In response to DNA damage, the tumor suppressor p53 elicits a complex cellular response. In this issue of Cell, Wu et al. (2005) show that the transcription factor SLUG is induced by p53 and protects hematopoietic progenitor cells from apoptosis triggered by DNA damage. SLUG exerts this protective role by repressing Puma, a proapoptotic target of p53. PUMA is also a key coordinator of apoptosis...

Retinoblastoma represents approximately 4% of all pediatric malignancies and is the most common primary intraocular cancer in children. Worldwide, it is estimated that there are 5000 to 8000 newly diagnosed cases of retinoblastoma yearly. In the United States, approximately 250 to 350 cases are diagnosed each year. The first description of a child successfully treated with radiation for retinob...

Hypermethylation of CpG islands located in the promoter regions of genes is a major event in the development of the majority of cancer types, due to the subsequent aberrant silencing of important tumor suppressor genes. KLOTHO; a novel gene associated primarily with suppressing senescence has been shown to contribute to tumorigenesis as a result of its impaired function. Recently the relevance ...

background: proliferation and expansion of cancer stem cells as spheroids were proved in previous studies. but, capability of primary tumor-derived stem cells to keep their unique properties in vitro is still disputed. so, the goal of this study was to isolate, expand and characterize of colon cancer-derived stem cells. material and methods: in the present work, colon cancer stem cells markers ...

background: aberrant methylation of cytosine-guanine dinucleotide islands leads to inactivation of tumor suppressor genes in breast cancer. tumor suppressor genes are unmethylated in normal tissue and often become hypermethylated during tumor formation, leading to gene silencing. we investigated the association between e-cadherin ( cdh1) and estrogen receptor-α (esrα) gene promoter methylation ...

Regulation of the PTEN tumor suppressor protein is poorly understood. In this issue, Wang et al. (2007) and Trotman et al. (2007) describe how ubiquitination regulates PTEN stability and its nuclear localization. Additionally, Shen et al. (2007) report that a nuclear pool of PTEN helps to maintain chromosomal stability.

objective: it is hypothesized that stem cells have the capability to form tumors after transplantation. spermatogonial stem cells have proliferation potency and colonization ability related to express pluripotency genes such as c-myc. the primary aim of this study is to investigate tumorigenicity ability of these cells after in vitro cultivation and inoculation in athymic animals. methods: sper...

There is increasing evidence that tumors are heterogeneous and that a subset of cells act as cancer stem cells. Several proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressors control key aspects of stem cell function, suggesting that similar mechanisms control normal and cancer stem cell properties. We show here that the prototypical tumor suppressor p53, which plays an important role in brain tumor initiation ...

Background Circadian rhythms are physiological and behavioral cycles with a period of approximately 24 hours that control various functions including gene expression. Circadian disruption is associated with a variety of diseases, especially cancer. Although some of the oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) are known as clock-controlled genes (CCGs), the analysis and annotation of circadia...