Epigenetic inactivation of HHIP in brain tumors

The hedgehog signalling pathway is essential for cell proliferation, differentiation and tissue patterning during embryogenesis and remains active also in some adult tissues. An uncontrolled activation of this pathway, however, can lead to tumor development. There is firm evidence that unregulated hedgehog signalling plays a role in medulloblastomas and gliomas. Loss of heterozygosity of the PATCHED locus (PTCH), which encodes an inhibitor of Hedgehog signalling as well as mutations were found in medulloblastomas. Here we have performed a genome – wide methylation analysis to detect differenzially methylated and…