DNMT1, DNMT3A and DNMT3B gene variants in relation to ovarian cancer risk in the Polish population

Studies have demonstrated that changes in DNA methylation of cancer related genes can be an elementary process accounting for ovarian tumorigenesis. Therefore, we evaluated the possible association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) genes, including DNMT1, DNMT3B, and DNMT3A, with ovarian cancer development in the Polish population. Using PCR–RFLP and HRM analyses, we studied the prevalence of the DNMT1 rs8101626, rs2228611 and rs759920, DNMT3A rs2289195, 7590760, rs13401241, rs749131 and rs1550117, and DNMT3B rs1569686, rs2424913 and rs2424932 SNPs in patients with ovarian cancer (n = 159) and controls (n = 180). The lowest p values of the trend test were observed for the DNMT1 rs2228611 and rs759920 SNPs in patients with ovarian cancer (p (trend) = 0.0118 and p (trend) = 0.0173, respectively). Moreover, we observed, in the recessive inheritance model, that the DNMT1 rs2228611 and rs759920 SNPs are associated with an increased risk of ovarian cancer development [OR 1.836 (1.143–2.949), p = 0.0114, p (corr) = 0.0342, and OR 1.932 (1.185–3.152), p = 0.0078, p (cor=)0.0234, respectively]. However, none of other nine studied SNPs displayed significant contribution to the development of ovarian cancer. Furthermore, haplotype and multifactor dimensionality reduction analysis of the studied DNMT1, DNMT3B, and DNMT3A polymorphisms did not reveal either SNP combinations or gene interactions to be associated with the risk of ovarian cancer development. Our results may suggest that DNMT1 variants may be risk factors of ovarian cancer. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11033-013-2589-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.