Epigenetic Control of Mitochondrial Fission Enables Self-Renewal of Stem-like Tumor Cells in Human Prostate Cancer.

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) contribute to disease progression and treatment failure in human cancers. The balance among self-renewal, differentiation, and senescence determines the expansion or progressive exhaustion of CSCs. Targeting these processes might lead to novel anticancer therapies.

Reduced mammary tumor progression in a transgenic mouse model fed an isoflavone-poor soy protein concentrate.

Dietary exposure to soy has been associated with reduced breast cancer incidence. Soy isoflavones and protein components, such as protease inhibitors and the lunasin peptide, have been indicated as potential agents reducing carcinogenesis. In this study, the effect of soy-based diets was evaluated in a transgenic mouse model of breast carcinoma, overexpressing the neu oncogene.

Effects of IL-12 gene therapy on spontaneous transgenic and transplanted breast tumors.

Cytokines are promising agents for cancer therapy due to their activity at low concentrations. We used a naked IL-12 DNA expression vector to achieve long-term systemic cytokine expression to inhibit breast tumor growth in MMTVneu transgenic and transplanted models. Constant low levels of IL-12 produced by this protocol provided effective tumor growth inhibition of both tumor models without adverse effects.

Rescue of ATPa3-deficient murine malignant osteopetrosis by hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in utero.

Autosomal recessive osteopetrosis (ARO) is a paradigm for genetic diseases that cause severe, often irreversible, defects before birth. In ARO, osteoclasts cannot remove mineralized cartilage, bone marrow is severely reduced, and bone cannot be remodeled for growth. More than 50% of the patients show defects in the osteoclastic vacuolar-proton-pump subunit, ATP6a3.

Cell-based assay for the detection of chemically induced cellular stress by immortalized untransformed transgenic hepatocytes.

Background: Primary hepatocytes, one of the most widely used cell types for toxicological studies, have a very limited life span and must be freshly derived from mice or even humans. Attempts to use stable cell lines maintaining the enzymatic pattern of liver cells have been so far unsatisfactory. Stress proteins (heat shock proteins, HSPs) have been proposed as general markers of cellular injury and their use for environmental monitoring has been suggested.