Triple analysis of the cancer epigenome: an integrated microarray system for assessing gene expression, DNA methylation, and histone acetylation.
We developed a novel microarray system to assess gene expression, DNA methylation, and histone acetylation in parallel, and to dissect the complex hierarchy of epigenetic changes in cancer. An integrated microarray panel consisting of 1507 short CpG island tags located at the 5'-end regions (including the first exons) was used to assess effects of epigenetic treatments on a human epithelial ovarian cancer cell line. Treatment with methylation (5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine) or deacetylation (trichostatin A) inhibitors alone resulted in up-regulation of 1.9 or 1.1% of the genes analyzed; however, the combined treatment resulted in synergistic reactivation of more genes (10.4%; P < 0.001 versus either treatment alone). On the basis of either primary or secondary responses to the treatments, genes were identified as methylation-dependent or -independent. Synergistic reactivation of the methylation-dependent genes by 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine plus trichostatin A revealed a functional interaction between methylated promoters and deacetylated histones. Increased expression of some methylation-independent genes was associated with enhanced histone acetylation, but up-regulation of most of the genes identified using this technology was because of events downstream of the epigenetic cascade. We demonstrate proof of principle for using the triple microarray system in analyzing the dynamic relationship between transcription factors and promoter targets in cancer genomes.
Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia 65203, USA.
Huidong
H
Shi
Susan H
SH
Wei
Yu-Wei
YW
Leu
Farahnaz
F
Rahmatpanah
Joseph C
JC
Liu
Pearlly S
PS
Yan
Kenneth P
KP
Nephew
Tim Hui-Ming
TH
Huang
D000107:Acetylation; D019175:DNA Methylation; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D020868:Gene Silencing; D015894:Genome, Human; D006657:Histones / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D015854:Up-Regulation
D006657:Histones