Correlation Between Methylation Status Of The Human Alpha-fetoprotein Genes And Its Expression Level

Objective: DNA methylation has been regarded as an important epigenetic signature reflecting the transcription state of DNA in cells. This study was to assess the correlation between methylation status of promoter area and CpG island of Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) gene and its expression in 3 cells, including 2 cancerous liver lines.Methods: 1 Cell culture: To select 2 human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line, including HepG2 and SMMC-7721, and 1 normal human fibroblast. Cells were subcultured for preparation of DNA and RNA, respectively.2 RNA preparation and semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis expression level of AFP gene: The primer pairs for RT-PCR were designed with the primer design software. The total RNA was purified from cultured cells, respectively, with the Trizol reagent, and reverse-transcribed to obtain cDNA. Use the cDNA as template, amplificated AFP andβ-actin gene fragment. Contrasted the difference of expression level in AFP gene usingβ-actin as inner reference by gel imaging analysis sofeware.