Project description:BACKGROUND & AIM: Sessile serrated adenoma/polyps (SSA/Ps) are the likely culprit of ~20% colon cancers but they are molecularly poorly understood. We investigated their epigenetic phenotype using high-throughput analysis of DNA methylation and gene expression. METHODS: 17 SSA/Ps and, as a comparative group, 15 conventional adenomas (all with matched samples of normal mucosa) were prospectively collected during colonoscopy. DNA from the 64 tissues was analyzed, via bisulfite next generation sequencing, for methylation at ~2.7 million CpG sites located prevalently in gene regulatory regions spanning 80.5Mb (~2.5% of the genome). The transcriptome of these samples was also investigated using RNA sequencing. An independent series of 61 archival lesions was used for targeted verification of DNA methylation. RESULTS: Both SSA/Ps and conventional adenomas showed a profound remodelling of their methylome. Cytosine hypermethylation was more pervasive in SSA/Ps than adenomas, in terms of number of hypermethylated regions (22,147 vs 15,965, respectively) and genes (4938 vs 3443, respectively). In addition, the extent of hypermethylation in a given region was higher in SSA/Ps than adenomas. This methylation pattern of SSA/Ps was reminiscent of the CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) of their descendant cancers. We have called this phenotype proto-CIMP since most of the hypermethylation occurred in CpG islands and shores. SSA/Ps were also protected from a wave of demethylation that instead occurred in adenomas outside of CpG islands/shores (4288 vs 18,417 hypomethylated regions in SSAPs vs adenomas). Verification studies of six hypermethylated regions demonstrated the high potential of DNA methylation markers for predicting the diagnosis of SSA/Ps and/or adenomas. Proto-CIMP of SSA/Ps was surprisingly associated with a higher number of up- (618) than downregulated (349) genes, while adenomas showed the opposite trend (516 up- vs 712 downregulated genes). CONCLUSIONS: The epigenetic landscape of SSA/Ps differs substantially from that of conventional adenomas. This huge amount of epigenetic variation represents a rich source of promising diagnostic tools, such as novel DNA markers or histologic stainings, for the tailored management of the two most frequent colon cancer precursors.

Project description:Traditional serrated adenoma (TSA) remains the least understood of all the colorectal adenomas although these lesions have been associated with a significant cancer risk- twice that of the conventional adenoma (CAD) and of the sessile serrated adenoma (SSA/P). This study was performed to investigate the proteomic profiles of the different colorectal adenomas to better assess the pathogenesis of TSA. We performed a global quantitative expression profile of 44 colorectal adenomas (12 TSA, 15 CAD, 17 SSA/Ps) and 17 normal colonic mucosa, conserved as formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples, by the label-free quantification (LFQ) method. Unsupervised consensus hierarchical clustering applied to the whole proteomic profile of the 44 colorectal adenomas identified four subtypes. The C1 and C2 were well-individualized clusters composed of most of the CAD (14/15) and most of the SSA (13/17) respectively. This is consistent with the fact that CAD and SSA/Ps are homogeneous but distinct colorectal adenoma entities. In contrast, TSA were subdivided into C3 and C4 clusters that also contained CAD and SSA/Ps, consistent with the more heterogeneous entity of TSA at the morphological and molecular levels. The comparison of the proteome expression profile between the adenoma subtypes and normal colonic mucosa further confirmed the heterogeneous nature of TSA that merged either on CAD or SSA, while CAD and TSA formed homogeneous and distinct entities. Furthermore, we identified LEFTY1 a new potential marker for TSA that may be relevant for the TSA pathogenesis. LEFTY1 is an inhibitor of the Nodal/TGFb pathway that we found to be one of the most overexpressed proteins specifically in the TSA and confirmed by immunohistochemistry. Taken together, our study confirms that CAD and SSA form homogenous but distinct colorectal adenoma entities while TSA are an heterogeneous entity and may arise from either SSA or from normal mucosa that will evolve along the conventional adenoma pathway.

Dataset Information

Bisulphite-seq to investigate the proto CpG island methylator phenotype of sessile serrated adenoma/polyps, dataset 2

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