Promoter methylation in the PTCH gene in cervical epithelial cancer and ovarian cancer tissue as studied by eight novel Pyrosequencing® assays

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  • Zarah Maria Löf Öhlin
  • Sonja Levanat
  • Maja Sabol
  • Bengt Sorbe
  • Torbjörn K Nilsson
DNA methylation status in the CpG sites of promoter regions in cancer-related genes, such as PTCH, has traditionally been investigated using either dye-terminator sequencing or methylation-specific PCR. We aimed to study the PTCH gene promoter methylation in gynecological cancers, with a method that gives a quantitative measure of the methylation status of the promoter region of the studied gene, and for this purpose, we designed novel Pyrosequencing-based assays. Bisulfite-treated genomic DNA (bsDNA) was amplified by standard PCR and applied to novel Pyrosequencing® assays, in order to measure the methylated fraction (%) at each CpG site of the PTCH gene promoter. We analyzed 22 squamous cell cervical cancer tissue specimens (11 with good and 11 with poor outcomes after radiotherapy) and 5 ovarian cancer tissue specimens matched with 5 normal ovarian tissue specimens. Six optimized PCR protocols which generated 8 Pyrosequencing assays covering 63 CpG sites in the promoter regions 1 and 2 as well as the previously unanalyzed promoter region 3 in the PTCH gene were developed. The 27 tumor tissue specimens and 5 normal tissues did not show any methylation within any of the 63 CpG sites. Our data suggest that methylation of the PTCH promoter is not a high-prevalence feature of squamous cell cervical cancer or ovarian cancer, but Pyrosequencing assays are a good method for studying promoter methylation.
Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Journal of Oncology Research
Volume38
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)685-92
Number of pages8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2011
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • Base Sequence, CpG Islands, DNA Methylation, Female, Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic, Gene Frequency, High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing, Humans, Matched-Pair Analysis, Molecular Sequence Data, Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial, Ovarian Neoplasms, Promoter Regions, Genetic, Receptors, Cell Surface, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Uterine Cervical Neoplasms

ID: 46848160