C28 induced autophagy of female germline stem cells in vitro with changes of H3K27 acetylation and transcriptomics

Abstract There are a few studies indicating that small molecular compounds affect the proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, and autophagy of female germline stem cells (FGSCs). However, whether small molecular compound 28 (C28) affect development of FGSCs remains unknown. In this study, we found that C28 reduced the viability and proliferation of FGSCs, respectively. Additionally, western blotting showed that the expression of autophagy marker light chain 3 beta II (LC3B-II) was significantly increased and expression of sequestosome-1 (SQSTM1) was significantly reduced in C28-treated groups. Immunofluorescence showed that, in C28-treated groups, the number of LC3B-II-positive puncta was increased significantly. These results indicated that C28 induced autophagy of FGSCs in vitro. Furthermore, data from Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Sequencing for H3K27ac showed that autophagy-related biological processes such as regulation of mitochondrial membrane potential, Golgi vesicle transport, and cellular response to reactive oxygen species were different after C28-treated. In addition, RNA-Seq showed that the expression of genes (Trib3, DDIT3, and ATF4) related to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress was enhanced by C28. These results suggest that the changes of H3K27ac and ER stress might be associated with C28-induced FGSC autophagy.