Project description:CASZ1 is a novel and potent activator of terminal epidermal differentiation. CASZ1 knockdown inhibits transcription of the epidermal differentiation program. p63 and p300 are required to activate CASZ1 expression.
Project description:Disrupted skin barrier due to altered keratinocyte differentiation is common in pathologic conditions such as atopic dermatitis, ichthyosis and psoriasis. However, the molecular cascades governing keratinocyte terminal differentiation are still poorly understood. We have previously demostrated that a dominante mutation in ZNF750 leads to a clinical phenotype that reminiscent of psoriasis and seborrehic dermatitis. We defined ZNF750 as a nuclear effector that is atrongly activated in and essiential for keratinocyte terminal differentiation. ZNF750 knockdown in HaCaT keratinocytes markedly reduced the expression of epidermal late differentiation markers, including gene subsets of epidermal differentiation complex and skin barrier formation such as FLG, LOR, SPINK5, ALOX12B and DSG1, known to be mutated in various human skin diseases. Furthermore, ZNF750 over-expression in undifferentiated cells induced terminal differentiation genes. Thus, ZNF750 is a regulator of keratinocyte terminal differnetiation, and with its downstream targets can serve in future elucidation of therapeutics for common disease of skin barrier Gene expression analysis: To determine the differentaition signature for HaCaT keratinocytes, with ZNF750 gene silencing, total RNA was isolated in biologic triplicates from cells induced to differentiate for twelve days and hybridized to Affymerix Human Gene 1.0 ST arrays.