Methylation status of the promoter region of the human frizzled 9 gene in acute myeloid leukemia

The FZD9 gene is located at chromosome 7q11.23, and has been indicated to be a tumor suppressor gene. The present study examined the involvement of FZD9 promoter methylation in the downregulation of FZD9 expression in leukemia cells. The expression of the FZD9 gene was absent in various leukemic cell lines, while it was restored following treatment with DNA demethylating agent 5-aza-2'-deoxycyt-idine. Bisulfite sequencing analysis of the FZD9 promoter region showed that it was partially methylated in cell lines in which FZD9 gene was not expressed. Thus, DNA methylation in the promoter region may lead to inactivation of the FZD9 gene, which may represent and aberration associated with leukemia, since DNA was not methylated in normal peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed that the promoter region of the FZD9 gene was frequently methylated in primary or relapse acute myeloid leukemia (52.9%; excluding acute promyelocytic leukemia); however, methylation was infrequent in B-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia (5.6%). In conclusion, the present study indicated that the methylation profile of the FZD9 gene corresponded to that of a candidate tumor-suppressor gene in acute myeloid leukemia.