Cell type-dependent, infection-induced, aberrant DNA methylation in gastric cancer

Dimitri Perrin (1) , Heather J. Ruskin (1) , Tohru Niwa (2)

1 DCU - Dublin City University [Dublin]
2 Carcinogenesis Division

Epigenetic changes correspond to heritable modifications of the chromatin structure, which do not involve any alteration of the DNA sequence but nonetheless affect gene expression. These mechanisms play an important role in cell differentiation, but aberrant occurrences are also associated with a number of diseases, including cancer and neural development disorders. In particular, aberrant DNA methylation induced by H. Pylori has been found to be a significant risk factor in gastric cancer. To investigate the sensitivity of different genes and cell types to this infection, a computational model of methylation in gastric crypts is developed. In this article, we review existing results from physical experiments and out-line their limitations, before presenting the computational model and investigating the influence of its parameters.

Mots clés: Cancer; Computational model; DNA methylation; Epigenetics

Dimitri Perrin, Heather J. Ruskin, Tohru Niwa. Cell type-dependent, infection-induced, aberrant DNA methylation in gastric cancer. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 2010, 264 (2), pp.570. ⟨10.1016/j.jtbi.2010.02.040⟩. ⟨hal-00585805⟩