Modulation of apoptosis by cancer chemopreventive agents.

A review of almost 2000 studies showed that the large majority of 39 putative cancer chemopreventive agents induced "spontaneous" apoptosis. Inhibition of the programmed cell death triggered by a variety of stimuli was consistently reported only with ascorbic acid, alpha-tocopherol, and N-acetylcysteine (NAC). We performed experimental studies in rodents exposed to cigarette smoke, either mainstream (MCS) or environmental (ECS), and UV-A/B-containing light.

The epidemiological revolution of the 20th century.

Until 100 years ago the epidemiological scenario of human diseases had substantially remained unchanged. The 20th century has been characterized by a fantastic advance in life expectancy and by a shift from infectious to chronic degenerative diseases as prevailing causes of death. As an example of the epidemiological revolution in a developed country, we reconstructed, year by year from 1901 to 2000, the situation in Italy.

Induction and modulation of lung tumors: genomic and transcriptional alterations in cigarette smoke-exposed mice.

Cigarette smoke plays a major role in the epidemiology of lung cancer, and smoke components have extensively been investigated in carcinogenicity and chemoprevention studies in experimental animals. However, it is much more difficult to reproduce the tumorigenicity of the whole complex mixture in preclinical models. The authors review here some results obtained in their laboratories, dealing with the induction of lung tumors, and genomic and transciptional alterations in smoke-exposed mice.

Modulation of cigarette smoke-related end-points in mutagenesis and carcinogenesis.

The epidemic of lung cancer and the increase of other tumours and chronic degenerative diseases associated with tobacco smoking have represented one of the most dramatic catastrophes of the 20th century. The control of this plague is one of the major challenges of preventive medicine for the next decades. The imperative goal is to refrain from smoking.

Molecular alterations and lung tumors in p53 mutant mice exposed to cigarette smoke.

Mutations and deletions in p53 are the most common genetic lesions in human cancer,and an extraordinarily high incidence of lung cancer occurs in smokers suffering from Li-Fraumeni syndrome, which is characterized by germ-line inactivation of one p53 allele. In contrast, p53 mutations are infrequent in lung tumors formed in A/J mice. Moreover, despite the dominant role of cigarette smoke in the epidemiology of human lung cancer, it is very difficult to reproduce the lung tumorigenicity of this complex mixture in animal models.

Induction of apoptosis in the lung but not in the liver of rats receiving intra-tracheal instillations of chromium(VI).

Several studies have shown that hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] induces apoptosis in a variety of in vitro test systems. We instilled intra-tracheally either saline or sodium dichromate (0.25 mg/kg body weight), for three consecutive days, to Sprague-Dawley rats.