Abstract—Purpose: Bone morphogenetic protein 6 (BMP6) is a member of the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) superfamily known to regulate cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. Promoter methylation of BMP6 has been reported in hematopoietic neoplasm and influences carcinogenesis and tumor progression. In the present study, we evaluated the methylation status and expression of BMP6 in colorectal cancer. Methods: A methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction was used to evaluate the methylation status of BMP6. Immunohistochemistry was used to determine the BMP6 protein expression. A total of 68 colorectal cancers (n=68) were included in this analysis. Results: The methylation study of BMP6 revealed hypermethylation status in 30 cases (44%). Promoter hypermethylation of BMP6 was significantly associated with decreased protein expression. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that BMP6 is potentially a methylationsilenced tumor suppressor gene for colorectal cancer.

Index Terms—Bone morphogenetic protein 6 (BMP6), DNA methylation, colorectal cancer.

P. Sangplod is with Department of Biomedical Science, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla, Thailand.
S. Sangkhathat is with Department of Biomedical Science and Department of Surgery and Tumor Biology Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla, Thailand (e-mail: surasak.sa@psu.ac.th).
T. Boonpipattanapong is with Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla, Thailand.
S. Kanngurn is with Tumor Biology Research Unit and Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla, Thailand.

 

Cite:P. Sangplod, S. Sangkhathat, T. Boonpipattanapong, and S. Kanngurn, "Association of BMP6 Methylation and Expression with Clinicopathological Features in Colorectal Cancer," International Journal of Bioscience, Biochemistry and Bioinformatics vol. 3, no. 5, pp. 452-455, 2013.