Hypoacetylation, hypomethylation, and dephosphorylation of H2B histones and excessive histone deacetylase activity in DU-145 prostate cancer cells

BACKGROUND: Hypoacetylation on histone H3 of human prostate cancer cells has been described. Little is known about the modifications of other histones from prostate cancer cells. METHODS: Histones were isolated from the prostate cancer cell line DU-145 and the non-malignant prostatic cell line RC170N/h. Post-translational modifications of histone H2B were determined by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS)/MS. RESULTS: The histone H2B of the prostate cancer cell line DU-145 was found to have hypoacetylation, hypomethylation, and dephosphorylation as compared to the non-malignant prostatic cell line RC170N/h. H2B regained acetylation on multiple lysine residues, phosphorylation on Thr19, and methylation on Lys23 and Lys43 in the DU-145 cells after sodium butyrate treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The histone H2B of DU-145 prostate cancer cells are hypoacetylated, hypomethylated, and dephosphorylated. Histone deacetylase inhibitor reversed this phenotype. Epigenetic agent may therefore be useful for prostate cancer therapy and worth further investigation. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13045-016-0233-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.