Epigenetic variability in cells of normal cytology is associated with the risk of future morphological transformation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Recently, it has been proposed that epigenetic variation may contribute to the risk of complex genetic diseases like cancer. We aimed to demonstrate that epigenetic changes in normal cells, collected years in advance of the first signs of morphological transformation, can predict the risk of such transformation.

Methods

We analyzed DNA methylation (DNAm) profiles of over 27,000 CpGs in cytologically normal cells of the uterine cervix from 152 women in a prospective nested case-control study. We used statistics based on differential variability to identify CpGs associated with the risk of transformation and a novel statistical algorithm called EVORA (Epigenetic Variable Outliers for Risk prediction Analysis) to make predictions.

Results

We observed many CpGs

SUBMITTER: Teschendorff AE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3446274 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature