development of Poland (no. STRATEGMED 1/235077/9/NCBR/2014). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.