Genome-wide plasma cell-free DNA methylation profiling in pancreatic cancer patients using MeDIP-seq

We carried out a genome-wide cfDNA methylation profiling study of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients by Methylated DNA Immunoprecipitation coupled with high-throughput sequencing (MeDIP-seq). Compared with healthy individuals, 775 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) located in promoter regions were identified in PDAC patients with 761 hypermethylated and 14 hypomethylated regions; meanwhile, 761 DMRs in CpG islands (CGIs) were identified in PDAC patients with 734 hypermethylated and 27 hypomethylated regions (p-value < 35 0.0001). 143 hypermethylated DMRs were further selected which were located in promoter regions and completely overlapped with CGIs. A total of 8 probes from 8 genes were found to fairly distinguish PDAC patients from the healthy individuals, including TRIM73, FAM150A, EPB41L3, SIX3, MIR663, MAPT, LOC100128977 and LOC100130148.