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Pancreatic cancer

Epigenetic memory

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 24, page 96 (2024)Cite this article

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Pancreatic inflammatory injury results in acinar-to-ductal metaplasia (ADM), a reversible cell fate transition that precedes the development of pancreatic cancer. Now, Falvo et al. establish a role for epigenetic memory of inflammatory injury in promoting tumorigenesis.

Using chromatin profiling of acinar cells isolated from mice with transient pancreatic inflammatory injury, the authors found that despite histological evidence for acinar regeneration, there was increased chromatin accessibility and retention of H3K4me1 up to 12 weeks after injury compared with cells from control mice. Enhancers were found to be the principal component of this.

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References

Original article

  • Falvo, D. J. et al. A reversible epigenetic memory of inflammatory injury controls lineage plasticity and tumor initiation in the mouse pancreas. Dev. Cell 58, 2959–2973 (2023)

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  1. Nature Reviews Cancer http://www.nature.com/nrc/

    Gabrielle Brewer

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  1. Gabrielle Brewer
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Correspondence to Gabrielle Brewer.

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Cite this article

Brewer, G. Epigenetic memory. Nat Rev Cancer 24, 96 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41568-024-00667-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41568-024-00667-w

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