JDP1 (DNAJC12/Hsp40) expression in breast cancer and its association with estrogen receptor status.

The members of the DnaJ/Hsp40 proteins are highly conserved through evolution, expressed in several tissues and act as co-chaperone regulating protein folding, transport, translational initiation and gene expression. Recently, using cDNA microarray we identified differences in the expression of the JDP1 (DNAJC12) gene, a member of the DnaJ/Hsp40 family, between ER-positive and ER-negative breast tumours. In this study, using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) we evaluated the expression pattern of the JDP1 gene in a series of 72 primary breast tumours and investigated the effects of 17beta-estradiol on the expression of the JDP1 in MCF-7 breast cancer cells.

The generation and utilization of a cancer-oriented representation of the human transcriptome by using expressed sequence tags.

Whereas genome sequencing defines the genetic potential of an organism, transcript sequencing defines the utilization of this potential and links the genome with most areas of biology. To exploit the information within the human genome in the fight against cancer, we have deposited some two million expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from human tumors and their corresponding normal tissues in the public databases. The data currently define approximately 23,500 genes, of which only approximately 1,250 are still represented only by ESTs.