DNA methylation analysis of human tissue-specific connexin genes

Abstract

Connexins are the structural proteins of gap junctions and their functioning as tumor suppressors is well known. Epigenetic modifications, such as methylation of connexin genes, play important roles in regulating gene expression. Over the past decade, several methods have been applied to characterize DNA methylation- specific loci of connexin genes. This chapter describes analysis of selective connexin32 and connexin43 gene DNA methylation in human gastric tissues using methylation-specifi c PCR, bisulfitespecific PCR sequencing as well as MassArray techniques.