Abstract Purpose: The goal of this study was to comprehensively identify CpG island methylation alterations between pancreatic cancers and normal pancreata and their associated gene expression alterations. Experimental Design: We employed methylated CpG island amplification followed by CpG island microarray, a method previously validated for its accuracy and reproducibility, to analyze the meth...

This study investigated the role of CpG island methylation of the CYP2E1 and CYP2D6 genes in liver injury induced by anti-TB drugs from an epigenetic perspective in a Chinese cohort. A 1:1 matched nested case-control study design was applied. Pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) patients, who underwent standard anti-TB therapy and developed liver injury were defined as cases, while those who did not dev...

Nickel (Ni) compounds are potent carcinogens and can induce malignant transformation of rodent and human cells. To uncover the molecular mechanisms of nickel sulfide (NiS)-induced cell transformation, we investigated epigenetic alterations in a set of DNA repair genes. The silencing of the O(6)-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) gene locus and upregulation of DNA methyltransferase 1 (DN...

Human cancer cell lines are commonly used in basic cancer research to understand the behavior of primary tumors. Aberrations in the DNA methylation patterns are nowadays recognized as a hallmark of the cancer cell. However, no comprehensive study defines the DNA methylation environment present in the established cancer cell lines used in everyday laboratory-based research. To address this matte...

OBJECTIVE The abnormal expression of fragile histidine triad (FHIT) gene has been frequently reported in a variety of epithelial malignancies including cervical carcinoma. Furthermore, in a recent study it was proposed that transcriptional inactivation of FHIT, as a consequence of aberrant 5'-CpG island methylation, plays an important role in the carcinogenesis of human cervical carcinoma. The ...

One mechanism that could block transcription of the ER gene in ER-negative breast cancers without structural alteration in the gene is methylation of cytosine-rich areas, termed “CpGislands,―in the 5' regulatory region of the gene (9). CpG islands are always unmethylated in normal adult tissues, with the exception of tran scriptionally silent genes on the inactive X chromosome (9) and selec...

Ectopic secretion of ACTH, from sites such as small cell lung cancer (SCLC), results in severe Cushing's syndrome. ACTH is cleaved from POMC. The syndrome may occur when the highly tissue-specific promoter of the human POMC gene (POMC) is activated. The mechanism of activation is not fully understood. This promoter is embedded within a defined CpG island, and CpG islands are usually considered ...

PURPOSE The goal of this study was to comprehensively identify CpG island methylation alterations between pancreatic cancers and normal pancreata and their associated gene expression alterations. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN We employed methylated CpG island amplification followed by CpG island microarray, a method previously validated for its accuracy and reproducibility, to analyze the methylation p...

Human cancer cell lines are commonly used in basic cancer research to understand the behavior of primary tumors. Aberrations in the DNA methylation patterns are nowadays recognized as a hallmark of the cancer cell. However, no comprehensive study defines the DNA methylation environment present in the established cancer cell lines used in everyday laboratory-based research. To address this matte...

Polycomb proteins are epigenetic regulators that localize to developmental loci in the early embryo where they mediate lineage-specific gene repression. In Drosophila, these repressors are recruited to sequence elements by DNA binding proteins associated with Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2). However, the sequences that recruit PRC2 in mammalian cells have remained obscure. To address this,...