Positive control after 5-Aza treatment? - (Jan/16/2008 )

Hi there,

Was wondering if there is a gene out there considered as a positive control to determine if your 5-Aza treatment of cells has worked? (i.e. always responds to 5-Aza). I lost responsiveness of my gene and want to know if it is the gene or has the 5-Aza gone off.

Cheers,

Kev

It is likely to depend on your cell line as different genes are methylated in different cells. I don't know of any genes universally methylated but I would think there would be some on the X-chromosome or an imprinted gene that may be able to act as a positive control. I haven't done this personally but someone else may offer up a suggestion.

Hello, kykev, as Davo wrote it would be very useful to know what cell line are you working with, then you can look up in PubMed for articles published with methylated genes in the cell line you're using. For example, the p16 promoter is widely methylated in a lot of cancer cell lines.

Good luck