Transcription factors, which represent an important class of
proteins that play key roles in controlling cellular proliferation and cell cycle modulation, are attractive targets for
cancer therapy. Previous researches have shown that the expression level of activating
transcription factor 5 (ATF5) was frequently increased in
glioma and its acetylation level was related to
glioma. The purposes of this study were to explore the methylation level of ATF5 in clinical
glioma tissues and to explore the effect of ATF5 methylation on the expression of ATF5 in
glioma. Methylation of the promoter region of ATF5 was assayed by
bisulfite-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) sequencing analysis in 35 cases of
glioma and 5 normal tissues. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was also performed to detect ATF5
mRNA expression in 35 cases of
glioma and 5 normal tissues. Clinical data were collected from the patients and analyzed. The percentages of methylation of the ATF5 gene in the promoter region in healthy control, patients with well-differentiated
glioma, and those with poorly differentiated
glioma were 87.78%, 73.89%, and 47.70%, respectively. Analysis of the methylation status of the promoter region of the ATF5 gene showed a gradually decreased methylation level in poorly differentiated
glioma, well-differentiated
glioma, and normal tissues (P<0.05). There was also a significant difference between well-differentiated
glioma and poorly differentiated
glioma (P<0.05). ATF5
mRNA expression in
glioma was significantly higher than that in the normal tissues (P<0.05). This study provides the first evidence that the methylation level of ATF5 decreased, and its
mRNA expression was evidently up-regulated in
glioma.