Lyberopoulou Anna, Galanopoulos Michail, Aravantinos Gerasimos, Theodoropoulos George E, Marinos Evangelos, Efstathopoulos Efstathios P, Gazouli Maria
Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Laboratory of Biology, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Department of Gastroenterology General Hospital of Athens "Evaggelismos" Athens, Greece.
Anticancer Res. 2017 Mar;37(3):1105-1112. doi: 10.21873/anticanres.11423.
We performed an epigenetic analysis of the first exon of the hVIM gene and the SFRP2 in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and correlation with the corresponding primary colorectal cancer (CRC) tissue.
CTCs detection in 52 colorectal cancer patients was managed by a multi-marker immunomagnetic method with the use of quantum dots (QDs). To determine methylation levels we used high-resolution melting (HRM) technology.
In the case of VIM we found 76.9% methylated samples, compared to 53.8% in tissue samples. Regarding SFRP2 promoter methylation levels in tissue and CTCs samples, 67.3% and 73.1%, were found methylated respectively. Correlation analysis of methylation levels with KRAS and BRAF mutations (performed in our previous study) demonstrates that high-methylation epigenotype strongly correlates to BRAF mutation.
CTCs is a promising diagnostic tool. The combination of genetic mutations and epigenetic aberrations specifically in CTCs, will ameliorate CRC diagnosis in the future.
