Aberrant methylation around E-cadherin gene promoter region in nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissues and cell lines, and the peripheral blood of patients
RAN Yong-gang
YOU Yan-jie
HUANG Ji-hong
LI Wen-mei
YUAN Yi
LI Hai-jun
ZHAO Xin-lei
Abstract：Objective To investigate the expression and methylation status of E -cadherin in nasopharyngeal car-cinoma ( NPC) , and to evaluate efficacy of methylated E -cadherin in peripheral blood as a potential biomarker on the di-agnosis of NPC.Methods RT-PCR and methylation-specific PCR ( MSP) were performed to analyze the mRNA ex-pression levels and methylation status of E -cadherin in primary NPC specimens and two tumor cell lines .MSP was also used to observe the methylated E -cadherin in primary NPC specimens , two tumor cell lines and peripheral blood samples of NPC patients.Results Down-regulated E-cadherin expression was detected in 32 of 40 (80%) primary tumors as well as two NPC cell lines , when compared with normal tissues .Methylated E-cadherin was observed in 26 of 40 (65%) primary tumors but not in normal tissues .Moreover, E-cadherin methylation was also detected in 9 of 20 (45%) periph-eral blood samples of NPC patients .Conclusion Promoter methylation may be one of the mechanisms inducing E -cad-herin silencing .Detection of methylated E -cadherin in peripheral blood suggests potential clinical application for nonin -vasive diagnosis and disease monitoring of NPC .
Keywords：nasopharyngeal neoplasmsdesmosomal cadherinsDNA methylation
Publication Date：2015-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：4( 208-211 )