Altered chromosomal methylation patterns accompany oncogene-induced transformation of human bronchial epithelial cells.

Abnormal methylation of CpG island sequences on chromosomes 11p and 17p, and tumor phenotype-associated differential methylation of chromosome 3p loci have been described in human lung tumors (S.B. Baylin, J.W.M. Hoppener, A. de Bustros, P.H. Steenbergh, C.J.M. Lips, and B. D. Nelkin, Cancer Res., 46: 2917-2922, 1986; M. Makos, B.D. Nelkin, M. I. Lerman, F. Latif, B. Zbar, and S.B. Baylin, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 89: 1929-1933, 1992; A. de Bustros, B. D. Nelkin, A. Silverman, G. Ehrlich, B. Poiesz, and S. B. Baylin, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 85: 5693-5697, 1988). Using an in vitro model of lung tumor progression, we now show that these aberrant methylation patterns occur at different stages during cellular immortalization and oncogene-induced neoplastic transformation of normal human bronchial epithelial cells (NHBE). The CALC1 CpG island locus on chromosome 11p15.4 was essentially unmethylated in NHBE and simian virus 40 T-antigen immortalized NHBE (BEAS-2B cells) but became de novo methylated in 5 of 6 BEAS-2B derived cell lines that were transfected or infected with various oncogenes and in a spontaneously neoplastically transformed subline of BEAS-2B cells. By contrast, an additional CpG island locus, pYNZ22, at 17p13.3 became fully methylated following the immortalization of NHBE and was not further changed by oncogene-induced transformation. Finally, at a non-CpG island locus pYNZ86.1 on chromosome 3p14, different tumor phenotype-associated methylation patterns became apparent only after passage of the turmorigenic oncogene-transformed bronchial epithelial cell lines in athymic nude mice. Whereas cell lines derived from tumors with a non-small cell lung carcinoma-like phenotype were significantly hypomethylated relative to their parental cell lines, a cell line derived from a tumor with a more small cell lung carcinoma-like phenotype retained the methylation status of its parental cell line. The data indicate that altered DNA methylation patterns, including the de novo methylation of normally unmethylated CpG island sequences and demethylation of nonisland sequences, arise at different stages during immortalization and oncogene-induced neoplastic transformation of bronchial epithelial cells. These findings suggest that DNA methylation abnormalities accompany, or may play a role in, the genetic changes that occur during lung tumor progression.