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page 1 of 142 pages | next »Transcriptional Regulation of their Survival: The Engrailed Homeobox Genes
Horst H. Simon and Kambiz N. Alavian
The mammalian Engrailed genes were originally cloned by their sequence homology to the Drosophila engrailed. Orthologous genes of these homeobox transcription factors are found throughout the animal kingdom including all investigated vertebrate species. They take part in regionalization of the early...
Is Leptin a Pro‑ or Anti‑Apoptotic Agent?
Srujana Rayalam, Mary Anne Della-Fera, Suresh Ambati and Clifton A. Baile
Apoptosis, the regulated destruction of a cell, is characterized by biological and morphological changes and involves a large web of integrating pathways and factors. Apoptosis is necessary to eliminate excess cells and cells that hinder development and hence the importance of apoptotic pathways and...
Breast Development, Hormones and Cancer
Jose Russo and Irma Russo
Breast cancer originates in undifferentiated terminal structures of the mammary gland. The terminal ducts of the Lob 1 of the human female breast, which are the sites of origin of ductal carcinomas, are at their peak of cell replication during early adulthood, a period during which the breast is mor...
Role of Endocrine-Genotoxic Switchings in Cancer and Other Human Diseases: Basic Triad
Lev M. Berstein
Cancer is one of the leading causes of human death and belongs to the group of main chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCD). Certain specific features of NCD have raised the concept of ‘normal’ and ‘successful’ aging. The apparent paradox of simultaneous increase with aging of the diseases connected ...
Endogenous Hormone Levels and Risk of Breast, Endometrial and Ovarian Cancer: Prospective Studies
A. Heather Eliassen and Susan E. Hankinson
Multiple lines of evidence support a central role of hormones in the etiology of breast, endometrial and ovarian cancers. Evidence of an association between circulating hormones and these cancers varies by both hormone and cancer site, with the most consistent associations observed for sex steroid h...
Molecular Diversity of Telomeric Sequences
Marita Cohn
Telomeric DNA generally comprises a repetitive, noncoding sequence which terminates in a single‑stranded extension, the 3\' overhang. Although these species‑specific repeats show a large diversity in sequence and length, they comprise some specific characteristic conserved features. Ther...
Mitochondrial Telomeres: An Evolutionary Paradigm for the Emergence of Telomeric Structures and Their Replication Strategies
Jozef Nosek and Ľubomír Tomáska
Linear DNA genomes are sporadically found among viruses, bacteria and organelles. In contrast, virtually all eukaryotic species harbor in their nuclei chromosomes consisting of linear DNA molecules that terminate with specific structures termed telomeres, indicating that this genomic or chromosomal ...
Progesterone Receptor Action: Translating Studies in Breast Cancer Models to Clinical Insights
Carol A. Lange, Carol A. Sartorius , Hany Abdel‑Hafiz, Monique A. Spillman, Kathryn B. Horwitz and Britta M. Jacobsen
Progesterone receptors (PR) are useful prognostic indicators of breast cancers likely to respond to anti‑estrogen receptor (ER) therapies. However, the role of progesterone, therapeutic progestins, or unliganded or liganded PR in breast cancer development or progression remains controversial. ...
Cancer as a Microevolutionary Process Affecting Telomere Structure and Dynamics: The Contribution of Telomeres to Cancer
J. Arturo Londoño-Vallejo
Telomeres play fundamental roles in genome stability, nuclear architecture and chromosome pairing during meiosis. They shorten at every cell division and may be re‑elongated or not depending on the presence of the dedicated enzyme, telomerase. Since in most human somatic cells telomerase is no...
Drosophila Telomeres: A Variation on the Telomerase Theme
Mary-Lou Pardue and P. Gregory DeBaryshe
In Drosophila, the role of telomerase is carried out by three specialized retrotransposable elements, HeT‑A, TART and Tahre. Telomeres contain long tandem head‑to‑tail arrays of these elements. Within each array, the three elements occur in random, but polarized, order. Some are tr...
Evolution, Composition and Interrelated Functions of Telomeres and Subtelomeres: Lessons from Plants
Jiří Fajkus, Andrew R. Leitch, Michael Chester and Eva Sýkorová
The terminal parts of chromosomes, telomeres and their subtelomeric neighbors are reviewed. Both have common and specific features that interact to generate the unique and essential biology that characterizes telomeres. The chromatin of both chromosome domains has a nucleosomal structure and their D...
Epidemiology of Hormone‑Associated Cancers as a Reflection of Age
Svetlana V. Ukraintseva, Konstantin G. Arbeev and Anatoli I. Yashin
In this chapter we review the epidemiology of hormone‑associated cancers (prostate, breast, endometrial, ovarian, pancreatic and thyroid) paying special attention to the variability in the age patterns of cancer incidence rate over populations and time periods. We emphasize the comparative ana...
Telomeres: Guardians of Genomic Integrity or Double Agents of Evolution?
Michael McEachern
Telomeres are crucial components required for genomic stability. Telomere dysfunction can result in enormously elevated rates of chromosomal alterations, particularly in subtelomeric regions. Interestingly, the chromosomal regions in the vicinity of telomeres are often among the most rapidly evolvin...
Telomerase: Evolution, Structure and Function
Marie-Eve Brault, Yasmin D'Souza and Chantal Autexier
Telomerase is a unique ribonucleoprotein reverse transcriptase that uses an integral RNA template to catalyze the addition of telomeric repeats at telomeres. This mechanism is required for the maintenance of chromosome termini, as the structure and integrity of telomeres are essential for genome sta...
Selective Estrogen Modulators as an Anticancer Tool: Mechanisms of Efficiency and Resistance
Surojeet Sengupta and V. Craig Jordan
The majority of breast cancers are estrogen receptor (ER) positive and depend on estrogen for growth. Therefore, blocking estrogen mediated actions remains the strategy of choice for the treatment and prevention of breast cancer. The selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) are molecules that ...
Mechanisms of Hormone Carcinogenesis: Evolution of Views, Role of Mitochondria
Jin-Qiang Chen, Terry R. Brown and James D. Yager
Cumulative and excessive exposure to estrogens is associated with increased breast cancer risk. The traditional mechanism explaining this association is that estrogens affect the rate of cell division and apoptosis and thus manifest their effect on the risk of breast cancer by affecting the growth o...
Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres in Mammalian Cells
Anthony J. Cesare and Roger R. Reddel
For human cells to achieve immortalization they must bypass multiple proliferative checkpoints and acquire a telomere maintenance mechanism to counteract the natural telomere attrition that results from the end‑replication problem. A number of human tumors and cells immortalized in culture mai...
Obesity and Diabetes Epidemics: Cancer Repercussions
Anette Hjartåker, Hilde Langseth and Elisabete Weiderpass
The prevalence of overweight (body mass index, BMI, between 25 and 30 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI of 30 kg/m2 or higher) is increasing rapidly worldwide, especially in developing countries and countries undergoing economic transition to a market economy. One consequence of obesity is an increased risk o...
Cell Cycle Machinery: Links with Genesis and Treatment of Breast Cancer
Alison J. Butt, C. Elizabeth Caldon, Catriona M. McNeil, Alexander Swarbrick, Elizabeth A. Musgrove and Robert L. Sutherland
Loss of normal growth control is a hallmark of cancer. Thus, understanding the mechanisms of tissue‑specific, normal growth regulation and the changes that occur during tumorigenesis may provide insights of both diagnostic and therapeutic importance. Control of cell proliferation in the normal...
Prokaryotic Telomeres: Replication Mechanisms and Evolution
Sherwood R. Casjens and Wai Mun Huang
Two types of bacterial telomeres of linear genomes are known. One type involves the covalent attachment of a terminal protein to each of the 5\'‑ends and the protective terminal protein is part of the priming complex in new rounds of DNA replication. The second type is a protein free DNA end i...
Evolution of Telomere Binding Proteins
Martin P. Horvath
Telomere binding proteins provide essential functions for chromosome maintenance in most eukaryotes and consequently are well suited for analysis in the context of evolution. This review focuses on patterns gleaned from structural and functional characterization of telomere proteins that reveal cont...
T‑Loops, T‑Circles and Slippery Forks
Sarah A. Compton, Anthony J. Cesare, Nicole Fouche, Sezgin Ozgur and Jack D. Griffith
All species with linear chromosomes require telomeres, whose role is to stabilize chromosome ends and prevent undesirable recombination‑mediated or DNA repair‑mediated events involving these DNA ends. The telomeres of most higher eukaryotic species are composed of very long tracts of a s...
Proteomics of Cancer of Hormone-Dependent Tissues
Darren R. Tyson and David K. Ornstein
Serum and tissue biomarkers have begun to play an increasingly important role in the detection and management of many cancers of hormone‑sensitive tissues. Specifically, the introduction of serum PSA measurements into clinical practice has dramatically altered detection and treatment of prosta...
Aromatase Expression in Women’s Cancers
Serdar E. Bulun and Evan R. Simpson
Estrogen has been positively linked to the pathogenesis and growth of three common women’s cancers (breast, endometrium and ovary). A single gene encodes the key enzyme for estrogen biosynthesis named aromatase, inhibition of which effectively eliminates estrogen production in the entire body. Aroma...
Telomere Position Effect and the Evolution of the Genome
Frederique Magdinier, Alexandre Ottaviani and Eric Gilson
It is now well known that chromatin structure and subnuclear environment play universal roles in the regulation of gene transcription and any type of DNA transactions, including the 3Rs (replication, recombination and repair). Most telomeres and subtelomeres from Saccharomyces cerevisiae to Homo sap...
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