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Research Paper

Methylation Status of RB1 Promoter in Indian Retinoblastoma Patients

Biju Joseph, Gandra Mamatha, Gayathree Raman, Mahesh Palanivelu Shanmugam and Govindasamy Kumaramanickavel

volume 3 | issue 2

feb 2004
Pages: 184-187

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Retinoblastoma can arise due to mutational inactivation or methylation of RB1 gene promoter. A 600-bp CpG island consisting of the essential promoter is present at the 5’ end of RB1 gene. Hypermethylation of the CpG island within the RB1 promoter region has been described in unilateral retinoblastoma. Invitro and invivo studies have suggested that methylation of the RB1 promoter dramatically reduces gene activity. In the present study methylation status of the CpG island within the promoter region of RB1 gene has been evaluated by methylation specific polymerase chain reaction to define the molecular mechanism responsible for retinoblastoma in Indian patients. One unilateral and two bilateral non-hereditary patients had methylation of the RB1 promoter region in which 6.6 % of our patients had complete methylation of the RB1 promoter region. This study shows methylation of RB1 promoter is not a major mechanism for retinoblastoma patients in India. Methylation analysis is used in genetic counseling of the family.




We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:

 Download PDF

If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.