12.11.06

Imprinting Finding May Aid in Colorectal Cancer Screening

Posted in cancer, imprinting, news links at 8:00 am by Trevor

Dr. Andrew Feinberg of the John Hopkins School of Medicine has announced at the 46th Annual Meeting of The American Society for Cell Biology that his lab has analyzed a common epigenetic alteration and found that mice with the loss of imprinting of IGF2 and a mutation in the Apc gene have a higher risk of developing colon cancer.

Feinberg analyzed a common epigenetic alteration—found in 5–10 percent of the general population—that involves the loss of imprinting on an insulin-like growth factor gene called IGF2. Loss of imprinting of IGF2 has been associated statistically with individuals who have personal and familial histories of colorectal cancer. Turning to mice that modeled the loss of IGF2 imprinting, Feinberg found an increase in frequency of tumors in mice who also had mutations in a cancer-associated gene called Apc. In the mutant Apc mice, the loss of IGF2 imprinting seems to particularly affect the behavior of the adult stem cells that continually regenerate the colon in mice. This probably plays a role in the increased risk of colon cancer, says Feinberg.

This finding may help to develop better colon cancer screening tools. Link