Hypoxia-induced epigenetic regulation of breast cancer progression and the tumour microenvironment.

The events that control breast cancer progression and metastasis are complex and intertwined. Hypoxia plays a key role both in oncogenic transformation and in fueling the metastatic potential of breast cancer cells. Here we review the impact of hypoxia on epigenetic regulation of breast cancer, by interfering with multiple aspects of the tumour microenvironment.

Comparability of tympanic and oral mercury thermometers at high ambient temperatures.

Background: Body temperature can be measured in seconds with tympanic thermometers as opposed to minutes with mercury ones. The aim of this study was to compare tympanic and oral mercury thermometer measurements under high ambient field temperatures.

Results: Tympanic temperature (measured thrice by 3 operators) was compared to oral temperature measured once with a mercury-in-glass thermometer in 201 patients (aged ≥5 years), on the Thai-Myanmar border.

Evaluation of the vacuum-assisted handpiece compared with the sapphire-cooled handpiece of the 800-nm diode laser system for the use of hair removal and reduction.

Background: A handpiece with a 35 × 22-mm treatment window that uses vacuum technology has been designed for the diode laser system. Vacuum suction stretches the skin and brings the hair follicle closer to the surface with the intent to damage the hair follicle at a lower surface fluence. The objective of this study was to compare the degree of follicular thermal damage between the sapphire-cooled smaller handpiece at a higher fluence versus the larger vacuum-assisted handpiece at a lower fluence.

Epidermal manifestations of internal malignancy.

Paraneoplastic syndromes with cutaneous findings localized to the epidermis are discussed in this article. A paraneoplastic syndrome is a condition that arises in association with a malignancy elsewhere in the body but, in itself, is not cancerous. Generally, the onset and course of the disease will closely correlate with the malignancy, as described in Curth's original criteria for paraneoplastic syndromes, although this is not always the case.

Bilaterally symmetric juvenile fibroadenomas and tubular breast deformity in a prepubescent girl.

Juvenile fibroadenomas are rare and usually not associated with other disease processes. We report the first known case of bilateral juvenile fibroadenomas in conjunction with tubular breast deformity in a prepubescent girl.

Gene mapping strategies for complex disease and drug response.

The identification of genetic variants involved in disease susceptibility and response to drugs through the use of statistical and epidemiological approaches is a potentially powerful methodology for uncovering causal relationships in human disease and its treatment. Here we introduce and compare the application of genetics in these two fields of research.:

Selecting cases from nuclear families for case-control association analysis.

We examine the efficiency of a number of schemes to select cases from nuclear families for case-control association analysis using the Genetic Analysis Workshop 14 simulated dataset. We show that with this simulated dataset comparing all affected siblings with unrelated controls is considerably more powerful than all of the other approaches considered. We find that the test statistic is increased by almost 3-fold compared to the next best sampling schemes of selecting all affected sibs only from families with affected parents (AF aff), one affected sib with most evidence of allele-sharing from each family (SF), and all affected sibs from families with evidence for linkage (AF L).

Automation and validation of DNA-banking systems.

DNA banking is one of the central capabilities on which modern genetic research rests. The DNA-banking system plays an essential role in the flow of genetic data from patients and genetics researchers to the application of genetic research in the clinic. Until relatively recently, large collections of DNA samples were not common in human genetics.

A molecular phylogeny of the Canidae based on six nuclear loci.

We have reconstructed the phylogenetic relationships of 23 species in the dog family, Canidae, using DNA sequence data from six nuclear loci. Individual gene trees were generated with maximum parsimony (MP) and maximum likelihood (ML) analysis. In general, these individual gene trees were not well resolved, but several identical groupings were supported by more than one locus.

Rosuvastatin pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenetics in white and Asian subjects residing in the same environment.

Background: Systemic exposure to rosuvastatin had been observed to be approximately 2-fold higher in Japanese subjects living in Japan compared with white subjects in Western Europe or the United States. The organic anion transporting polypeptide 1B1 contributes to the hepatic uptake of rosuvastatin. Polymorphisms in the SLCO1B1 gene can lead to reduced transport function in vitro (T 521>C).

Isolation and molecular evolution of the selenocysteine tRNA (Cf TRSP) and RNase P RNA (Cf RPPH1) genes in the dog family, Canidae.

In an effort to identify rapidly evolving nuclear sequences useful for phylogenetic analyses of closely related species, we isolated two genes transcribed by RNA polymerase III (pol III), the selenocysteine tRNA gene (TRSP) and an RNase P RNA (RPPH1) gene from the domestic dog (Canis familiaris). We focus on genes transcribed by pol III because their coding regions are small (generally 100-300 base pairs [bp]) and their essential promoter elements are located within a couple of hundred bps upstream of the coding region. Therefore, we predicted that regions flanking the coding region and outside of the promoter elements would be free of constraint and would evolve rapidly.

5-HT3 receptors participate in CCK-induced suppression of food intake by delaying gastric emptying.

Serotonin type 3 (5-HT(3)) receptors have been shown to participate in the negative-feedback control of food intake. We previously reported that cholecystokinin (CCK)-induced suppression of food intake is partly mediated through 5-HT(3) receptors when rats were tested on a preferred liquid diet, but whether such an effect occurs when they are tested on a solid maintenance diet is unknown. In the present study, we examined the effects of ondansetron, a selective 5-HT(3) antagonist, on CCK-induced suppression of solid chow intake.