title: Hypermethylation-associated transcriptional silencing of E-cadherin in primary sporadic colorectal carcinomas.
abstract: Loss of E (epithelial)-cadherin expression has been previously documented in sporadic colorectal carcinomas (SCRCs), but not as a consequence of mutations or allelic loss. In this study, the methylation status of the E-cadherin promoter was examined by utilizing the methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP) assay in 63 primary SCRCs and paired adjacent normal tissues. This was correlated with E-cadherin expression at both the RNA and the protein levels using multiplex reverse transcription (RT)-PCR and immunohistochemistry (IHC), respectively. Data were associated with the patients' clinicopathological features. Methylated alleles were present in 34/61 (56%) of the samples examined. Decreased E-cadherin mRNA expression was demonstrated in 29/61 carcinomas (47.5%) and was significantly associated with lymph node (LN) metastases (p = 0.03, Kruskal-Wallis) and tumour stages Astler-Coller B1 and B2 (p = 0.01, chi(2)). E-cadherin IHC expression was significantly associated with the absence of LN metastases (p = 0.01, chi(2)) and tumour stages Astler-Coller B1 and B2 (p = 0.002, Kruskal-Wallis) in 28/63 (44.4%) of the samples examined. Twenty-three out of 29 (79.3%) samples with decreased mRNA expression and 20/33 (60.6%) with detected protein expression revealed methylated (p = 0.03, Kruskal-Wallis) and unmethylated (p = 0.01, Kruskal-Wallis) alleles, respectively. In agreement with previous work demonstrating that somatic mutations and loss of heterozygosity of the E-cadherin gene are rare or absent in the majority of SCRCs studied so far, this study reports a consistent and uniform decrease or absence of E-cadherin expression, associated with aberrant methylation, in the majority of carcinomas examined, suggesting an epigenetically mediated loss of E-cadherin function in these carcinomas.
authors.affiliation: Nursing Military Academy, Laboratory of Research, Athens, Greece. garinis@gen.fgg.eur.nl
authors.forename: George A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Garinis
authors.forename: Panayiotis G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Menounos
authors.forename: Nick E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Spanakis
authors.forename: Kostas
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Papadopoulos
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Karavitis
authors.forename: Ismailou
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Parassi
authors.forename: Evangelia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Christeli
authors.forename: George P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Patrinos
authors.forename: Evangelos N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Manolis
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Peros
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001483:Base Sequence; D015820:Cadherins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D019175:DNA Methylation; D005260:Female; D020868:Gene Silencing; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D012334:RNA, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D015820:Cadherins; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D012334:RNA, Neoplasm