Project description:Germ cell tumours (GCTs) are a complex group of malignancies. They are unique in developing from a pluripotent progenitor cell. The initial lesion is believed to be the relatively benign precursor lesion (ICGNU), from which either highly chemosensitive seminomas or the more aggressive non-seminomas develop. Previous analyses of selected genes have suggested that non-seminomas exhibit much higher levels of DNA methylation than seminomas. However, the genomic targets that are methylated, the extent to which this results in gene silencing and the identity of the silenced genes most likely to play a role in the tumours’ biology have not yet been established. Here genome-wide methylation and expression analysis of GCT cell lines was combined with gene expression data. This demonstrated that the seminoma cells exhibited very little aberrant DNA methylation while non-seminoma cells exhibited very high levels of DNA methylation. Large differences in the level of methylation of the CpG islands of individual genes between tumour cell lines correlated well with differential gene expression. Treatment of non-seminoma cells with 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine verified that methylation of all genes tested did indeed play a role in their silencing and many of these genes were also differentially expressed in primary tumours. Through this approach the genes silenced in the various GCT cell lines were identified. Conclusions: Several pluripotency-associated genes, never before implicated in this type of cancer, were identified as a major functional group of silenced genes. Silencing of these factors that normally suppress somatic differentiation might play an important role in the progression to non-seminoma formation.
Project description:Germ cell tumours (GCTs) are a complex group of malignancies. They are unique in developing from a pluripotent progenitor cell. The initial lesion is believed to be the relatively benign precursor lesion (ICGNU), from which either highly chemosensitive seminomas or the more aggressive non-seminomas develop. Previous analyses of selected genes have suggested that non-seminomas exhibit much higher levels of DNA methylation than seminomas. However, the genomic targets that are methylated, the extent to which this results in gene silencing and the identity of the silenced genes most likely to play a role in the tumours’ biology have not yet been established. Here genome-wide methylation and expression analysis of GCT cell lines was combined with gene expression data. This demonstrated that the seminoma cells exhibited very little aberrant DNA methylation while non-seminoma cells exhibited very high levels of DNA methylation. Large differences in the level of methylation of the CpG islands of individual genes between tumour cell lines correlated well with differential gene expression. Treatment of non-seminoma cells with 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine verified that methylation of all genes tested did indeed play a role in their silencing and many of these genes were also differentially expressed in primary tumours. Through this approach the genes silenced in the various GCT cell lines were identified. Conclusions: Several pluripotency-associated genes, never before implicated in this type of cancer, were identified as a major functional group of silenced genes. Silencing of these factors that normally suppress somatic differentiation might play an important role in the progression to non-seminoma formation.
Project description:Germ cell tumours (GCTs) are a complex group of malignancies. They are unique in developing from a pluripotent progenitor cell. The initial lesion is believed to be the relatively benign precursor lesion (ICGNU), from which either highly chemosensitive seminomas or the more aggressive non-seminomas develop. Previous analyses of selected genes have suggested that non-seminomas exhibit much higher levels of DNA methylation than seminomas. However, the genomic targets that are methylated, the extent to which this results in gene silencing and the identity of the silenced genes most likely to play a role in the tumoursâ biology have not yet been established. Here genome-wide methylation and expression analysis of GCT cell lines was combined with gene expression data. This demonstrated that the seminoma cells exhibited very little aberrant DNA methylation while non-seminoma cells exhibited very high levels of DNA methylation. Large differences in the level of methylation of the CpG islands of individual genes between tumour cell lines correlated well with differential gene expression. Treatment of non-seminoma cells with 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine verified that methylation of all genes tested did indeed play a role in their silencing and many of these genes were also differentially expressed in primary tumours. Through this approach the genes silenced in the various GCT cell lines were identified. Conclusions: Several pluripotency-associated genes, never before implicated in this type of cancer, were identified as a major functional group of silenced genes. Silencing of these factors that normally suppress somatic differentiation might play an important role in the progression to non-seminoma formation. Genomic DNA and RNA was extracted from cell lines representing four subtypes of GCT. RNA was subjected to Affymetric expression array analysis while DNA was bisulfite treated and analysed using Illumina Infinium 450K arrays. Statistical approaches were used to correlate methylation and expression for each gene.
Project description:Germ cell tumours (GCTs) are a complex group of malignancies. They are unique in developing from a pluripotent progenitor cell. The initial lesion is believed to be the relatively benign precursor lesion (ICGNU), from which either highly chemosensitive seminomas or the more aggressive non-seminomas develop. Previous analyses of selected genes have suggested that non-seminomas exhibit much higher levels of DNA methylation than seminomas. However, the genomic targets that are methylated, the extent to which this results in gene silencing and the identity of the silenced genes most likely to play a role in the tumoursâ biology have not yet been established. Here genome-wide methylation and expression analysis of GCT cell lines was combined with gene expression data. This demonstrated that the seminoma cells exhibited very little aberrant DNA methylation while non-seminoma cells exhibited very high levels of DNA methylation. Large differences in the level of methylation of the CpG islands of individual genes between tumour cell lines correlated well with differential gene expression. Treatment of non-seminoma cells with 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine verified that methylation of all genes tested did indeed play a role in their silencing and many of these genes were also differentially expressed in primary tumours. Through this approach the genes silenced in the various GCT cell lines were identified. Conclusions: Several pluripotency-associated genes, never before implicated in this type of cancer, were identified as a major functional group of silenced genes. Silencing of these factors that normally suppress somatic differentiation might play an important role in the progression to non-seminoma formation. Genomic DNA and RNA was extracted from cell lines representing four subtypes of GCT. RNA was subjected to Affymetric expression array analysis while DNA was bisulfite treated and analysed using Illumina Infinium 450K arrays. Statistical approaches were used to correlate methylation and expression for each gene.
Project description:Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip (850k) array analysis of DNA methylation of primary CAF isolated from fresh ex vivo GCT patient tissue. Purity of CAF populations were verified by qPCR analysis of common CAF, GCT, endothelial and epithelial markers. 14 different CAF cultures from distinct GCT subtypes (seminoma(SE), non-seminoma(NS)) and 5 non-malignant fibroblast cultures were analyzed.
Project description:Genome wide DNA methylation profiling of 20 PDAC cell lines and an immortalized non-malignant pancreatic duct cell line (HPDE) to facilitate identification of novel tumor suppressor genes using an integrative genomics approach Genome wide DNA methylation profiling of 20 PDAC cell lines and an immortalized non-malignant pancreatic duct cell line (HPDE) to identify novel tumor suppressor genes
Project description:Illumina Infinium 450k Human DNA Methylation BeadChip was used to obtain DNA methylation profiles across approximately 470,000 CpG and 2,700 non-CG loci in 195 DNA extracts from iPSCs, ESCs and donor cell lines. Non-CG methylation is an unexplored epigenetic hallmark of pluripotent stem cells. Here we report that a reduction in non-CG methylation is associated with impaired differentiation capacity into endodermal lineages. Genome-wide analysis of 2,670 non-CG sites in a discovery cohort of 25 phenotyped human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) lines revealed unidirectional loss (Δβ = 13%, p<7.4x10-4) of non-CG methylation that correctly identifies endodermal differentiation capacity in 23 out of 25 (92%) hiPSC lines. Translation into a simplified assay of only 9 non-CG sites maintains predictive power in the discovery cohort (Δβ = 23%, p<9.1x10-6) and correctly identifies endodermal differentiation capacity in nince out of ten pluripotent stem cell lines in an independent replication cohort consisting of hiPSCs reprogrammed from different cell types and different delivery systems, as well as human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines. This finding infers non-CG methylation at these sites as a biomarker when assessing endodermal differentiation capacity as a readout.