Hypermethylation of CpG islands in the promoter
region of many tumor suppressor genes downregulates their expression & in a
result promotes tumorigenesis. Therefore, detection of DNA methylation status
is a convenient diagnostic tool for cancer detection. Here, we reported a novel
method for the integrative detection of methylation by the microfluidic
chip-based digital PCR. This method relies on methylation-sensitive restriction
enzyme HpaII, which cleaves the unmethylated DNA strands while keeping the methylated
ones intact. After HpaII treatment, the DNA methylation level is determined
quantitatively by the microfluidic chip-based digital PCR with the lower limit
of detection equal to 0.52%. To validate the applicability of this method,
promoter methylation of two tumor suppressor genes (PCDHGB6 and HOXA9) was
tested in 10 samples of early stage lung adenocarcinoma and their adjacent
non-tumorous tissues. The consistency was observed in the analysis of these
samples using our method and a conventional bisulfite pyrosequencing. Combining
high sensitivity & low cost, the microfluidic chip-based digital PCR method
might provide a promising alternative for the detection of DNA methylation
& early diagnosis of epigenetics-related diseases.
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