Medulloblastoma is the most common pediatric brain tumour, yet many of the underlying genetic and epigenetic factors have yet to be discovered. After a genome wide screen of a large cohort of primary medulloblastomas, we discovered that many of the genes within the cell adhesion family are affected by either copy number loss and/or decreased expression unexplained by copy number change. This led us to believe that both genetic and epigenetic factors were affecting
this gene family. Through methylation-specific PCR, RT-PCR and high-throughput methylation status analysis, we have concluded that promoter CpG methylation plays a role in the expression of the PCDH10 protein in both medulloblastoma cell lines and primary tumours. Through functional validation with a stable cell line re-expressing PCDH10, I show that cell cycle and
proliferation remain unchanged but migration is decreased in cells with PCDH10 re-expression.
This suggests that PCDH10 has characteristics of a tumour suppressor in medulloblastoma.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/27544 |
| Date | 02 June 2011 |
| Creators | Bertrand, Kelsey C. |
| Contributors | Taylor, Michael |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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