Changes in genomic imprinting and gene expression associated with transformation in a model of human osteosarcoma

Genomic imprinting, a heritable form of epigenetic information, is thought to play an important role in tumor progression. DNA methylation is a common mechanism of genomic imprinting. To evaluate the genome-wide effects of malignant transformation on osteosarcoma progression, we examined multiple biological properties, including DNA methylation, in human osteoblast hFOB1.19 cells (ATCC Catalog No. CRL-11372) transformed by treatment with carcinogenic agent N-Methyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG, 1.0 μg/ml) and carcinogenic promoting agent 12-O-tetradecanoyl phorbol-13-acetate (TPA, 200 ng/ml). We also examined global changes in expression of imprinted genes during transformation using microarray analysis. Ten imprinted genes, including H19, MKRN3, NDN, CDKN1C, PHLDA2, MEST, CD81, GRB10, SLC22A18, and SLC22A3 were aberrantly regulated in transformed cells, suggesting roles in tumorigenesis. Moreover, we analyzed the methylation state of the promoter regions of H19, PHLDA2, and SLC22A18 genes by bisulfite sequencing array and observed a correlation between upregulated expression of H19 and PHLDA2 genes and hypomethylation of their promoter regions, although this was not observed for SLC22A18. Our results suggest that changes in expression of imprinted genes caused by changes in methylation are involved, and are among the earliest events, in neoplastic progression.