Target genes regulated by MEG3 were detected with the Dual Luciferase reporter system and their expression levels were confirmed using qRT-PCR and Western blotting. Results: In contrast to matched adjacent non-neoplastic tissues, the expression of MEG3 was absent or decreased in most HCC tissues as well as in HepG2 cells. Low expression levels of MEG3 were associated with advanced pathologic stage, tumor size and a relatively
poor prognosis in HCC patients. Hypermethylation of MEG3 differentially methylated regions was identified by MSP in both HCC tissues and HepG2 cells and MEG3 expression was increased with the inhibition of DNA methyltransferase with 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine treatment. MEG3 was overexpressed by transfection with pcDNA3.1-MEG3 in HepG2 cells. qRT-PCR analysis revealed that MEG3 expression was increased
by 51-fold in HepG2 cells, LBH589 compared with the empty vector group. Overexpression of MEG3 decreased cell proliferation and increased 11% cell apoptosis ratio in vitro. MEG3 activated P53 and ILF-3 in HepG2 cells. Conclusion: Our data suggest that MEG3 is epigenetically silenced due to promoter hypermethylation, which may contribute to the development of HCC. MEG3 plays BMN673 a tumor suppressor role by activating P53 and ILF-3 gene. Key Word(s): 1. MEG3; 2. hepatocellular arcinoma; 3. methylation; 4. prognosis; 5. p53 Presenting Author: LING FEI WU Additional Authors: MENG QI XIANG, WEI DENG, LI XUAN
LIU, XIAO TAO ZHOU, PEI RUI CHEN, LING FEI WU Corresponding Author: LING FEI WU Affiliations: Second Affiliated Hospital, Shantou University Med, Second Affiliated Hospital, Shantou University Med, Second Affiliated Hospital, Shantou University selleck inhibitor Med, Second Affiliated Hospital, Shantou University Med, Second Affiliated Hospital, Shantou University Med, Second Affiliated Hospital, Shantou University Med Objective: To investigate the role of DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) and methylation on adenosine (ADO)-induced apoptosis in human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells. Methods: HepG2 cells were treated with different concentrations of ADO alone or in combination with homocysteine (HCY) for different durations. 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine (5-Aza-CdR) as a positive control. Cell proliferation inhibition rates were evaluated by CCK8 assay. Cell apoptosis was detected by AnnexinV-FITC/PI staining. The mitochondrial membrane potentials were measured by flow cytometry. The mRNA and protein expression of DNMT1, DNMT3a, DNMT3b, MDM-2, P53, caspase-3, caspase-9 and cytochrome C were detected by qRT-PCR and Western blotting, respectively. The mRNA expression of lncRNA-MEG3 was also detected by qRT-P CR. Results: ADO alone or in combination with HCY significantly suppressed the cell proliferation of HepG2 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner.