Role of PCDH10 and its hypermethylation in human gastric cancer

Epigenetic changes of genomic DNA are involved in the development and progression of many cancers. Aberrant methylation of CpG islands in the promoter regions of certain tumor-suppressor genes (TSG) is frequently observed in cancer cells. Protocadherin 10 (PCDH10), a member of the cadherin superfamily, is a recently identified putative TSG. PCDH10 is frequently silenced in many solid tumors. However, the role of PCDH10 in gastric cancer is largely unknown. In this study, we examined the expression and methylation status of PCDH10 in gastric cancer cells and tissues by real time PCR and methylation-specific PCR (MSP), and then investigated the biological function of PCDH10. We found that the expression of PCDH10 was markedly reduced in gastric cancer cells and tissues. The reduced expression correlated with hypermethylation of this gene in its promoter region, as demonstrated by MSP and bisulfite genomic sequencing (BGS) analysis. In addition, pharmacological demethylation using 5-Aza restored the expression of PCDH10 in gastric cancer cells. Over-expression of PCDH10 in gastric cancer cells suppressed cell proliferation and migration, but did not cause marked apoptosis. Over-expression of PCDH10 also suppressed growth of xenograft tumors in nude mice. Thus, PCDH10 functions as a TSG in gastric cancer, and might be a useful target for cancer therapy. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.