Depletion of PARP-2 in HepG2 cells

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-2 (PARP-2) is acknowledged as a DNA repair enzyme; however, recently metabolic properties had been attributed to it. Hereby, we examined the metabolic consequences of PARP-2 ablation in liver. Microarray analysis of PARP-2 knockdown HepG2 cells revealed the dysregulation of lipid and cholesterol metabolism genes. Induction of cholesterol biosynthesis genes stemmed from the enhanced expression of sterol-regulatory element binding protein (SREBP)-1. We revealed that PARP-2 is a suppressor of the SREBP-1 promoter, therefore ablation of PARP-2 induces SREBP-1 expression and consequently cholesterol synthesis. PARP-2-/- mice had higher SREBP-1 expression that was translated into enhanced hepatic and serum cholesterol levels. PARP-2 silencing was performed employing shPARP-2 (small hairpin) and scPARP-2 (scrambled) shRNA by lentiviral delivery (Sigma) using 40 MOI lentiviruses coding shRNA sequence against PARP-2.