Background Cancer-testis antigens (CTAs) are a group of proteins whose expression is essentially restricted to testis germline cells among normal somatic cells. CTAs also possess a heightened expression in many different types of cancer. Due to their restricted expression in tumor cells among MHC class I-expressing cells, there has been interest in the CTA as essentially tumor-specific targets ...

We have constructed cDNA microarrays from the human testis large insert cDNA library, containing 9216 genes, together with several housekeeping genes. The cDNA microarrays were used to identify gene expression differences between human fetal and adult testes. Of >8700 hybridized clones, 731 exhibited significant differential expression characteristics. About 7500 genes were identified when the ...

The role of Y chromosome in prostate cancer progression and incidence is not well known. Among the 46 chromosomes, Y chromosome determines the male gender. The Y chromosome is smaller than the X chromosome and contains only 458 genes compared to over 2000 genes found in the X chromosome. The Y chromosome is prone to high mutation rates, created exclusively in sperm cells due to the highly oxida...

Background: Although evidence indicates that tobacco use is one of the risk factors for oral cancer, the relationship between opium addiction and oral cancer has not yet been evaluated. The present study was performed aiming to evaluate P53 and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression in the gingival tissue of opium-dependent patients.Methods: 102 individuals (70 men and 32 women) wer...

Immunotherapy is emerging as a supplement to conventional cancer treatment, and identifying antigen targets for specific types of cancer is critical to optimizing therapeutic efficacy. Cancer/testis antigens are highly promising targets for immunotherapy due to their cancer-specific expression and antigenic properties, but the expression patterns of most of the more than 200 identified cancer/t...

We hypothesize that forms of antagonistic coevolution have forged strong links between positive selection at the molecular level and increased cancer risk. By this hypothesis, evolutionary conflict between males and females, mothers and foetuses, hosts and parasites, and other parties with divergent fitness interests has led to rapid evolution of genetic systems involved in control over fertili...

In Drosophila, genes expressed in males tend to accumulate on autosomes and are underrepresented on the X chromosome. In particular, genes expressed in testis have been observed to frequently relocate from the X chromosome to the autosomes. The inactivation of X-linked genes during male meiosis (i.e., meiotic sex chromosome inactivation-MSCI) was first proposed to explain male sterility caused ...