title: Genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation in hepatoblastoma tissues.
abstract: DNA methylation has a crucial role in cancer biology. In the present study, a genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation in hepatoblastoma (HB) tissues was performed to verify differential methylation levels between HB and normal tissues. As alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) has a critical role in HB,AFPmethylation levels were also detected using pyrosequencing. Normal and HB liver tissue samples (frozen tissue) were obtained from patients with HB. Genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation in these tissues was performed using an Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip, and the results were confirmed with reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip demonstrated distinctively less methylation in HB tissues than in non-tumor tissues. In addition, methylation enrichment was observed in positions near the transcription start site ofAFP, which exhibited lower methylation levels in HB tissues than in non-tumor liver tissues. Lastly, a significant negative correlation was observed betweenAFPmessenger RNA expression and DNA methylation percentage, using linear Pearson'sRcorrelation coefficients. The present results demonstrate differential methylation levels between HB and normal tissues, and imply that aberrant methylation ofAFPin HB could reflect HB development. Expansion of these findings could provide useful insight into HB biology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Surgery, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Birth Defects and Key Laboratory of Neonatal Diseases, Ministry of Health, Shanghai 201102, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Ximao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Surgery, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Birth Defects and Key Laboratory of Neonatal Diseases, Ministry of Health, Shanghai 201102, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Baihui
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Surgery, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Birth Defects and Key Laboratory of Neonatal Diseases, Ministry of Health, Shanghai 201102, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Shan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Surgery, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Birth Defects and Key Laboratory of Neonatal Diseases, Ministry of Health, Shanghai 201102, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Kuiran
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Surgery, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Birth Defects and Key Laboratory of Neonatal Diseases, Ministry of Health, Shanghai 201102, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dong
keywords: AFP; cancer; epigenetics; liver; pediatrics