DNA methylation of PTEN gene promoter region is not correlated with urocystic tumorigenesis

Abstract

Tumor suppressor gene PTEN plays an important role in cell cycle. Disorder of PTEN protein can cause cell growth and division in an uncontrolled way, which can lead to the formation of tumors. It has been proven that epigenetic mechanisms, such as promoter hypermethylation, may account for inactivation of PTEN in a subset of tumors. PTEN promoter hypermethylation has been found to be involved in many kinds of cancers. Up to date, no report about the relationships between methylation of PTEN promoter region and bladder cancer has been found. To investigate the methylation pattern of PTEN gene transcriptional regulation region (TRR), bisulfite-specific (BSP) polymerase chain reaction (PCR)- based sequencing analysis was performed among 15 bladder cancer tissues and five normal bladder tissues. Analysis of PTEN gene TRR methylation showed that the methylation level in bladder cancer had no significant difference with that of normal (P = 0.4307, by unpaired Student’s t test).

Key words: PTEN, promoter methylation, bladder cancer.