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Tissue of origin determines cancer-associated CpG island promoter hypermethylation patterns.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Aberrant CpG island promoter DNA hypermethylation is frequently observed in cancer and is believed to contribute to tumor progression by silencing the expression of tumor suppressor genes. Previously, we observed that promoter hypermethylation in breast cancer reflects cell lineage rather than tumor progression and occurs at genes that are already repressed in a lineage-specific manner. To investigate the generality of our observation we analyzed the methylation profiles of 1,154 cancers from 7 different tissue types. RESULTS:We find that 1,009 genes are prone to hypermethylation in these 7 types of cancer. Nearly half of these genes varied in their susceptibility to hypermethylation between different cancer types. We show that the expression status of hypermethylation prone genes in the originator tissue determines their propensity to become hypermethylated in cancer; specifically, genes that are normally repressed in a tissue are prone to hypermethylation in cancers derived from that tissue. We also show that the promoter regions of hypermethylation-prone genes are depleted of repetitive elements and that DNA sequence around the same promoters is evolutionarily conserved. We propose that these two characteristics reflect tissue-specific gene promoter architecture regulating the expression of these hypermethylation prone genes in normal tissues. CONCLUSIONS:As aberrantly hypermethylated genes are already repressed in pre-cancerous tissue, we suggest that their hypermethylation does not directly contribute to cancer development via silencing. Instead aberrant hypermethylation reflects developmental history and the perturbation of epigenetic mechanisms maintaining these repressed promoters in a hypomethylated state in normal cells.

SUBMITTER: Sproul D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3491412 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Tissue of origin determines cancer-associated CpG island promoter hypermethylation patterns.

Sproul Duncan D Kitchen Robert R RR Nestor Colm E CE Dixon J Michael JM Sims Andrew H AH Harrison David J DJ Ramsahoye Bernard H BH Meehan Richard R RR

Genome biology 20121003 10

<h4>Background</h4>Aberrant CpG island promoter DNA hypermethylation is frequently observed in cancer and is believed to contribute to tumor progression by silencing the expression of tumor suppressor genes. Previously, we observed that promoter hypermethylation in breast cancer reflects cell lineage rather than tumor progression and occurs at genes that are already repressed in a lineage-specific manner. To investigate the generality of our observation we analyzed the methylation profiles of 1, ...[more]

PMID: 23034185

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Project description:Much effort in cancer research has focused on the tiny part of our genome that codes for mRNA. However, it has recently been recognized that microRNAs also contribute decisively to tumorigenesis. Studies have also shown that epigenetic silencing by CpG island hypermethylation of microRNAs with tumor suppressor activities is a common feature of human cancer. The importance of other classes of non-coding RNAs, such as long intergenic ncRNAs (lincRNAs) and transcribed ultraconserved regions (T-UCRs) as altered elements in neoplasia, is also gaining recognition. Thus, we wondered whether there were other ncRNAs undergoing CpG island hypermethylation-associated inactivation in cancer cells. We focused on the small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs), a subset of ncRNA with a wide variety of cellular functions, such as chemical modification of RNA, pre-RNA processing and control of alternative splicing. By data mining snoRNA databases and the scientific literature, we selected 49 snoRNAs that had a CpG island within ? 2 Kb or that were processed from a host gene with a 5'-CpG island. Bisulfite genomic sequencing of multiple clones in normal colon mucosa and the colorectal cancer cell line HCT-116 showed that 46 snoRNAs were equally methylated in the two samples: completely unmethylated (n = 26) or fully methylated (n = 20). Most interestingly, the host gene-associated 5'-CpG islands of the snoRNAs SNORD123, U70C and ACA59B were hypermethylated in the cancer cells but not in the corresponding normal tissue. CpG island hypermethylation was associated with the transcriptional silencing of the respective snoRNAs. Results of a DNA methylation microarray platform in a comprehensive collection of normal tissues, cancer cell lines and primary malignancies demonstrated that the observed hypermethylation of snoRNAs was a common feature of various tumor types, particularly in leukemias. Overall, our findings indicate the existence of a new subclass of ncRNAs, snoRNAs, that are targeted by epigenetic inactivation in human cancer.

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Tissue of origin determines cancer-associated CpG island promoter hypermethylation patterns.

Publications

Tissue of origin determines cancer-associated CpG island promoter hypermethylation patterns.

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