Anion exchange chromatography for the determination of 5-methyl-2′-deoxycytidine: application to cisplatin-sensitive and cisplatin-resistant ovarian cancer cell lines

Epigenetic alterations are increasingly implicated in the initiation and progression of cancer. Genome-wide (global) hypomethylation seems to occur in early neoplasia and is a feature of genomic DNA derived from solid tumour tissues like ovarian cancer. Thus, analytical methods that provide sensitive and quantitative information about cytosine methylation in DNA are currently required. In this work, we compare two different anion-exchange columns for the separation of methylated cytosine from the other DNA nucleotides: a silica-based (Tracer Extrasil SAX) column and a polystyrene/divinyl benzene-based (Mono-Q™) column. Under the optimised conditions, linearity range, precision and detection limits of the developed high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method were evaluated and compared using conventional ultraviolet (UV) absorbance detection at 270 nm. Good separation of the five target nucleotides, including 5-methyl-2′-deoxycytidine monophosphate (5mdCMP) and 2′-deoxycytidine monophosphate (dCMP) was achieved on the Mono-Q™ column with a gradient elution of ammonium acetate buffer (1 M, pH 6.9) at a flow rate of 1 mL min−1. The coupling of this column to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP–MS) permitted also phosphorous (31P) specific detection of the nucleotides. Both detection systems offered adequate analytical performance characteristics, with detection limits of 30 and 40 μg L−1 for 5mdCMP by HPLC–UV and HPLC–ICP–MS, respectively. However, the latter method allowed the determination of the global DNA methylation level (%) without the need for external calibration. Different genomic DNA samples were analysed including calf thymus DNA and DNA from two human cancer cell lines (adenocarcinoma epithelial A549 and ovarian carcinoma A2780) using the proposed strategy. In the line A2780, the cisplatin-sensitive and cisplatin-resistant variants were analysed, finding no significant differences in the methylation percentage after treatment with cisplatin.