BACKGROUND Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is characterized by profound changes in the lung phenotype including excessive extracellular matrix deposition, myofibroblast foci, alveolar epithelial cell hyperplasia and extensive remodeling. The role of epigenetic changes in determining the lung phenotype in IPF is unknown. In this study we determine whether IPF lungs exhibit an altered global ...

Many CpG islands have tissue-dependent and differentially methylated regions (T-DMRs) in normal cells and tissues. To elucidate how DNA methyltransferases (Dnmts) participate in methylation of the genomic components, we investigated the genome-wide DNA methylation pattern of the T-DMRs with Dnmt1-, Dnmt3a-, and/or Dnmt3b-deficient ES cells by restriction landmark genomic scanning (RLGS). Approx...

The subterranean environment of Christmas Island is diverse and includes freshwater, marine, anchialine, and terrestrial habitats. The cave fauna comprises swiftlets, and a diverse assemblage of invertebrates, both terrestrial and aquatic, which includes a number of rare and endemic species of high conservation significance. At least twelve species are probably restricted to subterranean habita...

PURPOSE Methylation of CpG islands contributes to gene silencing during cancer development, and although some methylation alterations are promising diagnostic markers of cancer, some CpG islands are also methylated in normal tissues. We have previously observed that some normally unmethylated CpG islands that undergo methylation in pancreatic cancers are normally methylated in the adjacent duod...

BACKGROUND Methylation of CpG islands of genome DNA and lysine residues of histone H3 and H4 tails regulates gene transcription. Inhibition of polyamine synthesis by ornithine decarboxylase antizyme-1 (OAZ) in human oral cancer cell line resulted in accumulation of decarboxylated S-adenosylmethionine (dcSAM), which acts as a competitive inhibitor of methylation reactions. We anticipated that ac...

Loss of expression for both the estrogen receptor-alpha and E-cadherin genes has been linked to disease progression in human ductal breast carcinomas and has been associated with aberrant 5' CpG island methylation. To assess when, during malignant progression, such methylation begins and whether such methylation increases with advancing disease, we have surveyed 111 ductal carcinomas of the bre...

Cell division is essential for tumor development and progression. Methylation-mediated silencing caused by aberrant de novo methylation of CpG islands located in the promoter regions of growth regulatory genes occurs frequently in human cancers. We investigated the relationship between cell division and de novo methylation to determine whether de novo methylation can occur in the absence of cel...