Objective: Uterine leiomyoma are very common benign tumors in women of reproductive age. However, the molecular mechanisms of cause and development of these tumors are poorly understood. This study attempts to examine whether or not aberrant DNA methylation occurred in these tumors.
Methods: We carried out a genome-wide screen for aberrant DNA methylation, adopting methylation-sensitive-representational difference analysis (MS-RDA) using normal adjacent myometria as tester and myoma tissue driver.
Conclusion: A total of 192 clones identified by MS-RDA were sequenced, 27 DNA fragments derived from CpG islands (CGIs) were isolated, and seven of them were from CGI in the 5' regions of known genes, which include CHARC1, FAM44B, FLJ33655, HSUP, MLLT3, SLC16A1, and ZNF96. Then, methylation statuses of those CGIs were analyzed by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction using 5 primary samples of human uterine leiomyoma. Aberrant DNA methylation did not observed in 7 genes in 5 human uterine leiomyoma eventually. This study is insufficient to identify aberrant DNA methylation occurring in the human uterine leiomyoma, a large population of primary samples and more attempts, such as the use of cell lines or primary monolayer cultures established from tissue samples, are warranted to clarify this issue.