OCT4 is epigenetically regulated by DNA hypomethylation of promoter and exon in primary gliomas

Shi,Jinlong; Shi,Wei; Ni,Lanchun; Xu,Xide; Su,Xing; Xia,Liang; Xu,Feng; Chen,Jian; Zhu,Jianhong

doi:10.3892/or.2013.2456

OCT4 is epigenetically regulated by DNA hypomethylation of promoter and exon in primary gliomas

Authors:
- Jinlong Shi
- Wei Shi
- Lanchun Ni
- Xide Xu
- Xing Su
- Liang Xia
- Feng Xu
- Jian Chen
- Jianhong Zhu
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Affiliations: Department of Neurosurgery, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu 226001, P.R. China, Department of Neurosurgery, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200040, P.R. China
Published online on: May 13, 2013 https://doi.org/10.3892/or.2013.2456
Pages: 201-206

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Abstract

Glioma is the leading cause of tumor-related mortality in the central nervous system. There is increasing evidence that the self-renewal capacity of cancer cells is critical for the initiation, growth and recurrence of tumors. OCT4 is a transcription factor that plays a key role in regulating the self-renewal ability of embryonic stem cells. DNA methylation is involved in the regulation of OCT4 expression during the development and differentiation of embryonic stem cells and neural stem cells. In the present study, we reported that OCT4 was highly expressed in primary gliomas and its expression levels increased in parallel with pathological grades. BSP analysis showed that the methylation levels of OCT4 gene promoter and exon were significantly reduced in comparison with the normal group and were negatively correlated with OCT4 gene expression in primary gliomas. In vitro, OCT4 gene expression was upregulated following treatment by a demethylation reagent in glioma cell lines. Our findings suggest that OCT4 is epigenetically regulated by DNA hypomethylation in primary gliomas, which may provide evidence for the role of DNA methylation in tumor and may present a new direction for developing more powerful strategies to treat glioma in the clinic.

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