Epigenetic Deregulation of BORIS and CTCF in Breast Cancer

Results The results suggest that BORIS is abnormally overexpressed in cancer cell lines. Data showed that in the non-neoplastic cell line BORIS was found within the nucleolus, whereas in MCF7 it was only found in the nucleoplasm. CTCF localization showed no difference between cell lines. In the breast cancer samples BORIS was found in the cytoplasm while CTCF was not found in the aggressive cancer tissue. These data point out that there might be a deregulation both at protein localization and gene expression levels. We evidenced a loss of methylation in the BORIS promoter from the samples of breast cancer patients in contrast with the normal tissue samples. A reactivation of BORIS expression in the samples that exhibited a loss of DNA methylation. Conclusions BORIS and CTCF may be deregulated in a model of breast cancer.