title: Identification of novel DNA methylation markers in cervical cancer.
abstract: Testing for DNA methylation has potential in cancer screening. Most previous studies of DNA methylation in cervical cancer used a candidate gene approach. The aim our study was to identify novel genes that are methylated in cervical cancers and to test their potential in clinical applications. We did a differential methylation hybridization using a CpG island (CGI) microarray containing 8640 CGI tags to uncover methylated genes in squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) of the uterine cervix. Pooled DNA from cancer tissues and normal cervical swabs were used for comparison. Methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction, bisulfite sequencing and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction were used to confirm the methylation status in cell lines, normal cervices (n = 45), low-grade lesions (n = 45), high-grade lesions (HSIL; n = 58) and invasive squamous cell carcinomas (SCC; n = 22 from swabs and n = 109 from tissues). Human papillomavirus (HPV) was detected using reverse line blots. We reported 6 genes (SOX1, PAX1, LMX1A, NKX6-1, WT1 and ONECUT1) more frequently methylated in SCC tissues (81.5, 94.4, 89.9, 80.4, 77.8 and 20.4%, respectively) than in their normal controls (2.2, 0, 6.7, 11.9, 11.1 and 0%, respectively; p < 0.0001). Parallel testing of HPV and PAX1 methylation in cervical swabs confers an improved sensitivity than HPV testing alone (80% vs. 66%) without compromising specificity (63% vs. 64%) for HSIL/SCC. Testing PAX1 methylation marker alone, the specificity for HSIL/SCC is 99%. The analysis of these novel DNA methylations may be a promising approach for the screening of cervical cancers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tri-Service General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. hclai@ndmctsgh.edu.tw
authors.forename: Hung-Cheng
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.forename: Ya-Wen
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Tim H M
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Pearlly
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Rui-Lan
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Hui-Chen
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Michael W Y
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Tang-Yuan
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.forename: Chien-An
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Cheng-Chang
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Mu-Hsien
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D018899:CpG Islands / Q000235:genetics; D019175:DNA Methylation; D015344:DNA Probes, HPV; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D051761:Paired Box Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics; D040081:Protein Array Analysis; D012107:Research Design; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013447:Sulfites; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D002578:Uterine Cervical Dysplasia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D015344:DNA Probes, HPV; D051761:Paired Box Transcription Factors; D013447:Sulfites; C070835:PAX1 transcription factor; C042345:hydrogen sulfite