Cellular identity and differentiation are determined by epigenetic programs. The
characteristics of these programs in normal human mammary epithelium and their similarity …

Embryonic stem (ES) cells are pluripotent cells that differentiate into all cell types of the
organism. In adult, multipotent tissue-specific stem cells undergo multi-lineage differentiation …

Background Cancer cells undergo massive alterations to their DNA methylation patterns that
result in aberrant gene expression and malignant phenotypes. However, the mechanisms …

Background Breast cancer formation is associated with frequent changes in DNA
methylation but the extent of very early alterations in DNA methylation and the biological …

Human mammary epithelial cells (HMEC) grown under standard cell culture conditions enter
a growth phase referred to as selection, but a subpopulation is able to escape from arrest …

Aberrant DNA methylation is an important cancer hallmark, yet the dynamics of DNA
methylation changes in human carcinogenesis remain largely unexplored. Moreover, the …

DNA methylation, a DNA modification by adding methyl group to cytosine, has an important
role in the regulation of gene expression. DNA methylation is known to be associated with …

Aberrant DNA methylation of CpG islands, CpG island shores and first exons is known to
play a key role in the altered gene expression patterns in all human cancers. To date, a …

Differentiation is an epigenetic program that involves the gradual loss of pluripotency and
acquisition of cell type–specific features. Understanding these processes requires genome …

Postnatal mammary gland development and differentiation occur during puberty and
pregnancy. To explore the role of DNA methylation in these processes, we determined the …