Hypoxia facilitates stemness of colon cancer cells via histone lactylation

Abstract

The hypoxic tumor microenvironment, a hallmark of advanced solid tumors, is strongly associated with poor prognosis and reduced survival in colon cancer patients. Emerging evidence indicates that hypoxia serves as a key driver of cancer stemness by promoting the formation and maintenance of cancer stem cells (CSCs). However, the precise molecular mechanisms through which hypoxia induces CSC formation remain incompletely understood, particularly regarding the metabolic-epigenetic regulation of stemness characteristics. This study uncovers histone lactylation as a pivotal metabolic-epigenetic switch linking hypoxic stress to stemness in colorectal cancer cells. We demonstrate that hypoxia activates the HIF-1α/LDHA axis, driving lactate accumulation and triggering global histone lactylation (particularly H3K18la) in HT29 and SW480 cells. Crucially, lactylated histones directly bind and activate stemness gene promoters (OCT4/CD44/c-MYC), correlating with enhanced tumorsphere formation. Mechanistic validation through CRISPR-dCas9-HDAC3-mediated promoter-specific delactylation impaired stemness gene expression, demonstrating lactylation as a causal regulator. Our findings establish histone lactylation as a critical epigenetic regulator of hypoxia-induced stemness in colon cancer, revealing both its fundamental biological role and therapeutic potential. Targeting this lactylation-dependent pathway may disrupt CSC formation and enhance treatment efficacy.