@article{3082697,
    title = "Hypermethylation-associated transcriptional silencing of E-cadherin in
primary sporadic colorectal carcinomas",
    author = "Garinis, GA and Menounos, PG and Spanakis, NE and Papadopoulos, K and and Karavitis, G and Parassi, I and Christeli, E and Patrinos, GP and and Manolis, EN and Peros, G",
    journal = "JOURNAL OF PATHOLOGY",
    year = "2002",
    volume = "198",
    number = "4",
    pages = "442-449",
    publisher = "John Wiley & Sons, Ltd",
    issn = "0022-3417",
    doi = "10.1002/path.1237",
    keywords = "colorectal cancer; E-cadherin; methylation; immunohistochemistry; RT-PCR",
    abstract = "Loss of E (epithelial)-cadherin expression has been previously
documented in sporadic colorectal carcinomas (SCRCs), but not as a
consequence of mutations or allelic loss. In this study, the methylation
status of the E-cadherin promoter was examined by, utilizing the
methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP) assay in 63 primary
SCRCs and paired adjacent normal tissues. This was correlated with
F-cadherin expression at both the RNA and the protein levels using
multiplex reverse transcription (RT)-PCR and immunohistochemistry (IHC),
respectively. Data were associated with the patients’
clinicopathological features. Methylated alleles were present in 34/61
(56%) of the samples examined. Decreased E-cadherin mRNA expression was
demonstrated in 29/61 carcinomas (47.5%) and was significantly
associated with lymph node (LN) metastases (p = 0.03, Kruskal-Wallis)
and tumour stages Astler-Coller B1 and B2 (p = 0.01, chi(2)). E-cadherin
IHC expression was significantly associated with the absence of LN
metastases (p = 0.01, chi2) and tumour stages Astler-Coller B1 and B2 (p
= 0.002, Kruskal-Wallis) in 28/63 (44.4%) of the samples examined.
Twenty-three out of 29 (79.3%) samples with decreased mRNA expression
and 20/33 (60.6%) with detected protein expression revealed methylated
(p = 0.03, Kruskal-Wallis) and unmethylated (p = 0.01, Kruskal-Wallis)
alleles, respective]),. In agreement with previous work demonstrating
that somatic mutations and loss of heterozygosity of the E-cadherin gene
are rare or absent in the majority, of SCRCs studied so far, this study
reports a consistent and uniform decrease or absence of E-cadherin
expression. associated with aberrant methylation, in the majority of
carcinomas examined, suggesting an epigenctically mediated loss of
E-cadherin function in these carcinomas. Copyright (C) 2002 John Wiley
Sons, Ltd."
}