Srinivasan Yegnasubramanian and his buddies from Hopkins have analyzed prostate, colon and breast tumors using an antibody against 5-hydroxymethylcytosine and immunostaining -- they demonstrate quite nicely that that global 5-hydroxymethylcytosine levels track with differentiation of cells; for example, normal prostate and other adult tissues express quite high levels of our favorite new base, but it is dramatically lost in "dedifferentiated" tissues, such as prostate cancer -- and YES, I know you were going to ask if it was part of the field-defect, these results suggest yes! (if you look hard enough!) you can read all about it online for free!
Oncotarget. 2011 Sep 2. [Epub ahead of print]
Haffner MC, Chaux A, Meeker AK, Esopi DM, Gerber J, Pellakuru LG, Toubaji A, Argani P, Iacobuzio-Donahue C, Nelson WG, Netto GJ, De Marzo AM, Yegnasubramanian S.
