In recent years, it has become widely recognized that histone modification plays a pivotal role in controlling gene expression, and is involved in a wide spectrum of disease regulation. Histone acetylation is a major modification that affects gene transcription and is controlled by histone acetyltransferases (HATs) and histone deacetylases (HDAC). HATs acetylate lysines of histone proteins, resulting in relaxation of chromatin structure, and they also facilitate gene activation. Conversely, HDACs remove acetyl groups from hyperacetylated histones and suppress general gene transcription. In addition to histones, numerous non-histone proteins can be acetylated and deacetylated, and they are also involved in a wide range of disease regulation. To date, there are 18 HDACs in mammals classified into four classes based on homology to yeast HDACs. Accumulating evidence has revealed that HDACs play crucial roles in a variety of biological processes including inflammation, cell proliferation, apoptosis, and carcinogenesis. In this review, we summarize the current state of knowledge of HDACs in carcinogenesis and describe the involvement of HDACs in cancer-associated molecular processes. It is hoped than our understanding of the role of HDACs in cancer will lead to the design of more potent and specific drugs targeting selective HDAC proteins for the treatment of the disease.

BackgroundRecent evidence indicates that inhibition of histone deacetylase (HDAC) protects the heart against myocardial injury and stimulates endogenous angiomyogenesis. However, it remains unknown whether HDAC inhibition produces the protective effect in the diabetic heart. We sought to determine whether HDAC inhibition preserves cardiac performance and suppresses cardiac remodeling in diabetic cardiomyopathy.MethodsAdult ICR mice received an intraperitoneal injection of either streptozotocin (STZ, 200 mg/kg) to establish the diabetic model or vehicle to serve as control. Once hyperglycemia was confirmed, diabetic mice received sodium butyrate (1%), a specific HDAC inhibitor, in drinking water on a daily basis to inhibit HDAC activity. Mice were randomly divided into following groups, which includes Control, Control + Sodium butyrate (NaBu), STZ and STZ + Sodium butyrate (NaBu), respectively. Myocardial function was serially assessed at 7, 14, 21 weeks following treatments.ResultsEchocardiography demonstrated that cardiac function was depressed in diabetic mice, but HDAC inhibition resulted in a significant functional improvement in STZ-injected mice. Likewise, HDAC inhibition attenuates cardiac hypertrophy, as evidenced by a reduced heart/tibia ratio and areas of cardiomyocytes, which is associated with reduced interstitial fibrosis and decreases in active caspase-3 and apoptotic stainings, but also increased angiogenesis in diabetic myocardium. Notably, glucose transporters (GLUT) 1 and 4 were up-regulated following HDAC inhibition, which was accompanied with increases of GLUT1 acetylation and p38 phosphorylation. Furthermore, myocardial superoxide dismutase, an important antioxidant, was elevated following HDAC inhibition in the diabetic mice.ConclusionHDAC inhibition plays a critical role in improving cardiac function and suppressing myocardial remodeling in diabetic heart.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12933-015-0262-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.