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  • Brief Communication
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Exercise training as a modulator of epigenetic events in prostate tumors

Abstract

Background

Exercise is increasingly recognized as an effective strategy to improve cancer prevention and prognosis. Several biological mechanisms mediating these benefits have been proposed, but the role of epigenetics remains largely unknown. Since epigenetics is highly susceptible to lifestyle factors, we hypothesized that exercise could affect the epigenome landscape in cancer tissues.

Methods

Rats implanted with AT1 prostate tumors were randomized to either control or exercise training. microRNA expression, DNA methylation and histone acetylation were analyzed in the tumor tissue.

Results

MiR-27a-5p appeared to be differently expressed between sedentary and trained rats. Furthermore, exercise increased global DNA methylation and decreased DNA methyltransferases mRNA expression in the tumor tissue. Histone acetylation however remained unaltered.

Conclusion

Overall, exercise might reverse some of the cancer-related epigenetic alterations in the prostate tumor tissue.

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Fig. 1: Modulation of epigenetic marks by exercise in the tumor tissue.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the team from the M2S lab and from the Emily Ho lab., the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) Rennes, the Ministère de l’Education Nationale, de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche (MENESR), the ARC Foundation for Cancer Research, and the Oregon Agricultural Experimental Station Hatch Funds (OR00735).

Funding

SD was supported by the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) Rennes, the Ministère de l’Education Nationale, de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche (MENESR) and the ARC Foundation for Cancer Research. AR was supported by the Ministère de l’Education Nationale, de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche (MENESR). EH was supported by Oregon Agricultural Experimental Station Hatch Funds (OR00735).

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Authors

Contributions

AR and EH designed research; SD, JG, CPW, AI, ES, and MCGC performed experiments; SD, CPW, ES, and MCGC analyzed data; SD and AR wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amélie Rebillard.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Dufresne, S., Guéritat, J., Wong, C.P. et al. Exercise training as a modulator of epigenetic events in prostate tumors. Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis 25, 119–122 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41391-021-00380-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41391-021-00380-x

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