Dumitrescu Ramona G
Saba University School of Medicine, Saba Island and Georgetown University Medical School, Washington, DC, USA.
Methods Mol Biol. 2012;863:35-45. doi: 10.1007/978-1-61779-612-8_3.
Breast cancer is caused by progressive genetic alterations and epigenetic changes that trigger tumor development. Among the epigenetic alterations descried in breast cancer, DNA promoter methylation has been extensively studied and observed in genes involved in several critical signaling pathways that initiate and promote breast tumorigenesis. In addition to DNA hypermethylation, global methylation levels have been observed to decrease with breast cancer progression. In close connection with DNA methylation changes, histone modifications, especially the acetylation and methylation of histone lysines, play an essential role in the nucleosomes remodeling and gene expression regulation in breast cancer.
乳腺癌是由引发肿瘤发展的渐进性基因改变和表观遗传变化所导致的。在乳腺癌中所描述的表观遗传改变中，DNA启动子甲基化已在参与启动和促进乳腺肿瘤发生的几个关键信号通路的基因中得到广泛研究和观察。除了DNA高甲基化外，还观察到随着乳腺癌进展，整体甲基化水平会降低。与DNA甲基化变化密切相关的是，组蛋白修饰，尤其是组蛋白赖氨酸的乙酰化和甲基化，在乳腺癌的核小体重塑和基因表达调控中起着至关重要的作用。
