title: DNA methylation at selected CpG sites in peripheral blood leukocytes is predictive of gastric cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Recently, a set of studies addressed the question of the prevalence of aberrant methylation in surrogate tissues, such as peripheral blood leukocytes. Toward this aim, we conducted a case-control pilot study to investigate aberrant methylation in leukocytes of gastric cancer patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  The SNuPE combined with ion pair reverse phase HPLC (SIRPH method) was used to examine site-specific methylation status at selected CpG sites of the promoter regions of APC, ACIN1, BCL2, CD44, DAPK1, CDKN2A, RARB, TNFRSF10C HS3ST2 and of LINE-1, Alu repeats.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We observed that in the patients, tumor suppressor genes were slightly but significantly higher methylated at several CpG sites, while DNA repetitive elements were slightly less methylated compared to controls. This was found to be significantly associated with higher prevalence for gastric cancer.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that larger studies must be carried-out to explore the biological significance and clinical usefulness of leukocyte DNA as non-invasive detection tool for gastric cancer.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Digestive Research, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania albertas.dauksa@gmail.com osman.elmaarri@ukb.uni-bonn.de.
authors.forename: Albertas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dauksa
authors.affiliation: Institute for Digestive Research, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Antanas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gulbinas
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Zilvinas
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Endzinas
authors.affiliation: Institute of Experimental Hematology and Transfusion Medicine, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Oldenburg
authors.affiliation: Institute of Experimental Hematology and Transfusion Medicine, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany albertas.dauksa@gmail.com osman.elmaarri@ukb.uni-bonn.de.
authors.forename: Osman
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: El-Maarri
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D018899:CpG Islands; D019175:DNA Methylation; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D057890:Epigenomics; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D015995:Prevalence; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology
keywords: DNA methylation; SIRPH; gastric cancer; peripheral blood leukocyte; surrogate tissue