DNA Methylation Analysis of Normal Colon Organoids from Familial Adenomatous Polyposis Patients Reveals Novel Insight into Colon Cancer Development

Background: Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is an inherited colorectal cancer (CRC) syndrome resulting from germ line mutations in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene. While FAP accounts for less than 1% of all CRC cases, loss of APC expression is seen in > 80% of non-hereditary CRCs. To better understand molecular mechanisms underlying APC-driven CRC, we performed an epigenome-wide analysis of colon organoids derived from normal-appearing colons of FAP patients versus healthy subjects to identify differentially methylated regions (DMRs) that may precede the onset of CRC.

Results: We identified 358 DMRs when comparing colon organoids of FAP patients to those of healthy subjects (FDR < 0.05, |mean beta difference| = 5%). Of these, nearly 50% of DMRs were also differentially methylated in at least one of three CRC tumor and normal adjacent tissue (NAT) cohorts (TCGA-COAD, GSE193535 and ColoCare). Moreover, 27 of the DMRs mapped to CRC genome-wide association study (GWAS) loci. We provide evidence suggesting that some of these DMRs led to significant differences in gene expression of adjacent genes using quantitative PCR. For example, we identified significantly greater expression of five genes: Kazal-type serine peptidase inhibitor domain 1 (KAZALD1, P = 0.032), F-Box and leucine-rich repeat protein 8 (FBXL8, P = 0.036), TRIM31 antisense RNA 1 (TRIM31-AS1, P = 0.036), Fas apoptotic inhibitory molecule 2 (FAIM2, P = 0.049) and (Collagen beta (1-0)galactosyltransferase 2 (COLGALT2, P = 0.049). Importantly, both FBXL8 and TRIM31-AS1 were also significantly differentially expressed in TCGA-COAD tumor versus matched NAT, supporting a role for these genes in CRC tumor development.

Conclusions: We performed the first DNA methylome-wide analysis of normal colon organoids derived from FAP patients compared to those of healthy subjects. Our results reveal that normal colon organoids from FAP patients exhibit extensive epigenetic differences compared to those of healthy subjects that appear similar to those exhibited in CRC tumor. Our analyses therefore identify DMRs and candidate target genes that are potentially important in CRC tumor development in FAP, with potential implications for non-hereditary CRC.