Abnormal patterns of DNA methylation in human neoplasia: potential consequences for tumor progression

An imbalance of DNA methylation, involving widespread hypomethylation, regional hypermethylation and increased cellular capacity for methylation, is characteristic of human neoplasia. This imbalance begins in preneoplastic cells and becomes more extensive throughout subsequent stages of tumor progression. In normal cells, a primary function of DNA methylation may be to modulate compartmentalization of DNA to ensure that regional areas of transcriptionally active chromatin replicate earlier than the bulk transcriptionally inactive chromatin. We argue here that the altered methylation patterns observed during tumor progression, especially regional hypermethylation, may mark--or even help to establish--abnormalities of chromatin organization. In turn, these changes in chromatin structure may, through direct transcriptional inactivation of genes, predisposition to mutations, and allelic deletions, mediate the progressive losses of gene expression associated with tumor development.