Expression of long interspersed nuclear elements-1 as a surrogate marker for global genomic hypomethylation of malignant skin tumors

Epigenetic modifications are recognized to be cooperated with genetic alterations for cancer initiation and progression. Aberrant DNA methylation, which is an epigenetic change, has an important contributing role in the regulation of gene expression and the silencing of repeat elements in the genome [1]. Both local hypermethylation and global genome hypomethylation occur in tumor cells. While hypermethylation of CpG islands located in the promoter regions of tumor suppressor genes inactivates its expression, global DNA hypomethylation promotes genomic instability and tumorigenesis via transcriptional activation of oncogenes [2].
Source: Journal of Dermatological Science - Category: Dermatology Authors: Tags: Letter to the Editor Source Type: research