Description
Epigenetic activation or inactivation of genes plays a critical role in many importan human diseases, especially in cancer. A major mechanism for epigenetic inactivation of the genes is methylation of CpG islands in genome DNA caused by DNA methyltransferases. Histone methyltransferases (HMTs) control or regulate DNA methylation through chromatin-dependent transcription repression or activation. HMTs transfer 1-3 methyl groups from S-adenosyl-L-methionine to the lysine and arginine residues of histone proteins. SET1, SET7/9, Ash1, ALL-1, MLL, ALR, Trx, and SMYD3 are histone methyltransferases that catalyze methylation of histone H3 at lysine 4 (H3-K4) in mammalian cells. H3-K4 di-methylation is associated with transcriptionally permissive euchromatin regions in the genome and may serve as a epigenetic mark in euchromatin and mediates activated transcription. Increased H3-K4 di-methylation is also found to be involved in some pathological processes such as cancer progression. The H3-K4 di-methylation can be also changed by inhibiton or activation of HMTs. Thus quantitative detection of di-methyl histone H3-K4 would provide useful information for better understanding epigenetic regulation of gene activation and for developing HMT-targeted drugs. The Di-Methyl Histone H3-K4 Quantification Kit (Colorimetric) provides a tool for measuring di-methylation of histone H3-K4