DNA methylation changes in a human cell model of breast cancer progression

Epigenetic inactivation of genes by DNA hypermethylation plays an important role in carcinogenesis. An in vitro model of human breast epithelial cell transformation was used to study epigenetic changes induced by estradiol during the neoplastic process. Different stages of tumor initiation and progression are represented in this model being MCF-10F the normal stage; trMCF cells, the transformed stage; bsMCF cells, the invasive stage and, caMCF cells, the tumor stage. Global methylation studies by restriction landmark genomic scanning (RLGS) showed an increased DNA methylation during the in the invasive and tumor stages. Expression studies showed that NRG1 (neuregulin 1), CSS3 (chondroitin sulfate synthase 3) and SNIP (SNAP-25-interacting protein) were downregulated in the invasive and tumor cells. The transformed cells showed low expression of STXBP6 (amysin) compared to the parental cells MCF-10F. The treatment of these cells with the demethylating agent 5-aza-dC alone or in combination with the histone deacetylase inhibitor trichostatin increased the expression of NRG1, STXBP6, CSS3 and SNIP confirming that DNA methylation plays an important role in the regulation of the expression of these genes. The NRG1 exon 1 has a region located between -136 and +79 (considering +1, the translational initiation site) rich in CpG sites that was analyzed by methylation specific PCR (MSP). NRG1 exon 1 showed progressive changes in the methylation pattern associated with the progression of the neoplastic process in this model; NRG1 exon 1 was unmethylated in MCF-10F and trMCF cells, becoming hypermethylated in the invasive (bsMCF) and tumor (caMCF) stages. Studies of human breast tissue samples showed that NRG1 exon 1 was partially methylated in 14 out of 17 (82.4%) invasive carcinomas although it was unmethylated in normal tissues (8 out of 10 normal breast tissue samples). Furthermore, NRG1 exon 1 was partially methylated in 9 out of 14 (64.3%) morphologically normal tissue samples adjacent to invasive carcinomas.