Altered genomic imprinting in the IGF2 and H19 genes in human lung cancer

Genomic imprinting is defined as a gamete-specific modification causing differential expression of the two alleles of a gene in somatic cells. While insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2) and H19 both at 11p15 are imprinted in normal lung, we observed frequent loss of imprinting (LOI) of the IGF2 and H19 genes in the lung cancer. While genomic imprinting is thought to play an important role in embryonal development and possibly in the development of certain embryonal tumors such as Wilms' tumor, these results suggest that altered imprinting may also play a role in the oncogenesis of this common cancer of adults, lung cancer.