Concordant promoter methylation of transforming growth factor-beta receptor types I and II occurs early in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

INTRODUCTION: Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) is a pleiotropic growth factor with multiple functions through its type I (TGFBR1) and type II (TGFBR2) receptors. A reduction or loss of expression of TGFBRs enables cancer cells to escape the growth inhibitory effect of TGF-β and to gain a growth advantage.

OBJECTIVE: The promoter methylation status and expression of TGFBR1, TGFBR2 and Smad4 gene were investigated in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).

DESIGN: Methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction approach was used to detect the methylation status. Immunohistochemistry and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction method were used to examine the protein and messenger RNA expression, respectively.

RESULTS: Both the ESCC and the high-grade dysplastic tissues showed hypermethylation of TGFBR1 and TGFBR2, and the hyper-methylation of TGFBR1 and TGFBR2 in ESCC tissues was significantly associated with decreased messenger RNA and protein expression (P < 0.05). When stratified for tumor lymph node metastasis stages, TGFBR1 and TGFBR2 gene methylation was more frequent in stage III and stage IV tumor tissues than that in stage I and stage II tumor tissues (P < 0.05). Simultaneous methylation of the 2 receptors was progressively increased along with the increasing of tumor lymph node metastasis stage and decreasing of histological differentiation. Smad4 hypermethylation was only detected in 7 ESCC tumor tissues and associated with the loss of Smad4 expression. The decreased protein expression of TGFBR1, TGFBR2 and Smad4 was correlated with increased expression of TGF-β1 in ESCC.

CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that promoter methylation of TGFBR1 and TGFBR2 may exist in the early stage of ESCC and play important roles in TGFBR1 and TGFBR2 gene silencing.