Estrogen Receptor Alpha (ESR1) Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) Affect Malignant Melanoma Susceptibility and Disease Course.

The incidence of malignant melanoma in the developed world is continuously increasing. We conducted a case-control study in order to evaluate the association between each of the four estrogen receptor alpha polymorphisms (ESR1 single-nucleotide polymorphisms [SNPs] +2464C/T, -4576A/C, +1619A/G, and +6362C/T) and malignant melanoma susceptibility and disease course. The study population consisted of 205 Caucasian patients who were diagnosed as having malignant melanoma and 208 healthy Caucasian controls.

Transcription factor NFκB regulates the expression of the histone deacetylase SIRT1.

Background: The NAD-dependent protein deacetylase SIRT1 has a wide range of different targets, which may be regulated either directly through deacetylation and thus potentially altering their activity or localization or indirectly by deacetylation of histones, which in turn alters their transcription rate and availability. SIRT1 is therefore involved in the regulation of many different and fundamental cellular processes such as apoptosis, metabolism, differentiation and cell cycle arrest. It is also involved in the regulation of resistance of cells against oxidative stress and longevity under conditions of caloric restriction.

Epigenetic regulation of cellular adhesion in cancer.

Epigenetics describes the development and maintenance of stable heritable gene expression patterns, which allow cells to show different phenotypes despite of a commonly shared genetic code. The increasing knowledge in this field during the last decades reveals its importance for many physiological processes like differentiation, embryogenesis and parental imprinting, but also for some diseases such as cancer. Recent data have shown that the complexity of carcinogenesis can no longer be explained solely on the basis of genetic changes, but epigenomic alterations such as changes of the DNA methylation pattern and/or post-translational histone modifications and changes of microRNA expression need to be equally considered.