Investigating effects of polyamine catabolism on epidermal differentiation

• Main Author: Ling, Blysse
• Other Authors: Leah Vardy
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/77520
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Human skin has three layers: the epidermis, dermis and hypodermis. The epidermis in turn consists of four layers of increasingly-differentiated keratinocytes. Polyamines, small positively-charged molecules which can bind to the relevant DNA and RNA sequences as small positively-charged molecules and affect their expression, are essential for keratinocyte differentiation. Enzymes like AMD1 and SAT1 are involved in their creation and breakdown. Breakdown of polyamines by SAT1 releases H2O2, which has been shown to induce differentiation in keratinocytes. This lab has previously observed AMD1 upregulation in differentiating keratinocytes and a corresponding increase in SAT1 expression. This project aimed to confirm the observed AMD1 upregulation and investigate the necessity of SAT1 and polyamine catabolism in differentiation of cultured NTERT-1 human keratinocytes. While AMD1 upregulation in differentiation was confirmed through qRT-PCR and Western blotting, technical difficulties prevented any firm conclusion regarding SAT1 and polyamine catabolism. Further studies are needed in this area.