ESR1 promoter hypermethylation does not predict atypia in RPFNA nor persistent atypia after 12 months tamoxifen chemoprevention.

Purpose: Currently, we lack biomarkers to predict whether high-risk women with mammary atypia will respond to tamoxifen chemoprevention.

Experimental Design: Thirty-four women with cytologic mammary atypia from the Duke University High-Risk clinic were offered tamoxifen chemoprevention. We tested whether ESR1 promoter hypermethylation and/or estrogen receptor (ER) protein expression by immunohistochemistry predicted persistent atypia in 18 women who were treated with tamoxifen for 12 months and in 16 untreated controls.

Prenatal TCDD exposure predisposes for mammary cancer in rats.

Epidemiological data are conflicting in the link between 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) exposure and breast cancer causation. We have hypothesized that timing of exposure to endocrine disruptors, such as TCDD, will alter breast cancer susceptibility. Using a carcinogen induced rat mammary cancer model, we have shown that prenatal exposure to TCDD alters mammary gland differentiation and increases susceptibility for mammary cancer.

Chemoprevention of breast cancer, proteomic discovery of genistein action in the rat mammary gland.

Genistein, the primary isoflavone component of soy, consumed in the diet during the prepubertal period only, and the combined prepubertal and adult periods, suppresses chemically induced mammary cancer in rats. Gestational or adult-only exposures do not provide protection. An inverse relation exists between cancer susceptibility and mammary gland differentiation.

Modeling biological variability in 2-D gel proteomic carcinogenesis experiments.

We propose a statistical method to model the underlying distribution of protein spot volumes in 2-D gels using a generalized model (GM). We apply this approach to discover mechanisms of chemical carcinogenesis in a rodent model. We generated 247 protein spots that were common to all gels (n = 18).

Androgen and estrogen metabolism during sex differentiation in mono-sex populations of the Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus.

Androgen and estrogen metabolism were examined in the period of steroid sensitivity during sex differentiation in mono-sex populations of Oreochromis niloticus. Fry (XX, XY, and YY genotypes) were maintained at 28 degrees and were sampled at 8, 10, 11, and 13 days postfertilization. Subsamples (n = 2-4) of pooled fry from each maternally distinct family were homogenized and incubated with either [(3)H]androstenedione or [(3)H]estradiol.