MicroRNA (miRNA) Expression is Regulated by Butyrate-Induced Epigenetic Modulation of Gene Expression in Bovine Cells

We present evidence that butyrate induced histone acetylation regulates miRNA expression. MicroRNA expression microarray profiling revealed that 35 miRNA transcripts are significantly (P < 0.05) differentially expressed after cells were treated with 10 mM butyrate. Among them, 11 transcripts are differentially expressed very significantly (P < 0.01). The functional and pathways analysis using MetaCore analytical suite shows differentially expressed miRNAs targeting some very important gene networks and differentially expressed miRNAs may interfere with butyrate induced modulation of gene expression and cellular functions. The data indicates the complicated interaction between miRNA and histone acetylation forms a highly integrated regulatory mechanism.