Promoter Methylation of GATA4, WIF1, NTRK1 and Other Selected Tumour Suppressor Genes in Ovarian Cancer

Chmelařová, Marcela; Dvořáková, E.; Špaček, J.; Laco, J.; Mžik, M.; Palička, V.

doi:10.14712/fb2013059020087

Folia Biologica > Archive > 2013, Vol. 59 > Issue 2 > Promoter Methylation of GATA4,…

Fol. Biol. 2013, 59, 87-92

https://doi.org/10.14712/fb2013059020087

Promoter Methylation of GATA4, WIF1, NTRK1 and Other Selected Tumour Suppressor Genes in Ovarian Cancer

Marcela Chmelařová¹, E. Dvořáková², J. Špaček², J. Laco³, M. Mžik¹, V. Palička¹

¹Institute for Clinical Biochemistry and Diagnostics, Charles University in Prague – Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové and University Hospital Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
²Department of Obstetrics and Gyneacology, Charles University in Prague – Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové and University Hospital Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
³The Fingerland Department of Pathology, Charles University in Prague – Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové and University Hospital Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

Received October 2012
Accepted January 2013

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynaecologic tumours, but the molecular and especially epigenetic events underlying the transformation are poorly understood. Various methylation changes have been identified and show promise as potential cancer biomarkers. The aim of this study was to investigate promoter methylation of selected tumour suppressor genes in ovarian cancer by comparison with normal ovarian tissue. To search for epigenetic events we used methylation-specific multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification to compare the methylation status of 44 tissue samples of ovarian cancer with 30 control samples. Using a 20% cut-off for methylation, we observed significantly higher methylation in genes NTRK1, GATA4 and WIF1 in the ovarian cancer group compared with the control group. These findings could potentially be used in screening of ovarian cancer, and may have implications for future chemotherapy based on epigenetic changes.

Keywords

MS-MLPA, DNA methylation, ovarian cancer, epigenetics.

Funding

This study was supported by the project from the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic for conceptual development of research organization 00179906, by Grant SVV-2012-264902 and by project PRVOUK of Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic.