The Relationship between the Methylation of Promoter Regions of Tumor Suppressor Genes PTEN and APC with Endometrial Cancer

Document Type : Research Articles

Authors

Department of Genetics, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Zanjan Branch, Zanjan, Iran.

Abstract

Background: Endometrial neoplasms is one of the most typical gynecologic diseases with harmful effects. Promoter
hypermethylation is an important mechanism of the inactivation of tumor suppressor genes in endometrial neoplasms.
Epigenetic changes of the PTEN and APC genes have shown to be present in various cancers. Therefore, in this study,
we have investigated the association between the promoter hypermethylation of PTEN and APC genes with endometrial
neoplasms. Methods: For this study, 28 patients with endometrial neoplasms as well as 22 controls were studied.
Analysis of the promoter methylation regions of PTEN and APC genes were performed by Methylation-Specific PCR.
Results: The frequency of PTEN and APC genes promoter methylation was 28.57% and 17.86% in tumor tissues, and
11.54% and 3.85% in blood samples, respectively. We found a significant relationship between blood and tissue in
PTEN methylation (p = 0.0353). Additionally, we determined a closely significant difference between normal tissue
and tumor tissue of the PTEN gene (p = 0.0787) and blood and tissue samples of the APC gene in methylated promoter
regions (p=0.0623). Furthermore, these results suggest that there is no significant relationship between the promoter
methylation of PTEN and APC with clinical characteristics. Conclusion: DNA methylation deficiency is a well known
highlighted factor in tumorigenesis, therefore the promoter hypermethylation of PTEN and APC can be indicated as a
risk factor in endometrial neoplasms.

Keywords

Main Subjects