SPARC基因过表达对卵巢癌淋巴结高转移细胞生物学特性的影响

该研究旨在探讨富含半胱氨酸的酸性分泌蛋白基因(secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine gene,SPARC)过表达对卵巢癌淋巴结高转移细胞(SKOV3-PM4)生物学特性的影响。构建SPARC基因的慢病毒表达载体并转染SKOV3-PM4细胞,Real-time PCR和Western blot验证转染后的表达效率,激光共聚焦免疫荧光进行蛋白的细胞定位,细胞计数法和集落形成实验测定细胞增殖能力,流式细胞仪检测细胞周期,Transwell小室实验测定细胞体外侵袭、迁移能力。实验结果显示,SPARC蛋白存在于核周及胞质;过表达SPARC基因后,SKOV3-PM4细胞增殖受到明显抑制(P0.05);细胞周期检测结果显示,各期改变无明显差异;体外侵袭、迁移实验结果显示,SKOV3-PM4细胞侵袭、迁移能力显著降低(P0.05)。实验结果表明,SPARC基因在卵巢癌淋巴结转移中可能发挥抑癌基因的生物学作用。     

SPARC基因敲除小鼠的繁育及子代基因型的鉴定

目的:探讨富含半胱氨酸的分泌型酸性蛋白(SPARC)基因敲除小鼠的繁殖和鉴定方法,为进一步研究SPARC蛋白的功能奠定基础。方法:将所引进的杂合子小鼠进行饲养并繁殖,繁殖成功后其子代中将会出现野生型、杂合子以及纯合子3种基因型。提取子鼠鼠尾基因组DNA,用PCR法扩增SPARC和Neo基因片段,通过限制性内切酶酶切反应,证实PCR扩增产物的正确性;应用Westernblot检测SPARC蛋白质的表达,进一步证实PCR鉴定方法的可靠性。结果:SPARC基因杂合子小鼠互交繁殖结果基本符合孟德尔遗传规律,SPARC基因缺失纯合子小鼠有繁殖能力。琼脂糖凝胶电泳结果显示PCR产物分子量大小与预期的目的基因片段相对分子质量大小一致,酶切和Westernblot结果证实PCR结果可靠。结论:PCR方法能够准确鉴定SPARC基因突变小鼠基因型。     

木犀草素通过抑制肝癌细胞Sp1活性上调抑癌基因OPCML表达

抑癌基因OPCML的甲基化失活是肿瘤发生的重要机制,因此采用药物逆转抑癌基因的失活状态是肿瘤防治的重要策略。研究表明,Luteolin可在一定程度上抑制DNA的甲基化转移酶(methyltransferase)的活性,但木犀草素是否能逆转OPCML的失活状态目前尚不明确。本研究通过体外培养肝癌细胞系HepG2,用不同浓度木犀草素处理后,采用实时定量PCR和Western blotting分别检测OPCML、DNMT1的m RNA和蛋白表达;甲基特异性PCR(MSP)和DNA甲基转移酶(DNA methyltransferases)催化实验分析OPCML基因启动子区域甲基化及细胞核中甲基化活性;ELISA分析木犀草素处理前后对核转录因子Sp1活性的变化;RNA干扰及慢病毒转染等方法观察Sp1在介导甲基化及CPCML表达中的作用。最后建立裸鼠异种移植瘤动物模型,观察木犀草素对异种移植瘤生长的抑制作用。结果显示,Hep G2细胞基础状态下OPCML表达水平较低,其启动子区域甲基化水平较高,而经0~30μmol/L木犀草素处理后,能显著增强OPCML蛋白和m RNA的表达,并能降低其启动子甲基化水平以及细胞核中甲基化活性。同时,木犀草素也能抑制Hep G2细胞中Sp1的活性以及DNMT1的表达。si RNA干扰OPCML后,可逆转木犀草素对Hep G2细胞的生长抑制效应,上调细胞内Sp1表达后,同时伴有DNMT1表达增加及OPCML表达降低。此外,木犀草素也能上调裸鼠异种移植瘤中OPCML表达并抑制移植瘤生长的生长。以上结果表明木犀草素可能通过降低细胞内甲基化水平而上调OPCML基因表达,最终抑制Hep G2细胞生长增殖。     

结直肠癌中DNA甲基化研究进展

CpG岛是人类基因组中富含CpG二核苷酸的DNA序列,主要位于基因启动子区,大小约为100-1000bp,与约60％编码基因相关。DNA中CpG岛甲基化可导致抑癌基因的表观遗传学转录失活,直接参与肿瘤的发生机制。近年来,甲基化已成为表观遗传学研究的焦点。我们简要综述了DNA甲基化在结直肠癌中的研究进展。     

宫颈癌中相关基因启动子高甲基化研究进展

本文主要从分子水平介绍了在宫颈癌发生发展过程中抑癌基因的甲基化的作用.以往认为人乳头状病毒高危型的的感染是导致宫颈癌发生的主要因素.随着科技的发展,宫颈癌组织中抑癌基因的甲基化越来越备受关注.既往认为基因内突变和染色体物质缺失是肿瘤抑制基因失活的主要原因.但是,启动子CPG岛异常甲基化导致的基因失活在肿瘤发生发展过程中起着非常重要的作用现已确切证明,DNA甲基化是肿瘤抑制基因失活的第三种机制,而且在某些情况下是抑癌基因失活的惟一机制.对宫颈癌组织中的对相关抑癌基因甲基化的筛选并作为标记应用在检测宫颈癌中,这在防止宫颈癌的发生起到重大作用,还可有望作为宫颈癌治疗疗效检测的一项手段.     

SPARC 在子宫内膜癌组织中的表达及意义

目的:探讨富含半胱氨酸的酸性分泌型蛋白(secreted protien,acidic and rich in cysteine,SPARC)在子宫内膜癌组织中的表达及其临床意义。方法:应用组织芯片技术研究SPARC在正常子宫内膜、增生的子宫内膜和子宫内膜癌组织中的表达情况。结果:SPARC在正常子宫内膜、增生的子宫内膜和子宫内膜癌组织中的阳性表达率分别为96.55%、76.79%、59.50%,差异具有统计学意义(P<0.05)。在子宫内膜癌中,SPARC的表达强度与手术-病理分期、组织学分级、肌层浸润深度和淋巴结转移相关,差异具有统计学意义(P<0.05)。结论:SPARC表达的缺失与子宫内膜癌的发生、发展密切相关,检测SPARC可为子宫内膜癌的早期诊断、进一步治疗及预后判断提供一定的理论依据。     

DNA甲基化与癌症

DNA甲基化是重要的表观遗传修饰,主要发生在DNA的CpG岛. DNA的甲基化通过DNA甲基转移酶（DNA methyltransferases, DNMTs）完成. DNA甲基化参与了细胞分化、基因组稳定性、X染色体失活、基因印记等多种细胞生物学过程.单基因水平及基因组范围内的DNA甲基化改变在肿瘤发生发展中亦发挥重要作用. 抑癌基因的异常甲基化引起的表达抑制,可导致肿瘤细胞的增殖失控和侵袭转移,并参与肿瘤组织的血管生成过程.在许多肿瘤的研究中都发现了基因组整体DNA低甲基化所导致的染色体不稳定性. 本文从DNA的异常高甲基化和低甲基化两方面论述了DNA甲基化在细胞恶变发生发展过程中的改变及其影响,并阐述了DNA甲基化改变在肿瘤诊断和治疗中的作用.     

siRNA诱导的DNA甲基化与肿瘤的发生

siRNA诱导的基因沉默最早只被认为是发生在细胞质内的转录后水平的调控过程,随着siRNA指导DNA甲基化现象的发现,已证实siRNA可以通过指导基因组表观修饰引起转录水平基因沉默.DNA甲基化曾被预言是致癌作用的一种表观遗传学机制,肿瘤发生过程中抑瘤基因异常沉默涉及到基因启动子区域DNA的甲基化.分析了这两个过程中内在的关系,探索siRNA对肿瘤细胞中基因异常表达的影响和作用.这将有助于肿瘤生物学和表观遗传学的研究,也会为研发防治肿瘤的新方法和新途径提供新的思路.     

SPARC在子宫内膜癌组织中的表达及意义

目的：探讨富含半胱氨酸的酸性分泌型蛋白（secreted protien,acidic and rich in cysteine,SPARC）在子宫内膜癌组织中的表达及其临床意义。方法：应用组织芯片技术研究SPARC在正常子宫内膜、增生的子宫内膜和子宫内膜癌组织中的表达情况。结果：SPARC在正常子宫内膜、增生的子宫内膜和子宫内膜癌组织中的阳性表达率分别为96.55%、76.79%、59.50%,差异具有统计学意义（P〈0.05）。在子宫内膜癌中,SPARC的表达强度与手术-病理分期、组织学分级、肌层浸润深度和淋巴结转移相关,差异具有统计学意义（P〈0.05）。结论：SPARC表达的缺失与子宫内膜癌的发生、发展密切相关,检测SPARC可为子宫内膜癌的早期诊断、进一步治疗及预后判断提供一定的理论依据。     

类风湿性关节炎患者外周血单个核细胞 IL-10 基因启动子甲基化状态研究

白细胞介素-10（interleukin-10,IL-10）是在类风湿性关节炎中发挥重要免疫调节作用的细胞因子,其基因失活与已分化的Th1和Th2细胞染色质结构重塑有关。为了探讨IL-10基因启动子甲基化及基因失活在类风湿性关节炎(Rheumatoid Arthritis,RA)发病和进展中的作用,采用逆转录聚合酶链反应(RT-PCR)、酶联免疫吸附实验(enzyme linked immunosorbent assay,ELISA)及甲基化特异性聚合酶链反应(MSP), 分别检测34例类风湿性关节炎患者和30例健康人外周血单个核细胞 IL-10 mRNA、蛋白表达水平及基因启动子甲基化状态。结果显示,病例组IL-10 mRNA及蛋白表达均低于健康对照组,无统计学差异（P>0.05）。病例组甲基化率(85.29%)高于健康对照组(43.33%), 具有统计学差异(x² =12.439,P=0.000)。IL-10基因启动子甲基化状态与其mRNA表达呈显著负相关(r=-0.579, P=0.001), 与所累关节数显著相关,但与血沉（ESR）、C反应蛋白（CRP）、类风湿因子(RF)、年龄均无相关性(P>0.05)。IL-10 mRNA表达与年龄、所累关节数、ESR、CRP及RF均无相关性(P>0.05)。上述结果提示,启动子甲基化可能是IL-10基因失活的重要机制,IL-10基因异常高甲基化状态可能参与了RA的发生发展。     

非小细胞肺癌R A SsF IA 基因甲基化及下游基因表达

目的：研究非小细胞肺癌RASSF1A基因启动子甲基化及下游基因表达情况。方法：留取58例非小细胞肺癌患者手术标本及正常肺组织,甲基化特异性PCR分析RASSF1A基因启动子甲基化情况,同时Northern blot分析SM22、SPARC、SDHB和CC-ND3等4种RASSFIA下游基因的表达情况。结果：58例非小细胞肺癌中RASSFIA基因启动子甲基化阳性率为34．5％,甲基化与各临床参数之间无显著相关性,SM22和SPARC在RASSF1A甲基化组表迭明显下调。结论：原发性非小细胞肺癌中存在着较高比例的RASSF1A启动子过度甲基化,并与下游基因SM22和SPARC的表达下调密切相关。提示RASSF1A在非小细胞肺癌的发生中起着多种作用。     

癌症相关的DNA甲基化连锁区域

DNA甲基化是重要的表观遗传标记之一,在转录调控中起直接作用。DNA甲基化的异常与癌症的发生发展密切相关。高通量测序使得在单碱基分辨率下检测全基因组的DNA甲基化水平成为可能。本文基于临近CpGs位点甲基化水平的相关性挖掘DNA甲基化连锁区域。结果发现DNA甲基化连锁区域的甲基化水平和模式在癌症中存在异常,而且显著富集到分化/发育相关的生物学功能。DNA甲基化连锁区域的挖掘有助于对具有生物学功能的表观遗传标记的进一步理解,有助于对癌症诊断的表观遗传标记的挖掘。     

DNMT cooperativity--the developing links between methylation, chromatin structure and cancer

Controversy has reigned for some time over the biological connection between DNA methylation and cancer. For this reason, the methylation mechanism responsible for increased cancer risk has received greater attention in recent years. Tumor suppressor genes are often hypermethylated resulting in gene silencing. Although some have questioned this interpretation of the link between methylation and cancer, it appears that both hypermethylation and hypomethylation events can create epigenetic changes that can contribute to cancer development. Recent studies have shown that the methyltransferases DNMT1 and DNMT3b cooperatively maintain DNA methylation and gene silencing in human cancer cells. Disruption of the human DNMT3b only slightly reduces the overall global DNA methylation; however, demethylation was markedly potentiated when both DNMT1 and DNMT3b were simultaneously deleted. The results to these experiments provide compelling evidence towards a role for DNA methylation in cancer. This review discusses the current understanding of cancer-epigenetic information and highlights recent studies that connect the methylation machinery and chromatin remodelling with cancer susceptibility.     

Polymerase chain reaction-based methods of DNA methylation analysis

DNA methylation is the main epigenetic modification in humans, and changes in methylation patterns play an important role in tumorigenesis. Hypermethylation of normally unmethylated CpG islands in the promoter regions often occurs in important tumor suppressor genes, DNA repair genes, and metastasis inhibitor genes. The changes of methylation status of various gene promoters seem to be a common feature of malignant cells and these changes can occur early in the progression process. Therefore detection of aberrant promoter hypermethylation of cancer-related genes may be useful for cancer diagnosis or detection of cancer recurrence. The purpose of this review is to provide a summary of the most commonly used techniques for the study of DNA methylation. Current scientific literature involving methylation detection methods was reviewed with an emphasis on polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based detection methods. The current methodologies may be broadly classed into PCR-based methylation assays and non-PCR-based methylation assays. The problems and advantages of the different methods for detecting aberrant methylation are discussed. As the number of genes known to be hypermethylated in cancer is growing, the detection of aberrant promoter region methylation will be a promising approach for using DNA-based markers for the early detection of human cancers. Many techniques, especially PCR-based methylation assay techniques, make it practical to use these new methylation biomarkers in early cancer diagnosis.     

Lymphovascular invasion of colorectal cancer is correlated to SPARC expression in the tumor stromal microenvironment

As an integral component of the microenvironment in colorectal cancer (CRC), stromal cells can influence tumor progression. Found in the extracellular matrix of CRC, secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) is expressed in stromal and CRC cells. While SPARC's influence on CRC is not clear, we hypothesized that epigenetically regulated SPARC expression in the microenvironment stromal cells of CRC can affect primary CRC progression and is influenced by lymphovascular invasion (LVI). Quantitative immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis of paraffin-embedded (n=72) from 37 LVI-positive and 35 LVI-negative primary CRCs was performed. MassARRAY sequencing was performed to assess the methylation status of the promoter region in 22 LVI-positive and 20 LVI-negative CRC and to identify specific CpG island(s) regulating SPARC expression. SPARC in CRC cells was not correlated with LVI, whereas SPARC in the microenvironment stromal cells was inversely related to LVI (P < 0.0001). There was a direct relationship between LVI and 6 specific CpG site methylation in the SPARC promoter region of stromal cells (P = 0.017) but not in CRC cells. Stromal SPARC expression inversely correlated with VEGF-A expression in CRC (P = 0.003) and positively correlated with HSP27 expression (P = 0.009). The results suggested that the epigenetic regulation of SPARC expression in tumor cells versus stromal cells of CRC is significantly different. Stromal cell SPARC expression is epigenetically influenced by LVI of CRC tumors, and may play a significant role in primary CRC progression.     

Prognostic Value of SPARC in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objective

There is a heated debate on whether the prognostic value of SPARC is favorable or unfavorable. Thus, we carried out a meta-analysis evaluating the relationship between SPARC expression and the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer.

Methods

We searched PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science for relevant articles. The pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and corresponding 95%CI of overall survival (OS) were calculated to evaluate the prognostic value of SPARC expression in patients with pancreatic cancer. We also performed subgroup analyses.

Results

With 1623 patients pooled from 10 available studies, the incorporative HR showed an unfavorable prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer in the multivariate analysis (HR = 1.55, 95%CI: 1.11–2.17, P = 0.01), but not in univariate analysis (HR = 1.41, 95%CI: 0.47–4.21, P = 0.54) and estimate (HR = 1.24, 95%CI: 0.72–2.13, P = 0.44). And this adverse impact could also be found in the subgroup analyses in multivariate analysis, especially in the stroma (HR = 1.53, 95%CI: 1.05–2.24, P = 0.03). However, the combined HR had the highly significant heterogeneity. No obvious publication bias was found.

Conclusions

SPARC might be an unfavorable indicator in patients with pancreatic cancer, especially in the stroma. More and further researches should be conducted to reveal the prognostic value of SPARC.     

Nanoelectromechanics of Methylated DNA in a Synthetic Nanopore

Methylation of cytosine is a covalent modification of DNA that can be used to silence genes, orchestrating a myriad of biological processes including cancer. We have discovered that a synthetic nanopore in a membrane comparable in thickness to a protein binding site can be used to detect methylation. We observe a voltage threshold for permeation of methylated DNA through a <2 nm diameter pore, which we attribute to the stretching transition; this can differ by >1 V/20 nm depending on the methylation level, but not the DNA sequence.