Global Histone H4 acetylation R788 was not affected by HDAC8 knockdown or by selective inhibitor treatment [34]. In contrast, HDAC8 knockdown in some cell lines and treatment with c5 or c6 resulted in a strong increase of acetylated α-tubulin. The latter finding is in accord with previous ABT-888 molecular weight findings in HeLa and HEK293 cells [45]. The cytoplasmic protein α-tubulin is especially a substrate of HDAC6 which is predominantly localized in the cytoplasm [23]. HDAC6 influences the cytoskeleton and cell motility via deacetylation
of α-tubulin and other cytoskeleton proteins [46]. In vitro, c5 and c6 do not inhibit HDAC6 efficiently. Thus, the best explanation for these observations is that in vivo HDAC8 directly or indirectly influences α-tubulin acetylation. Similar discrepancies between in vitro and in vivo activity of an isoenzyme-selective HDAC inhibitor on tubulin AR-13324 acetylation have been observed by others for valproic acid [47]. These effects on α-tubulin acetylation may relate to the inhibition of cell migration by c5 and c6 we observed in UC cell lines. However, inhibition of HDAC6 as such does not inhibit migration of UCC as efficiently as the HDAC8 inhibitors c5 and c6 [48]. The effects of siRNA mediated knockdown of HDAC8 on cell cycle and apoptosis were limited and few significant effects were seen, such as a decreased S-phase fraction in VM-CUB1 and small
changes in thymidylate synthase and p21 expression. In the neuroblastoma cell line BE (2)-C, a G0/G1 arrest has been detected after siRNA-mediated knockdown of HDAC8. This G0/G1 arrest induced by HDAC8 knockdown was associated with p21 mRNA upregulation [34]. In contrast, no effect on the cell cycle was observed in the hepatocellular carcinoma cell Cell press lines BEL-7402 and Hep-G2 [36]. This observation fits with our own marginal effects after siRNA-mediated
HDAC8 knockdown. The level of apoptosis induction in BEL-7402 and Hep-G2 cells after siRNA-mediated targeting of HDAC8 were comparable to the increase of the subG1-fraction in individual urothelial carcinoma cell lines after targeting of HDAC8 [36]. Concerning the use of inhibitors, effects of pharmacological inhibition on cell cycle distribution by c2 were, as expected, only minor. In contrast, pharmacological inhibition by c5 or c6 resulted in a significant albeit low increase of the sub-G1 fraction in two out of five cell lines and in an apparent G2/M-arrest in four out of five cell lines. Consequently, p21 increased in two cell lines and thymidylate synthase decreased in all but one. Conclusions HDAC8 is deregulated in UCCs resulting in variable mRNA and protein expression levels. Suppression and pharmacological inhibition of HDAC8 had significant, but overall minor impacts on cell proliferation, clonogenic growth and migration. These effects were comparable to findings in other cancer entities. Furthermore, pharmacological inhibition of HDAC8 induced a G2/M-arrest.