Exposure to estrogens is a likely cause of endometrial cancer, but the means by which estrogens exert this effect are not entirely clear. One hypothesis is that certain estrogen metabolites bind to the DNA, forming bulky adducts that damage the DNA and initiate carcinogenesis. A woman's reduced capacity to repair such damage may increase her risk of endometrial cancer. We conducted a population...

Latently infected cells rapidly initiate HIV transcription after exposure to signals that induce NF-kappaB. To investigate the role of TFIIH during HIV reactivation in vivo, we developed a population of Jurkat cells containing integrated, but transcriptionally silent, HIV proviruses. Surprisingly, the HIV promoter in unactivated Jurkat T cells is partially occupied and carries Mediator containi...

The breast and ovarian specific tumor suppressor protein, BRCA1, has been shown to be a transcription factor because its carboxyl terminus, when fused to the GAL4 DNA binding domain, activates gene expression in cells. In this study, purified GAL4-BRCA1 protein functions in transcriptional activation assays using a minimal in vitro system. When compared with a standard activator, GAL4-VP16, the...

Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) is a rare recessive disorder that is characterized by extreme sensitivity to UV light. UV light exposure results in the formation of DNA damage such as cyclobutane dimers and (6-4) photoproducts. Nucleotide excision repair (NER) orchestrates the removal of cyclobutane dimers and (6-4) photoproducts as well as some forms of bulky chemical DNA adducts. The disease XP is...

XRCC1 genetic polymorphisms could be associated with increased risk of various cancer, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the fifth most common cancer. We here conducted a study to explore the role of selective SNPs of the XRCC1 and XPD genes in the prognosis of HCC. A total of 231 cases were collected, and genotyping of XRCC1 Arg194Trp, XRCC1 Arg399Gln, XPD Lys751Gln and XPD Asp312Asn w...

AIM XRCC1 and XPD are two major repair genes involved in nucleotide excision repair (NER), which is reported to be associated with risk of several cancers. We explored the association of XRCC1 and XPD polymorphisms with the risk of HCC. METHODS A total of 410 cases with HCC and 410 health controls were collected. XRCC1 Arg194Trp, XRCC1 Arg399Gln, XPD Lys751Gln and XPD Asp312Asn genotyping was...

Sequence variations have been identified in a number of DNA repair genes, including XPD, but the effect of these polymorphisms on DNA repair capacity (DRC) is uncertain. We therefore examined XPD polymorphisms at Lys751Gln and Asp312Asn in 341 white lung cancer cases and 360 age-, sex-, ethnicity-, and smoking-matched controls accrued in a hospital-based molecular epidemiological study of susce...