title: Molecular and cytological evidence of S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine as an innocuous undermethylating agent in vivo.
abstract: Undermethylating agents are frequently used in the study of DNA methylation. However, the drugs of choice to induce experimental DNA undermethylation, 5-azacytidine and 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine, are known to be cytotoxic. We report on S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine (SAH) as an alternative agent for inducing undermethylation of human DNA in vivo. The molecular and cytological evidence presented in this paper clearly suggests that SAH could be even more efficient than the cytidine analogs; in addition, SAH does not exhibit the secondary toxic effects that cripple the usefulness of cytidine analogs.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biologiá, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autoónoma de Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: S F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: De Cabo
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fernández-Piqueras
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000187:drug effects; D008745:Methylation; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012270:Ribosomes / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D012435:S-Adenosylhomocysteine / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D004247:DNA; D012435:S-Adenosylhomocysteine