title: Measurement of DNA Length Changes Upon CpG Hypermethylation by Microfluidic Molecular Stretching.
abstract: Abnormal DNA methylation in CpG-rich promoters is recognized as a distinct molecular feature of precursor lesions to cancer. Such unintended methylation can occur during in vitro differentiation of stem cells. It takes place in a subset of genes during the differentiation or expansion of stem cell derivatives under general culture conditions, which may need to be monitored in future cell transplantation studies. Here we demonstrate a microfluidic device for investigating morphological length changes in DNA methylation. Arrayed polymer chains of single DNA molecules were fluorescently observed by parallel trapping and stretching in the microfluidic channel. This observational study revealed that the shortened DNA length is due to the increased rigidity of the methylated DNA molecule. The trapping rate of the device for DNA molecules was substantially unaffected by changes in the CpG methylation.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Innovation for Future Society, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Japan; †ImPACT Research Center for Advanced Nanobiodevices, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Japan.
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Onoshima
authors.affiliation: †ImPACT Research Center for Advanced Nanobiodevices, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Japan; ‡Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Japan.
authors.forename: Naoko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kawakita
authors.affiliation: †ImPACT Research Center for Advanced Nanobiodevices, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Japan; ‡Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Japan.
authors.forename: Daiki
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Takeshita
authors.affiliation: § Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University , Toyonaka, Osaka , Japan.
authors.forename: Hirohiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Niioka
authors.affiliation: †ImPACT Research Center for Advanced Nanobiodevices, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Japan; ‡Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yukawa
authors.affiliation: § Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University , Toyonaka, Osaka , Japan.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Miyake
authors.affiliation: Institute of Innovation for Future Society, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Japan; †ImPACT Research Center for Advanced Nanobiodevices, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Japan; ‡Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Japan; ¶Health Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Takamatsu, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshinobu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Baba
keywords: Cytosine-guanine dinucleotides (CpG); DNA methylation; Microfluidic device; Single-molecule detection