Purpose: Hypermethylation of tumor suppressor gene promoters has been found in head and neck squamous carcinoma (HNSCC) and other solid tumors. We evaluated these alterations in pre-treatment salivary rinses from HNSCC patients using real-time quantitative MSP (Q-MSP). Experimental Design: Pre-treatment saliva DNA samples from HNSCC patients were evaluated for patterns of hypermethylation using...

Employing a new algorithm for identifying differentially methylated regions (DMRs) from reduced representation bisulfite sequencing profiles, we identified 1972 hypermethylated and 3250 hypomethylated myogenic DMRs in a comparison of myoblasts (Mb) and myotubes (Mt) with 16 types of nonmuscle cell cultures. DMRs co-localized with a variety of chromatin structures, as deduced from ENCODE whole-g...

Retinoic acid (RA) receptor (RAR) beta2 has been shown to be underexpressed in human breast cancer cells, including MCF-7 cells, and recent reports have suggested that hypermethylation of the RAR beta2 promoter and 5'-UTR is the underlying cause. Here we show that RAR alpha2 is also underexpressed in MCF-7 breast cancer cells, at both the message and the protein level, relative to normal or non...

Promoter hypermethylation-mediated silencing of tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) is a hallmark of oncogenesis. Oxidored-nitro domain-containing protein 1 (NOR1) is a candidate TSG that is downregulated in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). In the present study, we identified a functional NOR1 promoter that is regulated by heat shock factor 1 and nuclear respiratory factor 1. The promoter is located w...

PURPOSE Ovarian carcinomas are believed to arise de novo from surface epithelium, but the actual molecular pathogenesis is unknown. The aim of this study was to compare the promoter hypermethylation profiles of ovarian epithelial neoplasms to better understand the role of epigenetic silencing in carcinogenesis. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN We analyzed the DNA promoter methylation status of eight tumor...

BACKGROUND p16 has been reported to disappear by hypermethylation in various cancers. However, the relationship between the frequency of hypermethylation of p16 and the mechanism of its inactivation has not been completely elucidated in endometrial cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS Hypermethylation in the promoter region of the p16 gene and the expression of the p16 protein in 51 specimens, inclu...

BACKGROUND The authors analyzed whether the promoter hypermethylation of cancer-related genes was involved in the tumorigenesis of malignant gliomas. METHODS A total of 29 patients received surgery and histologically confirmed to have malignant gliomas from January 2000 to December 2006. The promoter methylation status of several genes, which were reported to be frequently methylated in malig...