Title: Methylation and the mRNA expression of NF2 and their association with the morbidity of breast cancer.
Abstract: Objective:To investigate the frequency of promoter hypermethylation, the expression of neurofibromatosis type 2(NF2) gene and the association with breast cancers. Methods:Methylation-specific PCR was employed to detect methylation of NF2 in the 47 breast cancer tissues, peficancerous tissues, and 15 benign breast lesions tissues. The mRNA expression of NF2 was determined by reverse transcription PCR in the aforesaid tissues. The relationship between methylation and mRNA expression of NF2 was analyzed. Results:The frequencies of NF2 promoter methylation were 57.4% (27/47), 23.4 (23/47) and 0% (0/15) in breast cancer tissues, peficancerous and benign breast lesions tissues, respectively. NF2 methylation in breast cancer tissues increased significantly compared with the other two groups (P0.05). No correlation was found between the methylation of NF2 and clinical features including age of onset, histological typing, lymphnode metastasis, and histological grade (P0.05).The expression of NF2 in breast cancer tissues (0.16± 0.11)and peficancerous tissues(0.27±0.14) was significantly lower compared with benign breast lesions tissues(0.64±0.17) (P0.05). Methylation of NF2 was correlated negatively with NF2 expression in breast cancer tissues. (Spearman’s r= -0.314, P0.05). Conclusions: The aberrant promoter methylation of NF2 gene is a frequent molecular pathological event in breast cancer. NF2 mRNA expression is down regulated when the promoter is hypermethylated.
Publication Year: 2009
Publication Date: 2009-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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