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Promoter hypermethylation in Indian primary oral squamous cell carcinoma
Author(s) -
Kaur Jatinder,
Demokan Semra,
Tripathi Satyendra Chandra,
Macha Muzafar Ahmad,
Begum Shahnaz,
Califano Joseph A.,
Ralhan Ranju
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/ijc.25377
Subject(s) - epigenetics , methylation , dna methylation , biology , cancer research , gene , cancer , basal cell , tumor suppressor gene , pathology , carcinogenesis , medicine , gene expression , genetics
We evaluated promoter hypermethylation of a panel of tumor suppressor genes as a means to detect epigenetic alterations in oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC) of Indian‐origin and compare with North‐American head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC). Quantitative‐methylation‐specific PCR was used to investigate the promoter methylation status of DCC , EDNRB , p16 INK4a and KIF1A in 92 OSCC, and compared to 48 paired normal tissues and 30 saliva and sera samples from healthy control subjects. Aberrant methylation of at‐least one of these genes was detected in 74/92 (80.4%) OSCC; 72.8% at EDNRB , 71.7% at KIF1A , 47.8% at p16 INK4a and 58.7% at DCC ; and in 5 of 48 (10.4%) normal oral tissues. None of the saliva and sera samples from controls exhibited DNA methylation in these four target genes. Thirty‐two of 72 node positive cases harbored p16 INK4a and DCC hypermethylation ( p = 0.005). Thus, promoter hypermethylation in genes analyzed herein is a common event in Indian OSCC and may represent promising markers for the molecular staging of OSCC patients. We found higher frequency of p16 INK4a methylation (47.8%) in this Indian cohort in comparison with a North‐American cohort (37.5%). In conclusion, aberrant methylation of EDNRB , KIF1A , DCC and p16 INK4a genes is a common event in Indian OSCC, suggesting that epigenetic alterations of these genes warrant validation in larger studies for their potential use as biomarkers.