Transcriptionally repressed genes become aberrantly methylated and distinguish tumors of different lineages in breast cancer.

ABSTRACT: Aberrant promoter hypermethylation is frequently observed in cancer. The potential for this mechanism to contribute to tumor development depends on whether the genes affected are repressed because of their methylation. Many aberrantly methylated genes play important roles in development and are bivalently marked in ES cells, suggesting that their aberrant methylation may reflect developmental processes. We investigated this possibility by analyzing promoter methylation in 19 breast cancer cell lines and 47 primary breast tumors. In cell lines, we defined 120 genes that were significantly repressed in association with methylation (SRAM). These genes allowed the unsupervised segregation of cell lines into epithelial (EPCAM+ve) and mesenchymal (EPCAM-ve) lineages. However, the methylated gene

SUBMITTER: Sproul D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3060255 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature