Global analysis of DNA methylation in hepatocellular carcinoma via a whole-genome bisulfite sequencing approach

Alterations in DNA methylation patterns are considered early events in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, their mechanism and significance remain to be elucidated. We studied the genome-wide DNA methylation landscape of HCC by applying whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) techonlogy. Overall, HCC exhibits a genome-wide hypomethylation pattern. After further annotation, we obtained 590 differentially hypermethylated genes (hyper-DMGs) and 977 differentially hypomethylated genes (hypo-DMGs) from three groups. Hyper-DMGs were mainly involved in ascorbate and alternate metabolism pathways, while hypo-DMGs were mainly involved in focal adhesion. By integrating the DMGs with HCC-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and DMGs from the TCGA database, we constructed prognostic model based on thirteen aberrantly methylated DEGs, and verified our prognostic model in GSE14520 dataset. This study compares the patterns of global epigenomic DNA methylation during the development of HCC, focusing on the role of DNA methylation in the early occurrence and development of HCC, providing a direction for future research on its epigenetic mechanism.