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Endocrine Abstracts (2014) 35 P1100 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.35.P1100

1C.I.Parhon National Institute of Endocrinology, Bucharest, Romania; 2University of Medicine and Pharmacy Carol Davila, Bucharest, Romania; 3Stefan S. Nicolau Institute of Virology, Bucharest, Romania.


Introduction: HOXB4 functions as a transcription factor involved in cell differentiation during embryogenesis and plays a role in apoptosis.

Aim: This study analyzed HOXB4 methylation status in thyroid papillary carcinoma.

Method: 54 patients aged 10–82 years hospitalized for thyroidectomy were included between January 2013 and July 2013. The inclusion criterion was patients with thyroid nodules with indication for surgery and the exclusion criteria were: hyperthyroidism, medullary thyroid carcinoma, thyroid metastasis, other thyroid tumors, and anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. Patients were divided into four groups: Group 1: 26 subjects with papillary thyroid carcinoma, Group 2: 14 patients with follicular adenoma, Group 3: nine patients with multinodular goiter and Group 4: three patients with autoimmune thyroiditis. Methylation status of HOXB4 gene was assessed from normal thyroid tissue and tumoral tissue (thyroid carcinoma, follicular adenoma, multinodular goiter, and autoimmune thyroiditis) from the same patient. Total DNA was isolated from tissues and was treated with sodium bisulfite (EpiTect Bisulfite, and Qiagen) and was amplified using Direct Q-MSP. SPSS 18 (2010) program was used to perform statistical analyze. Results were compared using Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney U tests and were considered statistical relevant if P<0.05, excepting the situation when Bonferroni correction was used.

Results: In patients with thyroid carcinoma we observed a high level of methylation of HOXB4 gene in tumor tissue compared to peritumoral tissue (P=0.0097). The level of methylation of HOXB4 gene in tumor tissue is higher in papillary thyroid carcinoma than the follicular adenoma (P<0.05).

Conclusion: Analysis of the methylation status of HOXB4 gene showed a level of methylation significantly different between tumor and peritumoral tissue for the pathology investigated.

Acknowledgement: Results are part of the research project PCCA2 nr. 135/2012.

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