Promoter Hypermethylation Promotes the Binding of Transcription Factor NFATc1, Triggering Oncogenic Gene Activation in Pancreatic Cancer
Yenan WuLea KröllerBeiping MiaoHenning BoekhoffAndrea S. BauerMarkus W. BüchlerThilo HackertNathalia A. GieseJussi TaipaleJörg D. Hoheisel
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Studies have indicated that some genes involved in carcinogenesis are highly methylated in their promoter regions but nevertheless strongly transcribed. It has been proposed that transcription factors could bind specifically to methylated promoters and trigger transcription. We looked at this rather comprehensively for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and studied some cases in more detail. Some 2% of regulated genes in PDAC exhibited higher transcription coupled to promoter hypermethylation in comparison to healthy tissue. Screening 661 transcription factors, several were found to bind specifically to methylated promoters, in particular molecules of the NFAT family. One of them—NFATc1—was substantially more strongly expressed in PDAC than control tissue and exhibited a strong oncogenic role. Functional studies combined with computational analyses allowed determining affected genes. A prominent one was gene ALDH1A3, which accelerates PDAC metastasis and correlates with a bad prognosis. Further studies confirmed the direct up-regulation of ALDH1A3 transcription by NFATc1 promoter binding in a methylation-dependent process, providing insights into the oncogenic role of transcription activation in PDAC that is promoted by DNA methylation.Keywords:
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Idiopathic short stature (ISS) has a strong familial component, but genetics explains only part of it. Indeed, environmental factors act on human growth either directly or through epigenetic factors that remain to be determined. Given the importance of the GH/IGF1 axis for child growth, we suspected that such epigenetic factors could involve the CG methylation at the IGF1 gene P2 promoter, which was recently shown to be a transcriptional regulator for IGF1 gene and a major contributor to GH sensitivity.Explore whether the methylation of the two IGF1 low-CG-rich promoters (P1 and P2) is associated with ISS.A total of 94 children with ISS were compared with 119 age-matched children of normal height for the methylation of CGs located within the IGF1 promoters measured with bisulphite PCR pyrosequencing.The methylation of 5 CGs of the P2 promoter was higher in ISS children, notably CG-137 (49 ± 4% in ISS vs 46 ± 4 % in control children, P = 9 × 10-5 ). This was also true for CG-611 of the P1 promoter (93 ± 3% vs 91 ± 3% P = 10-4 ). The CG methylation of the IGF1 promoters thus takes place among the multifactorial factors that are associated with ISS.
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A new noninvasive screening tool for colorectal neoplasia detects epigenetic alterations exhibited by gastrointestinal tumor cells shed into stool. There is insufficient existing data to determine temporal associations between colorectal cancer (CRC) progression and aberrant DNA methylation. To evaluate the feasibility of using fecal DNA methylation status to determine CRC progression, we collected stool samples from 14 male SD rats aged six weeks, and administered subcutaneous injections of either 1,2-dimethylhydrazine or saline weekly. p16 DNA methylation statuses in tumorous and normal colon tissue, and from stool samples were determined using methylation-specific PCR. Additionally, p16 methylation was detected in stool DNA from 85.7% of the CRC rats. The earliest change in p16 methylation status in the DMH-treated group stool samples occurred during week nine; repeatabilities were 57.1% in week 19 (p = 0.070) and 85.7% in week 34 (p = 0.005). A temporal correlation was evidenced between progression of CRC and p16 methylation status, as evidenced by DMH-induced rat feces. Using fecal DNA methylation status to determine colorectal tissue methylation status can reveal CRC progression. Our data suggests that p16 promoter methylation is a feasible epigenetic marker for the detection and may be useful for CRC screening.
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DNA methylation measured in white blood cell DNA is increasingly being used as in studies of cancer susceptibility. However, little is known about the correlation between different assays to measure global methylation and whether the source of DNA matters when examining methylation profiles in different blood cell types. Using information from 620 women, 217 and 403 women with DNA available from granulocytes (Gran), and total white blood cells (WBC), respectively, and 48 women with DNA available from four different sources (WBC, Gran, mononuclear (MN), and lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL)), we compared DNA methylation for three repetitive elements (LINE1, Sat2, Alu) by MethyLight, luminometric methylation assay (LUMA), and [3H]-methyl acceptance assay. For four of the five assays, DNA methylation levels measured in Gran were not correlated with methylation in LBC, MN, or WBC; the exception was Sat2. DNA methylation in LCL was correlated with methylation in MN and WBC for the [3H]-methyl acceptance, LINE1, and Alu assays. Methylation in MN was correlated with methylation in WBC for the [3H]-methyl acceptance and LUMA assays. When we compared the five assays to each other by source of DNA, we observed statistically significant positive correlations ranging from 0.3-0.7 for each cell type with one exception (Sat2 and Alu in MN). . Among the 620 women stratified by DNA source, correlations among assays were highest for the three repetitive elements (range 0.39-0.64). Results from the LUMA assay were modestly correlated with LINE1 (0.18-0.20). These results suggest that both assay and source of DNA are critical components in the interpretation of global DNA methylation patterns from WBC.
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Age is a key risk factor for breast cancer and epigenetic alterations may contribute to age-related increases in breast cancer risk, though the relation of age-related methylation in normal breast tissues with altered methylation in breast tumors is unclear. We investigated the relation of age with DNA methylation in normal breast tissues genome-wide using two data sets from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database (GSE32393 and GSE31979). We validated our observations in an independent set of normal breast tissues, examined age-related methylation in normal breast for enrichment of genomic features, and compared age-related methylation in normal tissue with methylation alterations in breast tumors. Between the two array-based methylation data sets, there were 204 CpG loci with significant (P < 0.05) and consistent age-related methylation, 97% of which were increases in methylation. Our validation sets confirmed the direction of age-related DNA methylation changes in all measured regions. Among the 204 age-related CpG loci, we observed a significant enrichment for CpG islands (P = 8.7E-6) and polycomb group protein target genes (P = 0.03). In addition, 24 of the 204 CpGs with age-related methylation in normal breast were significantly differentially methylated between normal and breast tumor tissues. We identified consistent age-related methylation changes in normal breast tissue that are further altered in breast tumors and may represent early events contributing to breast carcinogenesis. This work identifies age-related methylation in normal breast tissue and begins to deconstruct the contribution of aging to epigenetic alterations present in breast tumors.
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17ß-Estradiol, an epigenetic modulator, is involved in the increased prevalence of migraine in women. Together with the prophylactic efficacy of valproate, which influences DNA methylation and histone modification, this points to the involvement of epigenetic mechanisms. Epigenetic studies are often performed on leukocytes, but it is unclear to what extent methylation is similar in other tissues. Therefore, we investigated methylation of migraine-related genes that might be epigenetically regulated (CGRP-ergic pathway, estrogen receptors, endothelial NOS, as well as MTHFR) in different migraine-related tissues and compared this to methylation in rat as well as human leukocytes. Further, we studied whether 17ß-estradiol has a prominent role in methylation of these genes. Female rats (n = 35) were ovariectomized or sham-operated and treated with 17β-estradiol or placebo. DNA was isolated and methylation was assessed through bisulphite treatment and mass spectrometry. Human methylation data were obtained using the Illumina 450k genome-wide methylation array in 395 female subjects from a population-based cohort study. We showed that methylation of the Crcp, Calcrl, Esr1 and Nos3 genes is tissue-specific and that methylation in leukocytes was not correlated to that in other tissues. Interestingly, the interindividual variation in methylation differed considerably between genes and tissues. Furthermore we showed that methylation in human leukocytes was similar to that in rat leukocytes in our genes of interest, suggesting that rat may be a good model to study human DNA methylation in tissues that are difficult to obtain. In none of the genes a significant effect of estradiol treatment was observed.
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DNA promoter methylation of tumor suppressor genes and global DNA hypomethylation are common features of head and neck cancers. Our goal was to identify early DNA methylation changes in oral premalignant lesions (OPL) that may serve as predictive markers of developing oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Using high-throughput DNA methylation profiles of 24 OPLs, we found that the top 86 genes differentially methylated between patients who did or did not develop OSCC were simultaneously hypermethylated, suggesting that a CpG island methylation phenotype may occur early during OSCC development. The vast majority of the 86 genes were nonmethylated in normal tissues and hypermethylated in OSCC versus normal mucosa. We used pyrosequencing in a validation cohort of 44 patients to evaluate the degree of methylation of AGTR1, FOXI2, and PENK promoters CpG sites that were included in the top 86 genes and of LINE1 repetitive element methylation, a surrogate of global DNA methylation. A methylation index was developed by averaging the percent methylation of AGTR1, FOXI2, and PENK promoters; patients with a high methylation index had a worse oral cancer-free survival (P = 0.0030). On the other hand, patients with low levels of LINE1 methylation had a significantly worse oral cancer-free survival (P = 0.0153). In conclusion, AGTR1, FOXI2, and PENK promoter methylation and LINE1 hypomethylation may be associated with an increased risk of OSCC development in patients with OPLs.
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DNA methylation is a well-characterized epigenetic modification that plays an important role in the regulation of gene expression. There is growing evidence on the involvement of epigenetic mechanisms in disease onset, including cancer. Environmental factors seem to induce changes in DNA methylation affecting human health. However, little is known about basal methylation levels in healthy people and about the correlation between environmental factors and different methylation profiles. We investigated the effect of seasonality on basal methylation by testing methylation levels in the long interspersed nucleotide element-1 (LINE-1) and in two cancer-related genes (RASSF1A and MGMT) of 88 healthy male heavy smokers involved in an Italian randomized study; at enrolment the subjects donated a blood sample collected in different months. Methylation analyses were performed by pyrosequencing. Mean methylation percentage was higher in spring and summer for the LINE1, RASSF1A and MGMT genes (68.26%, 2.35%, and 9.52% respectively) compared with autumn and winter (67.43%, 2.17%, and 8.60% respectively). In particular, LINE-1 was significantly hypomethylated (p = 0.04 or 0.05 depending on the CpG island involved) in autumn and winter compared with spring and summer. Seasonality seems to be a modifier of methylation levels and this observation should be taken into account in future analyses.
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