Placental trophoblast invasion involves a cellular transition from epithelial to mesenchymal phenotype. Cytotrophoblasts undergo epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) when differentiating into extravillous trophoblasts and gaining the capacity of invasion. In this research, we investigated the role of DNA methylation in trophoblasts during this EMT. First, using BeWo and HTR8/SVneo cell lines as models of cytotrophoblasts and extravillous trophoblasts, respectively, we analyzed the gene expression and DNA methylation status of the known epithelial marker genes, E-Cadherin and Cytokeratin7. We found that, in HTR8/SVneo cells, both genes were silenced and their promoters hypermethylated, as compared with the high-level gene expression and promoter hypomethylation observed in BeWo cells. This result suggests that dynamic DNA methylation of epithelial marker genes plays a critical role in the trophoblast EMT process. To verify these results, we treated HTR8/SVneo cells with 5-aza-dC, a known inhibitor of DNA methyltransferase, for three days. Five-Aza-dC treatment significantly increased the expression of epithelial marker genes and slightly decreased the expression of mesenchymal genes, as detected by qRT-PCR, immunocytochemistry and Western blot. Furthermore, 5-aza-dC treated HTR8/SVneo cells changed their morphology from mesenchymal into epithelial phenotype, indicating that 5-aza-dC induced mesenchymal to epithelial transition. Lastly, we examined the effect of 5-aza-dC on trophoblast migration and invasion capacity. We applied 5-aza-dC to HTR8/SVneo cells in trans-well cell migration and invasion assays and found that 5-aza-dC treatment decreased trophoblast migration and invasion capacity. In conclusion, DNA methylation of epithelial marker genes represents a molecular mechanism for the process of trophoblast EMT. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.