Introduction: Many pediatric urology conditions affect putatively normal tissues or appear too commonly to be based solely on specific DNA mutations. Understanding epigenetic mechanisms in pediatric urology, therefore, has many implications that can impact cell and tissue responses to settings, such as environmental and hormonal influences on urethral development, uropathogenic infections, obstructive stimuli, all of which originate externally or extracellularly. Indeed, the cell's response to external stimuli is often mediated epigenetically.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe progression of primary tumors to metastases remains a significant roadblock to the treatment of most cancers. Emerging evidence has identified genes that specifically affect metastasis and are potential therapeutic targets for managing tumor progression. However, these genes can have dual tumor promoter and suppressor functions that are contextual in manifestation, and that complicate their development as targeted therapies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: RHAMM is a multifunctional protein that is upregulated in breast tumors, and the presence of strongly RHAMM cancer cell subsets associates with elevated risk of peripheral metastasis. Experimentally, RHAMM impacts cell cycle progression and cell migration. However, the RHAMM functions that contribute to breast cancer metastasis are poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBreast cancer invasion and metastasis result from a complex interplay between tumor cells and the tumor microenvironment (TME). Key oncogenic changes in the TME include aberrant synthesis, processing, and signaling of hyaluronan (HA). Hyaluronan-mediated motility receptor (RHAMM, CD168; HMMR) is an HA receptor enabling tumor cells to sense and respond to this aberrant TME during breast cancer progression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Despite recent progress in caring for patients born with esophageal atresia (EA), undernutrition and stunting remain common. Our study objective was to assess nutritional status in the first year after birth with EA and to identify factors associated with growth failure.
Study Design: We conducted a population-based study of all infants born in France with EA between 2010 and 2016.