Using methylation-sensitive restriction enzymes, we characterized the methylation pattern on the 5' side of the CTG repeat in the DMPK gene of normal individuals and of patients affected with myotonic dystrophy, showing expansions of the repetitive sequence. The gene segment analyzed corresponds to the genomic SacI-HindIII fragment carrying exons 11-15. There is constitutive methylation in intron 12 at restriction sites of SacII and HhaI, localized 1,159-1,232 bp upstream of the CTG repeat, whereas most, if not all, of the other sites of SacII, HhaI, and HpaII in this region are unmethylated, in normal individuals and most of the patients. In a number of young and severely affected patients, however, complete methylation of these restriction sites was found in the mutated allele. In most of these patients, the onset of the disease was congenital. Preliminary in vivo footprinting data gave evidence for protein-DNA contact in normal genes at an Sp1 consensus binding site upstream of the CTG repeat and for a significant reduction of this interaction in cells with a hypermethylated DMPK gene.

We have analysed the mitotic behaviour of expanded CTG repeats in somatic tissues and cultured somatic cells from myotonic dystrophy (DM) fetuses using indirect and direct methods. Heterogeneity of expansions between fetal tissues was demonstrated in a 16 week old fetus whereas there was no evidence for such a somatic heterogeneity in a 13 week old fetus. Dilution plating of cultured cells from an adult patient and a fetus resulted in isolation of clones showing single expanded restriction fragments when the donor showed a heterogeneous smear of expansions or a single expanded fragment. During proliferation in vitro to 45 doublings, DM cells experienced highly synchronous further repeat expansion which first became evident at approximately 15 cell generations and reached a plateau of maximum expansion at approximately 200 days. When mathematically expressed as a function of culture time the dynamics of expansion of restriction fragments followed a sigmoid curve. This unstable behaviour of CTG repeat expansions in DM was compared to the mitotically stable patterns of full mutation in fragile X fetal tissues and led to the hypothesis that methylation of CpGs within the repeat sequence is a stabilizing factor of largely expanded CGG and GCC repeats allowing for efficient methyl-directed strand-specific DNA mismatch repair.

Fragile X syndrome is associated with silencing of the FMR1 gene. We studied the transcriptional regulation, by analysis of the FMR1 promoter region for the presence of in vivo protein/DNA interactions and for cytosine methylation at the single-nucleotide level. Four protein-binding sites were present in the unmethylated promoter of the active FMR1 gene. In the methylated promoter of inactive genes no footprints were detected, and no evidence of active repression was found in the region investigated. We propose that the silencing of FMR1 gene transcription results from a lack of transcription-factor binding.

E2F4, a member of the E2F family of transcription factors, is abundant in non-proliferating and differentiated cells where it plays an important role in the suppression of proliferation-associated genes. The E2F4 gene spans 6 kb and has 10 exons. It contains a serine (CAG) repeat tract in exon 7, which is unstable in gastrointestinal tumors. To further investigate a possible role of this gene in tumorigenesis we performed mutational analysis and expression studies in different tumors. Primary human tumor tissue of the stomach, colon, breast and lung (28), metastatic tumors of the colon (3) and small cell lung tumor cell lines (18) were screened for somatic mutations in the coding region of E2F4. No mutation was found. Microsatellite instability of the CAG repeat, however, was documented in primary stomach and colon tumors. Northern blot analysis revealed upregulated E2F4 transcript levels in tumor cell lines. Our data suggest that a direct involvement of E2F4 in tumorigenesis is unlikely, although increased E2F4 expression may be associated with human cancer. Int.

E2F4, a member of the E2F family of transcription factors, is abundant in non‐proliferating and differentiated cells where it plays an important role in the suppression of proliferation‐associated genes. The E2F4 gene spans 6 kb and has 10 exons. It contains a serine (CAG) repeat tract in exon 7, which is unstable in gastrointestinal tumors. To further investigate a possible role of this gene in tumorigenesis we performed mutational analysis and expression studies in different tumors. Primary human tumor tissue of the stomach, colon, breast and lung (28), metastatic tumors of the colon (3) and small cell lung tumor cell lines (18) were screened for somatic mutations in the coding region of E2F4. No mutation was found. Microsatellite instability of the CAG repeat, however, was documented in primary stomach and colon tumors. Northern blot analysis revealed upregulated E2F4 transcript levels in tumor cell lines. Our data suggest that a direct involvement of E2F4 in tumorigenesis is unlikely, although increased E2F4 expression may be associated with human cancer. Int. J. Cancer 86:672–677, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.