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Da-Jun Deng

Publications and source records attributed to Da-Jun Deng.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Silencing-specific methylation and single nucleotide polymorphism of hMLH1 promoter in gastric carcinomas.

AIM: To investigate CpG methylation and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of a specific promoter region of hMLH1 in primary gastric carcinoma. METHODS: Primary gastric carcinomas (n=80), their corresponding normal mucosal samples, and gastric mucosal biopsies from normal/gastritis control patients (n=54) were used. Hypermethylation at -253 nt and -251 nt in relation with the translational start site and SNP of a silencing specific region (-339 nt-46 nt) in the hMLH1 promoter were analyzed by Bst UI-combined bisulfite assay (COBRA), denaturing high performance liquid chromatogram (DHPLC), and sequencing. RESULTS: (A) The specific methylation at -253 nt and -251 nt was observed in 2 of 60 primary gastric carcinomas, but neither in all of the corresponding mucosa nor in normal/gastritis samples, by Bst UI-COBRA and DHPLC. (B) The hMLH1 promoter was methylated homogeneously in the xenograft of the primary gastric carcinoma with the methylated and unmethylated hMLH1. (C) The pattern of SNP at -93 nt of the hMLH1 promoter in 54 Chinese patients with gastric carcinoma was the same as that in the control patients: 51 % was A/G heteroalleles, 34 % and 15 % were A/A and G/G homoalleles, respectively. CONCLUSION: Biallelic inactivation of hMLH1 by epigenetic silencing existed in human primary gastric carcinoma homogeneously. Hypermethylation of hMLH1 may play a role in the early stage of development of a few gastric carcinomas. The SNP at -93 nt is not related to the susceptibility of gastric carcinomas.

Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing↗

Expression of ECRG4, a novel esophageal cancer-related gene, downregulated by CpG island hypermethylation in human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

AIM: To study the mechanisms responsible for inactivation of a novel esophageal cancer related gene 4 (ECRG4) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). METHODS: A pair of primers was designed to amplify a 220 bp fragment, which contains 16 CpG sites in the core promoter region of the ECRG 4 gene. PCR products of bisulfite-modified CpG islands were analyzed by denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC), which were confirmed by DNA sequencing. The methylation status of ECRG 4 promoter in 20 cases of esophageal cancer and the adjacent normal tissues, 5 human tumor cell lines (esophageal cancer cell line-NEC, EC109, EC9706; gastric cancer cell line- GLC; human embryo kidney cell line-Hek293) and 2 normal esophagus tissues were detected. The expression level of the ECRG 4 gene in these samples was examined by RT-PCR. RESULTS: The expression level of ECRG 4 gene was varied. Of 20 esophageal cancer tissues, nine were unexpressed, six were lowly expressed and five were highly expressed compared with the adjacent tissues and the 2 normal esophageal epithelia. In addition, 4 out of the 5 human cell lines were also unexpressed. A high frequency of methylation was revealed in 12 (8 unexpressed and 4 lowly expressed) of the 15 (80 %) downregulated cancer tissues and 3 of the 4 unexpressed cell lines. No methylation peak was observed in the two highly expressed normal esophageal epithelia and the methylation frequency was low (3/20) among the 20 cases in the highly expressed adjacent tissues. The methylation status of the samples was consistent with the result of DNA sequencing. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that the inactivation of ECRG 4 gene by hypermethylation is a frequent molecular event in ESCC and may be involved in the carcinogenesis of this cancer.

Carcinoma, Squamous Cell↗

Rapid screening mitochondrial DNA mutation by using denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography.

AIM: To optimize conditions of DHPLC and analyze the effectiveness of various DNA polymerases on DHPLC resolution, and evaluate the sensitivity of DHPLC in the mutation screening of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). METHODS: Two fragments of 16s gene of mitochondrial DNA (one of them F2 is a mutant fragment) and an A3243G mutated fragment were used to analyze the UV detection limit and determine the minimum percentage of mutant PCR products for DHPLC and evaluate effects of DNA polymerases on resolution of DHPLC. Under the optimal conditions, we analyzed the mtDNA mutations from muscle tissues of mitochondrial encephalomyopathy with lactic acidosis and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) and screened blindly for variances in D-loop region of mtDNA from human gastric tumor specimen. RESULTS: Ten A3243G variants were detected in 12 cases of MELAS, no alterations were detected in controls and these results were consistent with the results obtained by analysis of RFLP with ApaI. We also identified 26 D-loop variances in 46 cases of human gastric cancer tissues and 38 alterations in 13 gastric cancer cell lines. The mutation of mtDNA at 80 ng PCR products containing a minimum of 5% mutant sequences could be detected by using DHPLC with UV detector. Moreover, Ampli-Taq Gold polymerase was equally as good as the proofreading DNA polymerase (e.g., Pfu) in eliminating the false positive produced by Taq DNA polymerases. CONCLUSION: DHPLC is a powerful, rapid and sensitive mutation screening method for mtDNA. Proofreading DNA polymerase is more suitable for DHPLC analysis than Taq polymerase.

Case-Control Studies↗