Identification of histon modifications to predict colorectal cancer risk

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K18431
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Tumor diagnostics
• Research Institution: Sapporo Medical University
• Principal Investigator: Harada Taku 札幌医科大学, 医学部, 研究員 (60468030)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 大腸がん / エピジェネティクス / DNAメチル化 / ヒストン修飾

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We found that genes marked by bivalent chromatin domain in ESCs are significantly associated with H3K27me3 in noncancerous colonic mucosa of patients with CIMP-positive tumors. Moreover, a large number of genes marked by H3K27me3 in noncancerous colonic mucosa were specifically methylated in CIMP-positive CRCs. In contrast, such enrichment of H3K27me3 was not observed in colonic mucosa of patients with CIMP-negative tumors. We identified a series of genes, which were marked by H3K27me3 in the background colonic mucosa of CIMP-positive CRCs and were aberrantly methylated in CIMP-positive CRCs. Our results suggest that H3K27me3 may act as a pre-mark in the noncancerous colon mucosa of patients at a high risk of CIMP-positive cancer.

Free Research Field

消化器内科