Aberrant expression of deoxyribonucleic acid methyltransferases DNMT1, DNMT3A, and DNMT3B in women with endometriosis.
OBJECTIVE
Since endometriosis is a persistent disease with substantial gene dysregulation, there must be cellular memory of some sort that constitutes a unique cell identity for endometriotic cells. Epigenetic regulation, especially through DNA methylation, is a flexible, yet stable, mechanism for maintaining such a cellular memory. The aim of this study was to determine gene expression levels of DNMT1, DNMT3A, and DNMT3B, the three genes coding for DNA methyltransferases that are responsible for methylation.


METHODS
Cross-sectional measurements of gene expression levels of DNMT1, DNMT3A, and DNMT3B on endometriotic tissue.


METHODS
Academic.


METHODS
Seventeen patients with laparoscopically confirmed endometriosis and 8 healthy women who underwent tubal sterilization who were free of endometriosis were recruited for the study.


METHODS
Epithelial cells were harvested from tissue samples by laser capture microdissection and messenger RNA abundance was measured by quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.


METHODS
The expression levels of these genes in epithelial cells from 13 ectopic endometrial tissue samples, 10 eutopic endometrial tissue samples taken from women with endometriosis, and 8 normal endometrial tissue samples from women without endometriosis.


RESULTS
The genes DNMT1, DNMT3A, and DNMT3B were over-expressed in the ectopic endometrium as compared with normal control subjects or the eutopic endometrium of women with endometriosis, and their expression levels were correlated positively with each other.


CONCLUSIONS
The aberrant expression of these genes suggests that aberrant methylation may be rampant in endometriosis. This also provides a strong piece of evidence that endometriosis ultimately may be an epigenetic disease.
Wu
Yan
Y
Department of Pediatrics, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53226-0509, USA.
Strawn
Estil
E
Basir
Zainab
Z
Halverson
Gloria
G
Guo
Sun-Wei
SW
D000328:Adult; D000076123:DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferase 1; D004248:DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferases / Q000378:metabolism*; D000090205:DNA Methyltransferase 3A; D004715:Endometriosis / Q000201:enzymology*; D004717:Endometrium / Q000201:enzymology*; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D014018:Tissue Distribution; D000097584:DNA Methyltransferase 3B
D000076123:DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferase 1; D004248:DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferases; D000090205:DNA Methyltransferase 3A; D000097584:DNA Methyltransferase 3B; C000717967:DNMT3A protein, human; C000619380:DNMT1 protein, human