Histone demethylases are known to play important roles in the determination of the fate of stem cells and in cancer progression. In this study, we show that the lysine 4 of histone H3 (H3K4), lysine-specific demethylase 5A (KDM5A) is essential for the repression of astrocyte differentiation in neural progenitor cells (NPCs), and its expression is regulated by translational machinery. Knockdown of KDM5A in NPCs increased astrocytogenesis, and conversely, KDM5A overexpression reduced the transcriptional activity of the Gfap promoter. Induction of astrocytogenesis by ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) or small interfering RNA-induced knockdown of KDM5A decreased KDM5A recruitment to the Gfap promoter and increased H3K4 methylation. The transcript level of Kdm5a was high, whereas KDM5A protein level was low in CNTF induced astrocytes. During astroglial differentiation, translational activity indicated by the phosphorylation of eukaryotic translation initiation factor (eIF)4E was decreased. Treatment of NPCs with the cercosporamide, a MAPK-interacting kinases inhibitor, reduced eIF4E phosphorylation and KDM5A protein expression, increased GFAP levels, and enhanced astrocytogenesis. These data suggest that KDM5A is a key regulator that maintains NPCs in an undifferentiated state by repressing astrocytogenesis and that its expression is translationally controlled during astrocyte differentiation. Thus, KDM5A is a promising target for the modulation of NPC fate.-Kong, S.-Y., Kim, W., Lee, H.-R., Kim, H.-J. The histone demethylase KDM5A is required for the repression of astrocytogenesis and regulated by the translational machinery in neural progenitor cells.
Keywords: H3K4 demethylase; MAPK-interacting kinase; NSC differentiation; eIF-4E; epigenetics.