DNA hypermethylation plays an important role in the epithelial-mesenchymal transition in triple negative breast cancer

We have developed an in vitro model of triple negative breast epithelial cell lines which represents the progression of the basal breast cancer subtype (Russo et al, FASEB 2006; Huang et al, Cancer Res 2007). This model consists of three cell lines, MCF10F, trMCF and bsMCF representing respectively the normal, transformed and tumorigenic phases of the cancer progression. There are genomic differences among these cells that are characteristics of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). In the present work, we evaluated the changes in methylation throughout the EMT by performing MBD-Cap sequencing of MCF10F, trMCF and bsMCF. Methylated DNA was separated using MethylMiner™ Methylated DNA Enrichment Kit (Life Technologies), and the samples were used for library preparation and sequencing using Illumina platform. To identify the changes in the methylation profile of these cell lines during the process of EMT we performed the comparisons MCF10F vs. trMCF; trMCF vs. bsMCF; and MCF10F vs. bsMCF. Genes were considered differentially methylated when they showed adjusted p-value (Benjamini and Hochberg) Citation Format: Julia Santucci-Pereira, Yanrong Su, Jose Russo. DNA hypermethylation plays an important role in the epithelial-mesenchymal transition in triple negative breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3322.