A screen to identify novel tumor suppressor genes silenced by methylation in melanoma

Malignant melanoma is a common and frequently lethal disease. Current therapeutic interventions have little effect on survival, emphasizing the need for a better understanding of the genetic, epigenetic, and phenotypic changes in melanoma formation and progression. We identified genes that were not previously known to be silenced by methylation in melanoma using a microarray-based screen following treatment of melanoma cell lines with the DNA methylation inhibitor 5-Aza-2'-deoxycytidine. Keywords: Expression changes following pharmacological reversal of epigenetic silencing RNA was isolated following 0 and 48 hours of 5AzadC treatment of melanocytes and six melanoma cell lines (MelJuSo, UACC 903, C8161, Neo6 C8161, WM1205, and WM35) and used for the reexpression microarray analysis.