Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2007 Dec 21:7:21.

DNA methylation-dependent regulation of BORIS/CTCFL expression in ovarian cancer

Anna Woloszynska-Read  1 , Smitha R James, Petra A Link, Jihnhee Yu, Kunle Odunsi, Adam R Karpf
Affiliations

DNA methylation-dependent regulation of BORIS/CTCFL expression in ovarian cancer

Anna Woloszynska-Read et al. Cancer Immun. .

Abstract

Brother of the Regulator of Imprinted Sites (BORIS/CTCFL) is an autosomal cancer germline (CG) or cancer-testis antigen gene and paralog of CTCF that has been proposed to function as an oncogene in human cancer via dysregulation of the cancer epigenome. Here we show that genetic disruption of DNA methylation in human cancer cells induces BORIS expression, coincident with DNA hypomethylation and an altered histone H3 modification pattern at the BORIS promoter. Rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) mapping revealed that the transcriptional start site of BORIS in human testis, DNMT deficient human cancer cells, and human epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) tissues, is similar and lies within the 5' CpG island. The BORIS promoter is repressed by CpG methylation in a dose-dependent fashion, indicating a direct role for DNA methylation in BORIS transcriptional regulation. In human ovarian cancer cell lines, 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine treatment activates BORIS expression and reduces BORIS promoter DNA methylation. We quantitatively measured BORIS mRNA expression and promoter DNA methylation in normal ovary (NO; n = 10) and epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC; n = 77) and found that, compared to NO, EOC tumors show increased BORIS expression and decreased BORIS methylation. Importantly, BORIS promoter DNA methylation shows a significant inverse correlation with BORIS mRNA expression in EOC (Kendall's Tau = -0.235, P = 0.007, n = 63). These data establish promoter DNA hypomethylation as a mechanism leading to BORIS expression in human ovarian cancer.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 7
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Loukinov DI, Pugacheva E, Vatolin S, Pack SD, Moon H, Chernukhin I, Mannan P, Larsson E, Kanduri C, Vostrov AA, Cui H, Niemitz EL, Rasko JE, Docquier FM, Kistler M, Breen JJ, Zhuang Z, Quitschke WW, Renkawitz R, Klenova EM, Feinberg AP, Ohlsson R, Morse HC 3rd, Lobanenkov VV. BORIS, a novel male germ-line-specific protein associated with epigenetic reprogramming events, shares the same 11-zinc-finger domain with CTCF, the insulator protein involved in reading imprinting marks in the soma. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002;99:6806–6811. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Klenova EM, Morse HC 3rd, Ohlsson R, Lobanenkov VV. The novel BORIS + CTCF gene family is uniquely involved in the epigenetics of normal biology and cancer. Semin Cancer Biol. 2002;12:399–414. - PubMed
    1. Vatolin S, Abdullaev Z, Pack SD, Flanagan PT, Custer M, Loukinov DI, Pugacheva E, Hong JA, Morse H 3rd, Schrump DS, Risinger JI, Barrett JC, Lobanenkov VV. Conditional expression of the CTCF-paralogous transcriptional factor BORIS in normal cells results in demethylation and derepression of MAGE-A1 and reactivation of other cancer-testis genes. Cancer Res. 2005;65:7751–7762. - PubMed
    1. Robertson KD. DNA methylation and human disease. Nat Rev Genet. 2005;6:597–610. - PubMed
    1. Simpson AJ, Caballero OL, Jungbluth A, Chen YT, Old LJ. Cancer/testis antigens, gametogenesis and cancer. Nat Rev Cancer. 2005;5:615–625. - PubMed

Publication types

Substances

LinkOut - more resources