Genome-wide DNA methylation profiles of human hepatocellular carcinoma

Introduction: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most aggressive solid tumors and oncogenic pathways (e.g Akt, IGF signaling) are often activated in high proliferating HCC. Among several genetic alterations, epigenetic changes seem to be involved in the development and progression of HCC. DNA hypermethylation of promoter regions is almost always associated with transcriptional silencing and can lead to inactivation of tumor suppressor genes (TSG) in cancer cells. Aim: (1) To identify genes differently methylated in a subclass of HCC associated with proliferation and, (2) To correlate methylation changes with activation of molecular pathways. Methods: gDNA of 20 HCC, 8 cirrhotic and 8 normal liver samples was extracted and the methylation status was detected by the Illumina HumanMethylation27 BeadChip and immunohistochemistry of p-AKT, pIGF IR, p-S6 was analyzed. Results: Unsupervised clustering clearly classified normal livers, cirrhosis and HCC in 3 different groups. 961 genes were significantly hypermethylated in HCC compared to cirrhotic and 3942 genes showed hypermethylation in cirrhotic compared to normal liver tissue. 163 genes showed stepwise significant hypermethylation from normal to cirrhotic to HCC, including well described (p16, SOCS2, SFRP5, RBP1) and potential (SRD5A2, PCDH8, IGF-1R, UCHL1) TSGs, and the miR-10a. 133 genes were specifically hypermethylated in HCC. Among them the transcription factors GATA2, DLX1, and KLF14, all significantly inversely correlated to gene expression (p=0.003, p=0.03, and p=0.007, respectively). The methylation status of SOCS2 (p=0.025) and DLX1 (p=0.025) was significantly correlated to phosphorylation of IGFR1. Samples with RBP1 hypermethylation showed significantly higher AFP serum levels (p=0.018). Conclusion: Whole genome methylation analysis markedly classifies normal, cirrhotic and HCC samples. 8 TSGs play a key role in this stepwise progression of hypermethylation in the development of HCC and could be a promising point of action in anticancer therapy. Genomic DNA extracted from fresh frozen tissue specimens and cell lines was hybridized to genome-wide mthylation beadarray after bisulphite treatment. Keywords: DNA methylation, hepatocellular carcinoma, tissue, cell line