Age-related increases of 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine and DNA-protein crosslinks in mouse organs.

Experimental data suggest a possible role of DNA damage in aging, mainly related to oxidative lesions. With the objective of evaluating DNA lesions as molecular biomarkers of aging, we measured 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OH-dG) and DNA-protein crosslinks (DPXL) levels in different organs of mice aged 12 and 24 months. 8-OH-dG was detected by 32P postlabelling after removing unmodified dG by trifluoracetic acid, which prevented the artificial formation of 8-OH-dG during 32P labelling procedures.

Drug metabolism polymorphisms as modulators of cancer susceptibility.

Recently, several molecular genetic bases of polymorphic enzyme activities involved in drug activation and detoxification have been elucidated. Many molecular epidemiology studies based on these premises have sought to gather information on the association of genetically determined metabolic variants with different risks of environmentally induced cancer. While rare alterations of tumor suppressor genes dramatically raise cancer risk for the single affected subjects, far more common and less dramatic differences in genes encoding for drug metabolism enzymes can be responsible for a relatively small, but rather frequent increase of cancer risk at the population level.

Computer-aided analysis of mutagenicity and cell transformation data for assessing their relationship with carcinogenicity.

Using a computer-aided approach, the tests for Salmonella mutagenicity and transformation in established cell lines were compared for the qualitative bases of their carcinogenicity predictions. For this purpose, a database of 145 chemicals was prepared in which rodent carcinogenicity data and results of the Ames' and transformation tests were available. Using a software program for connectivity analysis (previously developed and validated by us), we assayed the molecular structures of these chemicals for the presence of fragments relatable to their positive (i.

Electronic biomedical journals: how they appear and what they offer.

This study, prompted by a number of articles presaging the imminent demise of biomedical journals due to the rise of their electronic spread, analysed 54 Web sites of the journals included in the Oncology section of the Science Citation Index, Journal Citation Reports (1994) and the sites of 10 other leading digitised biomedical journals. The aim was to determine quantitative and qualitative differences in terms of information content existing between the two media. The analysis confirmed that there are limits to the information contained in the scientific journals currently on the Internet and upholds the authors' conclusion that, in the oncology field, the printed journal will continue to have an important role for most individual users for some time.