Identification of a key role of widespread epigenetic drift in Barrett's esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Recent studies have identified age-related changes in DNA methylation patterns in normal and cancer tissues in a process that is called epigenetic drift. However, the evolving patterns, functional consequences, and dynamics of epigenetic drift during carcinogenesis remain largely unexplored. Here we analyze the evolution of epigenetic drift patterns during progression from normal squamous esophagus tissue to Barrett's esophagus (BE) to esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) using 173 tissue samples from 100 (nonfamilial) BE patients, along with publically available datasets including The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA).

Results

Our analysis reveals extensive methylomic drift between normal squamous esophagus and BE tissues in nonprogressed BE patients, with differential drift

SUBMITTER: Luebeck EG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5644061 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature