Genome-wide screening of CpG island methylation changes induced by low-dose X-ray radiation in mice / 南方医科大学学报

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the methylation changes in promoter CpG islands induced by low-dose X-ray radiation (LDR).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Twenty male BALB/c mice were randomly divided into control and fractionated radiation group exposed to 6 MV X-ray for 10 days (0.05 Gy/day). All the mice were sacrificed 2 h after the last radiation on day 10, and blood samples were collected for detecting DNA methylation changes using Roche-NimbleGen mouse DNA methylation 3×720K Promoter Plus CpG Island Array. MeDIP-qPCR was used to further validate the methylation status of specific genes.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A total of 811 genes were found to show specific hypermethylation in fractional radiation group as compared with the control group, involving almost all the main biological processes by GO analysis. Eight candidate genes (Rad23b, Tdg, Ccnd1, Ddit3, Llgl1, Rasl11a, Tbx2, and Slc6a15) were confirmed to be hypermethylated in LDR samples by MeDIP-qPCR, consistent with the results of the methylation chip study.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>LDR induces promoter hypermethylation on specific genes, which may contribute to radiation-induced pathogenesis.</p>