Characterisation of epigenomic changes during chondrogenesis

Epigenetic mechanisms are known to regulate gene expression during chondrogenesis. In this study, we have characterised the epigenome during in vitro differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) into chondrocytes. Chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by next-generation sequencing (ChIP-seq) was used to assess a range of N-terminal post-transcriptional modifications (marks) to histone H3 lysines (H3K4me3, H3K4me1, H3K27ac, H3K27me3 and H3K36me3) in both hMSCs and differentiated chondrocytes. Chromatin states were characterised using histone ChIP-seq and cis-regulatory elements were identified in chondrocytes. Histone ChIP-seq (H3K4me3, H3K4me1, H3K27ac, H3K27me3, H3K36me3) in hMSC and differentiated chondrocytes at day 14. Input samples were sequenced for each cell type. Experiments were performed with 2 replicates.