Related Experiment Video For Tumor microenvironment (TME); DNA methylation; Cancer-associated fibroblasts; Cancer-associated immune cells; Epigenetic therapy
Updated: Mar 3, 2026

Continuous Fluorescence-Based Endonuclease-Coupled DNA Methylation Assay to Screen for DNA Methyltransferase Inhibitors
Published on: August 5, 2022
DNA methylation in the tumor microenvironment
Meng-Wen Zhang1,2,3,4, Kenji Fujiwara3,4, Xu Che3,4
1The Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310009, China.
Abstract:
The tumor microenvironment (TME) plays an important role in supporting cancer progression. The TME is composed of tumor cells, the surrounding tumor-associated stromal cells, and the extracellular matrix (ECM). Crosstalk between the TME components contributes to tumorigenesis. Recently, one of our studies showed that pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cells can induce DNA methylation in cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), thereby modifying tumor-stromal interactions in the TME, and subsequently creating a TME that supports tumor growth. Here we summarize recent studies about how DNA methylation affects tumorigenesis through regulating tumor-associated stromal components including fibroblasts and immune cells. We also discuss the potential for targeting DNA methylation for the treatment of cancers.
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