methylation of the wnt signaling antagonist, wnt inhibitory factor 1 and dickkopf-1 genes in acute myeloid leukemia at the time of diagnosis

Background: in acute myeloid leukemia (aml), a large number of tumor suppressor genes are silenced through dna methylation such as cdkn2b and p73. wnt inhibitory factor 1 (wif1) and dickkopf-1 (dkk-1) are negative regulator of thewnt signaling pathway. objectives: in the present study, we studied the methylation status of wif1 and dkk-1 genes in aml patients. patients and methods: in this case-control study, blood samples from 120 aml patients and 25 healthy control subjects collected, isolated dna was treated with sodium bisulphite and examined by methylation specific pcr (ms-pcr) with primers specific for methylated and unmethylated sequences of the wif1 and dkk-1 genes. results: the frequency of aberrant hypermethylation of wif1 and dkk-1 genes in aml patients determined 35% (42/120) and 28.3% (34/120), respectively. in addition, for all subjects in control group, methylation of wif1 and dkk-1 genes were negative. patients with m0 subtype of french-american-british (fab)-aml had the highest incidence of hypermethylation of wif1 (p = 0.003) and dkk-1 (p = 0.005) genes. conclusions: the present study showed that, like many solid tumors, wif1 and dkk-1 genes methylation also occurs in aml. the study of other antagonists of wnt signaling pathway are recommended.