Open AccessEpigenetic alteration of the Wnt inhibitory factor‐1 promoter occurs early in the carcinogenesis of Barrett's esophagus
Author(s) -
Clément Geneviève,
Guilleret Isabelle,
He Biao,
YaguiBeltrán Adam,
Lin YuChing,
You Liang,
Xu Zhidong,
Shi Yihui,
Okamoto Junichi,
Benhattar Jean,
Jablons David
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
cancer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.035
H-Index - 141
eISSN - 1349-7006
pISSN - 1347-9032
DOI - 10.1111/j.1349-7006.2007.00663.x
Subject(s) - wnt signaling pathway , dna methylation , carcinogenesis , cancer research , epigenetics , methylation , cisplatin , gene silencing , medicine , cancer , biology , chemotherapy , genetics , gene expression , dna , gene
The role of Wnt antagonists in the carcinogenesis of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) remains unclear. We hypothesized that downregulation of the Wnt inhibitory factor‐1 ( WIF‐1 ) might be involved in the neoplastic progression of Barrett's esophagus (BE). We analyzed the DNA methylation status of the WIF‐1 promoter in normal, preneoplastic, and neoplastic samples from BE patients and in EAC cell lines. We investigated the role of WIF‐1 on EAC cell growth and the chemosensitization of the cells to cisplatin. We found that silencing of WIF‐1 correlated with promoter hypermethylation. EAC tissue samples showed higher levels of WIF‐1 methylation compared to the matched normal epithelium. In addition, we found that WIF‐1 hypermethylation was more frequent in BE samples from patients with EAC than in BE samples from patients who had not progressed to EAC. Restoration of WIF‐1 in cell lines where WIF‐1 was methylation‐silenced resulted in growth suppression. Restoration of WIF‐1 could sensitize the EAC cells to the chemotherapy drug cisplatin. Our results suggest that silencing of WIF‐1 through promoter hypermethylation is an early and common event in the carcinogenesis of BE. Restoring functional WIF‐1 might be used as a new targeted therapy for the treatment of this malignancy. ( Cancer Sci 2008; 99: 46–53)