title: Study of promoter methylation pattern of 14-3-3 sigma gene in normal and cancerous tissue of breast: A potential biomarker for detection of breast cancer in patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In recent years, DNA methylation as a main epigenetic modification in human cancer is found as a promising biomarker in early detection of breast cancer. Possible applications of numerous hypermethylated genes have been reported in diagnosis of breast cancer but there has been a little comprehensive study on the clinical usefulness of these genes in breast cancer. The aim of the present study was to investigate the promoter methylation status of 14-3-3 sigma gene with the goal of developing a diagnostic application in breast cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Totally 40 cases of cancerous and noncancerous tissues were studied. DNA was extracted from tissue samples, and promoter methylation pattern was determined by using methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Methylation pattern of 14-3-3 sigma promoter significantly differed between control and malignant breast tissues (P = 0.001), and there was no remarkable correlation between methylation and age (P > 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The relationship of promoter methylation of 14-3-3 sigma with development of breast cancer found in this study and confirmed the results of previous reports suggests that we can provide the foundation for possible application of 14-3-3 sigma as a potential biomarker for early detection and monitoring disease status.
authors: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Division of Genetics, Isfahan, Iran.
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Gheibi
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Kazemi
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Baradaran
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Akbari
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Salehi
keywords: 14-3-3 Sigma; DNA methylation; early detection