Methylation of RASSF2A gene promoter in cervical cancer

Objective To investigate the methylation status of the promoter of RASSF2A gene in the tissues of cervical cancer and its impacts in tumorigenesis. Methods Methylation-specific PCR (MSP) and RT-PCR techniques were applied to detect methylation status of RASSF2A gene promoter region and RASSF2A expression in tissues of 62 cervical cancer and 30 normal cervical specimens, respectively. Results Methylation frequency of RASSF2A gene in cancer tissue was higher than that in normal tissue (53.2 % vs 13.3 %, P<0.05). The mRNA expression of RASSF2A in cancer tissue were less than those in normal tissue significantly (0.254 3±0.102 7 vs 0.623 4±0.063 8, t=0.932, P<0.05). The mRNA expressed of RASSF2A gene was lower in methylated promoter group than that in unmethylated promoter group in cancer tissue samples significantly (0.118 2±0.035 2 vs 0.301 2±0.076 4, t=0.481, P<0.05). Conclusion Hypermethylation of RASSF2A gene in promoter region, which lead to the loss of RASSF2A gene expression, might play an important role in tumorigenesis of cervical cancer. Key words: Cervical neoplasms; RASSF2A gene; DNA methylation