Cardiac fibrosis is an important pathological process in many diseases. Wdr5 catalyzes the trimethylation of lysine K4 on histone H3. The effects of Wdr5 on the cardiac fibrosis phenotype and the activation or transformation of cardiac fibroblasts were investigated by Ang-II-infused mice by osmotic mini-pump and isolated primary neonatal rat cardiac fibroblasts. We found that the Wdr5 expression and histone H3K4me3 modification were significantly increased in Ang-II-infused mice. By stimulating primary neonatal rat cardiac fibroblasts with Ang II, we detected that the expression of Wdr5 and H3K4me3 modification were also significantly increased. Two Wdr5-specific inhibitors, and the lentivirus that transfected Sh-Wdr5, were used to treat primary mouse cardiac fibroblasts, which not only inhibited the histone methylation by Wdr5 but also significantly reduced the activation and migration ability of Ang-II-treated fibroblasts. To explore its mechanism, we found that the inhibition of Wdr5 increased the expression of P53, P21. Cut&Tag-qPCR showed that the inhibition of Wdr5 significantly reduced the enrichment of H3K4me3 in the Mdm2 promoter region. For in vivo experiments, we finally proved that the Wdr5 inhibitor OICR9429 significantly reduced Ang-II-induced cardiac fibrosis and increased the expression of P21 in cardiac fibroblasts. Inhibition of Wdr5 may mediate cardiac fibroblast cycle arrest through the Mdm2/P53/P21 pathway and alleviate cardiac fibrosis.
Keywords: H3K4me3; Wdr5; cardiac fibrosis; cell senescence; epigenetics.