Alcohol promotes breast cancer cell invasion by regulating the Nm23-ITGA5 pathway.

Background: Alcohol consumption is an established risk factor for breast cancer metastasis. Yet, the mechanism by which alcohol promotes breast cancer metastases is unknown. The ability of cancer cells to invade through tissue barriers (such as basement membrane and interstitial stroma) is an essential step towards establishing cancer metastasis.

Effects of body weight and alcohol consumption on insulin sensitivity.

Background: Obesity is a risk factor for the development of insulin resistance, which can eventually lead to type-2 diabetes. Alcohol consumption is a protective factor against insulin resistance, and thus protects against the development of type-2 diabetes. The mechanism by which alcohol protects against the development of type-2 diabetes is not well known.

E2F1 and E2F3 activate ATM through distinct mechanisms to promote E1A-induced apoptosis.

Deregulation of the Rb-E2F pathway occurs in many cancers and results in aberrant cell proliferation as well as an increased propensity to undergo apoptosis. In most cases, apoptosis in response to Rb inactivation involves the activation of p53 but the molecular details of the signaling pathway connecting Rb loss to p53 are poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that the E1A oncoprotein, which binds and inhibits Rb family members, induces the accumulation and phosphorylation of p53 through the DNA damage-responsive ATM kinase.

E2F3a stimulates proliferation, p53-independent apoptosis and carcinogenesis in a transgenic mouse model.

Mutation or inactivation of the retinoblastoma (Rb) tumor suppressor occurs in most human tumors and results in the deregulation of several members of the E2F family of transcription factors. Among the E2F family, E2F3 has been implicated as a key regulator of cell proliferation and E2F3 gene amplification and overexpression is detected in some human tumors. To study the role of E2F3 in tumor development, we established a transgenic mouse model expressing E2F3a in a number of epithelial tissues via a keratin 5 (K5) promoter.