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Updated: May 25, 2026
LINE-1 Methylation Analysis in Mesenchymal Stem Cells Treated with Osteosarcoma-Derived Extracellular Vesicles
Published on: February 1, 2020
LINE-1 methylation in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of cancer patients
Nakarin Kitkumthorn1, Time Tuangsintanakul, Prakasit Rattanatanyong
1Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Faculty of Dentistry, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand.
Background:
Recently, we classified LINE-1 loci according to their methylation statuses and found that the percentage of hypomethylated LINE-1 loci ((u)C(u)C) can differentiate between the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of oral cancer patients and normal controls with a higher specificity and sensitivity than overall methylation levels. Here, we evaluated the LINE-1 methylation levels and patterns in PBMCs from patients with cancers of the nasopharynx, lung, liver, bile duct, breast and colon.
Methods:
Combined Bisulfite Restriction Analysis (COBRA) of LINE-1 loci was performed to examine the LINE-1 methylation statuses of PBMCs from 216 cancer patients with 6 different types of cancer compared with 144 normal controls.
Results:
Only colorectal and nasopharyngeal cancer samples were found to have lower levels of overall LINE-1 methylation compared with normal controls (p<0.0001 and p=0.0022). However, %(u)C(u)C in cancers of the colon, liver, lung and nasopharynx was significantly higher compared with normal controls (p<0.0001, p<0.0001, p=0.01 and p=0.001, respectively). Furthermore, ROC curve analyses of these four cancer types also demonstrated the potential of %(u)C(u)C as a biomarker for cancer diagnosis.
Conclusion:
Changes in the levels and patterns of genome-wide methylation of PBMCs are associated with cancer risk. For LINE-1, %(u)C(u)C is a more effective tumour marker for determining cancer risk than overall methylation levels.
