Analysis of genome-wide methylation and gene expression induced by decitabine treatment in HL60 leukemia cell line

Epigenetic changes play a role in the pathogenesis of myeloid malignancies and hypomethylating agents have shown efficacy in these diseases. We studied the apoptotic effect, the genome-wide methylation and gene expression profiles in HL60 cells following decitabine treatment, using micro-array technologies. Decitabine treatment resulted in a decrease in global DNA methylation, corresponding to 4876 probeset IDs with significantly reduced methylation levels, while expression of 2583 IDs was induced. The integrated analysis identified 160 genes demethylated and upregulated by decitabine, mainly including development and differentiation pathways genes. Genes target of polycomb group protein regulation were overrepresented in this group. Apoptosis was induced by decitabine and apoptosis-specific PCR arrays more precisely indicated decitabine-induced upregulation of 13 apoptosis-related genes, in particular Dap-kinase 1 and Bcl2L10. Correspondingly, in primary patient samples, BCL2L10 was hypermethylated in 45% of AML, 43% of therapy-related myeloid neoplasms, 12% of MDS and in none of the controls.

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Fabiani E, Leone G, Giachelia M, D'alo' F, Greco M, Criscuolo M, Guidi F, Rutella S, Hohaus S, Voso MT