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Abstract:
aberrant DNa methylation often occurs in colorectal cancer (cRc). In our study
we applied a genome-wide DNa methylation analysis approach, Methylcap-seq, to
map the differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in 24 tumors and matched
normal colon samples. In total, 2687 frequently hypermethylated and 468
frequently hypomethylated regions were identified, which include potential
biomarkers for cRc diagnosis. hypermethylation in the tumor samples was
enriched at cpG islands and gene promoters, while hypomethylation was
distributed throughout the genome. Using epigenetic data from human embryonic
stem cells, we show that frequently hypermethylated regions coincide with
bivalent loci in human embryonic stem cells. DNa methylation is commonly
thought to lead to gene silencing; however, integration of publically available
gene expression data indicates that 75 of the frequently hypermethylated genes
were most likely already lowly or not expressed in normal tissue. collectively,
our study provides genome-wide DNa methylation maps of cRc, comprehensive lists
of DMRs, and gives insights into the role of aberrant DNa methylation in cRc
formation.
