Inactivation of tumor-related genes by promoter hypermethylation is a common epigenetic event in the development of variety of tumors. Dermo1 (also called twist2) is a novel cancer-related gene which belongs to the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor family. Herein, we report that dermo1 expression was sporadically abrogated in human cancer cells by transcriptional silencing asso...

PURPOSE Promoter hypermethylation is an important mechanism of inactivation of tumor suppressor genes in cancer cells. Kidney tumors are heterogeneous in their histology, genetics, and clinical behavior. To gain insight into the role of epigenetic silencing of tumor suppressor and cancer genes in kidney tumorigenesis, we determined a hypermethylation profile of kidney cancer. EXPERIMENTAL DES...

Mutations of the BRCA1 gene in tumor DNA from patients with sporadic breast cancer have not yet been observed. Nevertheless, BRCA1 activity is markedly decreased in invasive breast tumors. Previous reports have shown that hypermethylation of the promoter region is an alternative mechanism to mutation for the inactivation of tumor suppressor genes. We examined the BRCA1 promoter region for hyper...

Purpose: Promoter hypermethylation is an important mechanism of inactivation of tumor suppressor genes in cancer cells. Kidney tumors are heterogeneous in their histology, genetics, and clinical behavior. To gain insight into the role of epigenetic silencing of tumor suppressor and cancer genes in kidney tumorigenesis, we determined a hypermethylation profile of kidney cancer. Experimental Desi...

BACKGROUND The p16 tumor suppressor gene is an important negative regulator of the cell cycle. Inactivation of p16, especially via promoter hypermethylation, has been found in numerous human cancers such as breast, lung, colorectal, and liver. OBJECTIVES To determine the role of epigenetic methylation in p16 regulation in Iranian patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). PATIENTS AND ME...

BACKGROUND This study aimed to detect hypermethylation in serum DNA from patients with gastric cancer at various stages and to assess the assay for early detection of primary and recurrent disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS Preoperative serum samples were obtained from 109 patients with gastric cancer. Blood samples were subjected to methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction analysis to dete...

Maintaining and acquiring the pluripotent cell state in plants is critical to tissue regeneration and vegetative multiplication. Histone-based epigenetic mechanisms are important for regulating this undifferentiated state. Here we report the use of genetic and pharmacological experimental approaches to show that Arabidopsis cell suspensions and calluses specifically repress some genes as a resu...