NANOG promoter methylation and expression correlation during normal and malignant human germ cell development.

ABSTRACT: Testicular germ cell tumors are the most frequent malignant tumors in young Caucasian males, with increasing incidence. The actual model of tumorigenesis is based on the theory that a block in maturation of fetal germ cells lead to formation of the intratubular germ cell neoplasia unclassified. Early fetal germ cells and undifferentiated germ cell tumors express pluripotency markers such as the transcription factor NANOG. It has been demonstrated, that epigenetic modifications such as promoter DNA-methylation is able to silence gene expression in normal and cancer cells. Here we show, that OCT3/4-SOX2 mediated expression of NANOG can be silenced by methylation of promoter CpG-sites. We found that global methylation of DNA decreased from fetal spermatogonia to mature sperm. In contrast, CpG

SUBMITTER: Nettersheim D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3052918 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature