1. |
- Yang, Yaohua, et al.
(författare)
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Genetic Data from Nearly 63,000 Women of European Descent Predicts DNA Methylation Biomarkers and Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Risk
- 2019
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Ingår i: Cancer Research. - : AMER ASSOC CANCER RESEARCH. - 0008-5472 .- 1538-7445. ; 79:3, s. 505-517
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- DNA methylation is instrumental for gene regulation. Global changes in the epigenetic landscape have been recognized as a hallmark of cancer. However, the role of DNA methylation in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) remains unclear. In this study, high-density genetic and DNA methylation data in white blood cells from the Framingham Heart Study (N = 1,595) were used to build genetic models to predict DNA methylation levels. These prediction models were then applied to the summary statistics of a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of ovarian cancer including 22,406 EOC cases and 40,941 controls to investigate genetically predicted DNA methylation levels in association with EOC risk. Among 62,938 CpG sites investigated, genetically predicted methylation levels at 89 CpG were significantly associated with EOC risk at a Bonferroni-corrected threshold of P < 7.94 x 10(-7). Of them, 87 were located at GWAS-identified EOC susceptibility regions and two resided in a genomic region not previously reported to be associated with EOC risk. Integrative analyses of genetic, methylation, and gene expression data identified consistent directions of associations across 12 CpG, five genes, and EOC risk, suggesting that methylation at these 12 CpG may influence EOC risk by regulating expression of these five genes, namely MAPT, HOXB3, ABHD8, ARHGAP27, and SKAP1. We identified novel DNA methylation markers associated with EOC risk and propose that methylation at multiple CpG may affect EOC risk via regulation of gene expression. Significance: Identification of novel DNA methylation markers associated with EOC risk suggests that methylation at multiple CpG may affect EOC risk through regulation of gene expression.
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2. |
- Ade, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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The Simons Observatory : science goals and forecasts
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. - : IOP Publishing. - 1475-7516. ; :2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Simons Observatory (SO) is a new cosmic microwave background experiment being built on Cerro Toco in Chile, due to begin observations in the early 2020s. We describe the scientific goals of the experiment, motivate the design, and forecast its performance. SO will measure the temperature and polarization anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background in six frequency bands centered at: 27, 39, 93, 145, 225 and 280 GHz. The initial con figuration of SO will have three small-aperture 0.5-m telescopes and one large-aperture 6-m telescope, with a total of 60,000 cryogenic bolometers. Our key science goals are to characterize the primordial perturbations, measure the number of relativistic species and the mass of neutrinos, test for deviations from a cosmological constant, improve our understanding of galaxy evolution, and constrain the duration of reionization. The small aperture telescopes will target the largest angular scales observable from Chile, mapping approximate to 10% of the sky to a white noise level of 2 mu K-arcmin in combined 93 and 145 GHz bands, to measure the primordial tensor-to-scalar ratio, r, at a target level of sigma(r) = 0.003. The large aperture telescope will map approximate to 40% of the sky at arcminute angular resolution to an expected white noise level of 6 mu K-arcmin in combined 93 and 145 GHz bands, overlapping with the majority of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope sky region and partially with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. With up to an order of magnitude lower polarization noise than maps from the Planck satellite, the high-resolution sky maps will constrain cosmological parameters derived from the damping tail, gravitational lensing of the microwave background, the primordial bispectrum, and the thermal and kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects, and will aid in delensing the large-angle polarization signal to measure the tensor-to-scalar ratio. The survey will also provide a legacy catalog of 16,000 galaxy clusters and more than 20,000 extragalactic sources.
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3. |
- De Kauwe, M. G., et al.
(författare)
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A test of the ‘one-point method’ for estimating maximum carboxylation capacity from field-measured, light-saturated photosynthesis
- 2016
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Ingår i: New Phytologist. - : Wiley. - 0028-646X .- 1469-8137. ; 210:3, s. 1130-1144
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Simulations of photosynthesis by terrestrial biosphere models typically need a specification of the maximum carboxylation rate (Vcmax). Estimating this parameter using A–Ci curves (net photosynthesis, A, vs intercellular CO2 concentration, Ci) is laborious, which limits availability of Vcmax data. However, many multispecies field datasets include net photosynthetic rate at saturating irradiance and at ambient atmospheric CO2 concentration (Asat) measurements, from which Vcmax can be extracted using a ‘one-point method’. We used a global dataset of A–Ci curves (564 species from 46 field sites, covering a range of plant functional types) to test the validity of an alternative approach to estimate Vcmax from Asat via this ‘one-point method’. If leaf respiration during the day (Rday) is known exactly, Vcmax can be estimated with an r2 value of 0.98 and a root-mean-squared error (RMSE) of 8.19 μmol m−2 s−1. However, Rday typically must be estimated. Estimating Rday as 1.5% of Vcmax, we found that Vcmax could be estimated with an r2 of 0.95 and an RMSE of 17.1 μmol m−2 s−1. The one-point method provides a robust means to expand current databases of field-measured Vcmax, giving new potential to improve vegetation models and quantify the environmental drivers of Vcmax variation.
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4. |
- Sampson, Joshua N., et al.
(författare)
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Analysis of Heritability and Shared Heritability Based on Genome-Wide Association Studies for 13 Cancer Types
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of the National Cancer Institute. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0027-8874 .- 1460-2105. ; 107:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Studies of related individuals have consistently demonstrated notable familial aggregation of cancer. We aim to estimate the heritability and genetic correlation attributable to the additive effects of common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for cancer at 13 anatomical sites. Methods: Between 2007 and 2014, the US National Cancer Institute has generated data from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for 49 492 cancer case patients and 34 131 control patients. We apply novel mixed model methodology (GCTA) to this GWAS data to estimate the heritability of individual cancers, as well as the proportion of heritability attributable to cigarette smoking in smoking-related cancers, and the genetic correlation between pairs of cancers. Results: GWAS heritability was statistically significant at nearly all sites, with the estimates of array-based heritability, h(l)(2), on the liability threshold (LT) scale ranging from 0.05 to 0.38. Estimating the combined heritability of multiple smoking characteristics, we calculate that at least 24% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 14% to 37%) and 7% (95% CI = 4% to 11%) of the heritability for lung and bladder cancer, respectively, can be attributed to genetic determinants of smoking. Most pairs of cancers studied did not show evidence of strong genetic correlation. We found only four pairs of cancers with marginally statistically significant correlations, specifically kidney and testes (rho = 0.73, SE = 0.28), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and pediatric osteosarcoma (rho = 0.53, SE = 0.21), DLBCL and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) (rho = 0.51, SE = 0.18), and bladder and lung (rho = 0.35, SE = 0.14). Correlation analysis also indicates that the genetic architecture of lung cancer differs between a smoking population of European ancestry and a nonsmoking Asian population, allowing for the possibility that the genetic etiology for the same disease can vary by population and environmental exposures. Conclusion: Our results provide important insights into the genetic architecture of cancers and suggest new avenues for investigation.
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5. |
- Doughty, Christopher E., et al.
(författare)
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Drought impact on forest carbon dynamics and fluxes in Amazonia
- 2015
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 519:7541, s. 78-140
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In 2005 and 2010 the Amazon basin experienced two strong droughts', driven by shifts in the tropical hydrological regime(2) possibly associated with global climate change(3), as predicted by some global models'. Tree mortality increased after the 2005 drought(4), and regional atmospheric inversion modelling showed basin-wide decreases in CO2 uptake in 2010 compared with 2011 (ref. 5). But the response of tropical forest carbon cycling to these droughts is not fully understood and there has been no detailed multi-site investigation in situ. Here we use several years of data from a network of thirteen 1-ha forest plots spread throughout South America, where each component of net primary production (NPP), autotrophic respiration and heterotrophic respiration is measured separately, to develop a better mechanistic understanding of the impact of the 2010 drought on the Amazon forest. We find that total NPP remained constant throughout the drought. However, towards the end of the drought, autotrophic respiration, especially in roots and stems, declined significantly compared with measurements in 2009 made in the absence of drought, with extended decreases in autotrophic respiration in the three driest plots. In the year after the drought, total NPP remained constant but the allocation of carbon shifted towards canopy NPP and away from fine-root NPP. Both leaf-level and plot-level measurements indicate that severe drought suppresses photosynthesis. Scaling these measurements to the entire Amazon basin with rainfall data, we estimate that drought suppressed Amazon-wide photosynthesis in 2010 by 0.38 petagrams of carbon (0.23-0.53 petagrams of carbon). Overall, we find that during this drought, instead of reducing total NPP, trees prioritized growth by reducing autotrophic respiration that was unrelated to growth. This suggests that trees decrease investment in tissue maintenance and defence, in line with eco-evolutionary theories that trees are competitively disadvantaged in the absence of growth(6). We propose that weakened maintenance and defence investment may, in turn, cause the increase in post-drought tree mortality observed at our plots.
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6. |
- Doughty, Christopher E., et al.
(författare)
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Source and sink carbon dynamics and carbon allocation in the Amazon basin
- 2015
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Ingår i: Global Biogeochemical Cycles. - 0886-6236. ; 29:5, s. 645-655
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Changes to the carbon cycle in tropical forests could affect global climate, but predicting such changes has been previously limited by lack of field-based data. Here we show seasonal cycles of the complete carbon cycle for 14, 1ha intensive carbon cycling plots which we separate into three regions: humid lowland, highlands, and dry lowlands. Our data highlight three trends: (1) there is differing seasonality of total net primary productivity (NPP) with the highlands and dry lowlands peaking in the dry season and the humid lowland sites peaking in the wet season, (2) seasonal reductions in wood NPP are not driven by reductions in total NPP but by carbon during the dry season being preferentially allocated toward either roots or canopy NPP, and (3) there is a temporal decoupling between total photosynthesis and total carbon usage (plant carbon expenditure). This decoupling indicates the presence of nonstructural carbohydrates which may allow growth and carbon to be allocated when it is most ecologically beneficial rather than when it is most environmentally available.
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7. |
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8. |
- Muller, David C., et al.
(författare)
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Circulating high sensitivity C reactive protein concentrations and risk of lung cancer : nested case-control study within Lung Cancer Cohort Consortium
- 2019
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Ingår i: The BMJ. - : BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. - 1756-1833 .- 0959-8138. ; 364
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objectives To conduct a comprehensive analysis of prospectively measured circulating high sensitivity C reactive protein (hsCRP) concentration and risk of lung cancer overall, by smoking status (never, former, and current smokers), and histological sub-type.Design Nested case-control study.Setting 20 population based cohort studies in Asia, Europe, Australia, and the United States.Participants 5299 patients with incident lung cancer, with individually incidence density matched controls.Exposure Circulating hsCRP concentrations in prediagnostic serum or plasma samples.Main outcome measure Incident lung cancer diagnosis.Results A positive association between circulating hsCRP concentration and the risk of lung cancer for current (odds ratio associated with a doubling in hsCRP concentration 1.09, 95% confidence interval 1.05 to 1.13) and former smokers (1.09, 1.04 to 1.14) was observed, but not for never smokers (P<0.01 for interaction). This association was strong and consistent across all histological subtypes, except for adenocarcinoma, which was not strongly associated with hsCRP concentration regardless of smoking status (odds ratio for adenocarcinoma overall 0.97, 95% confidence interval 0.94 to 1.01). The association between circulating hsCRP concentration and the risk of lung cancer was strongest in the first two years of follow-up for former and current smokers. Including hsCRP concentration in a risk model, in addition to smoking based variables, did not improve risk discrimination overall, but slightly improved discrimination for cancers diagnosed in the first two years of follow-up.Conclusions Former and current smokers with higher circulating hsCRP concentrations had a higher risk of lung cancer overall. Circulating hsCRP concentration was not associated with the risk of lung adenocarcinoma. Circulating hsCRP concentration could be a prediagnostic marker of lung cancer rather than a causal risk factor.
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9. |
- Rowland, L, et al.
(författare)
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After more than a decade of soil moisture deficit, tropical rainforest trees maintain photosynthetic capacity, despite increased leaf respiration.
- 2015
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Ingår i: Global Change Biology. - : Wiley. - 1354-1013 .- 1365-2486. ; 21:12, s. 4662-4672
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Determining climate change feedbacks from tropical rainforests requires an understanding of how carbon gain through photosynthesis and loss through respiration will be altered. One of the key changes that tropical rainforests may experience under future climate change scenarios is reduced soil moisture availability. In this study we examine if and how both leaf photosynthesis and leaf dark respiration acclimate following more than 12 years of experimental soil moisture deficit, via a through-fall exclusion experiment (TFE) in an eastern Amazonian rainforest. We find that experimentally drought-stressed trees and taxa maintain the same maximum leaf photosynthetic capacity as trees in corresponding control forest, independent of their susceptibility to drought-induced mortality. We hypothesise that photosynthetic capacity is maintained across all treatments and taxa to take advantage of short-lived periods of high moisture availability, when stomatal conductance (gs ) and photosynthesis can increase rapidly, potentially compensating for reduced assimilate supply at other times. Average leaf dark respiration (Rd ) was elevated in the TFE-treated forest trees relative to the control by 28.2±2.8% (mean ± one standard error). This mean Rd value was dominated by a 48.5±3.6% increase in the Rd of drought-sensitive taxa, and likely reflects the need for additional metabolic support required for stress-related repair, and hydraulic or osmotic maintenance processes. Following soil moisture deficit that is maintained for several years, our data suggest that changes in respiration drive greater shifts in the canopy carbon balance, than changes in photosynthetic capacity. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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10. |
- Rowland, L, et al.
(författare)
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Death from drought in tropical forests is triggered by hydraulics not carbon starvation.
- 2015
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 528:7580, s. 119-122
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Drought threatens tropical rainforests over seasonal to decadal timescales, but the drivers of tree mortality following drought remain poorly understood. It has been suggested that reduced availability of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) critically increases mortality risk through insufficient carbon supply to metabolism ('carbon starvation'). However, little is known about how NSC stores are affected by drought, especially over the long term, and whether they are more important than hydraulic processes in determining drought-induced mortality. Using data from the world's longest-running experimental drought study in tropical rainforest (in the Brazilian Amazon), we test whether carbon starvation or deterioration of the water-conducting pathways from soil to leaf trigger tree mortality. Biomass loss from mortality in the experimentally droughted forest increased substantially after >10 years of reduced soil moisture availability. The mortality signal was dominated by the death of large trees, which were at a much greater risk of hydraulic deterioration than smaller trees. However, we find no evidence that the droughted trees suffered carbon starvation, as their NSC concentrations were similar to those of non-droughted trees, and growth rates did not decline in either living or dying trees. Our results indicate that hydraulics, rather than carbon starvation, triggers tree death from drought in tropical rainforest.
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11. |
- Travis, Ruth C., et al.
(författare)
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A Meta-analysis of Individual Participant Data Reveals an Association between Circulating Levels of IGF-I and Prostate Cancer Risk
- 2016
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Ingår i: Cancer Research. - 0008-5472 .- 1538-7445. ; 76:8, s. 2288-2300
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The role of insulin-like growth factors (IGF) in prostate cancer development is not fully understood. To investigate the association between circulating concentrations of IGFs (IGF-I, IGF-II, IGFBP-1, IGFBP-2, and IGFBP-3) and prostate cancer risk, we pooled individual participant data from 17 prospective and two cross-sectional studies, including up to 10,554 prostate cancer cases and 13,618 control participants. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate the ORs for prostate cancer based on the study-specific fifth of each analyte. Overall, IGF-I, IGF-II, IGFBP-2, and IGFBP-3 concentrations were positively associated with prostate cancer risk (P-trend all <= 0.005), and IGFBP-1 was inversely associated weakly with risk (P-trend = 0.05). However, heterogeneity between the prospective and cross-sectional studies was evident (P-heterogeneity = 0.03), unless the analyses were restricted to prospective studies (with the exception of IGF-II, P-heterogeneity = 0.02). For prospective studies, the OR for men in the highest versus the lowest fifth of each analyte was 1.29 (95% confidence interval, 1.16-1.43) for IGF-I, 0.81 (0.68-0.96) for IGFBP-1, and 1.25 (1.12-1.40) for IGFBP-3. These associations did not differ significantly by time-to-diagnosis or tumor stage or grade. After mutual adjustment for each of the other analytes, only IGF-I remained associated with risk. Our collaborative study represents the largest pooled analysis of the relationship between prostate cancer risk and circulating concentrations of IGF-I, providing strong evidence that IGF-I is highly likely to be involved in prostate cancer development.
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12. |
- Tyekucheva, Svitlana, et al.
(författare)
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Stromal and epithelial transcriptional map of initiation progression and metastatic potential of human prostate cancer
- 2017
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - London, United Kingdom : Nature Publishing Group. - 2041-1723. ; 8:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While progression from normal prostatic epithelium to invasive cancer is driven by molecular alterations, tumor cells and cells in the cancer microenvironment are co-dependent and co-evolve. Few human studies to date have focused on stroma. Here, we performed gene expression profiling of laser capture microdissected normal non-neoplastic prostate epithelial tissue and compared it to non-transformed and neoplastic low-grade and high-grade prostate epithelial tissue from radical prostatectomies, each with its immediately surrounding stroma. Whereas benign epithelium in prostates with and without tumor were similar in gene expression space, stroma away from tumor was significantly different from that in prostates without cancer. A stromal gene signature reflecting bone remodeling and immune-related pathways was upregulated in high compared to low-Gleason grade cases. In validation data, the signature discriminated cases that developed metastasis from those that did not. These data suggest that the microenvironment may influence prostate cancer initiation, maintenance, and metastatic progression.Stromal cells contribute to tumor development but the mechanisms regulating this process are still unclear. Here the authors analyze gene expression profiles in the prostate and show that stromal gene signature changes ahead of the epithelial gene signature as prostate cancer initiates and progresses.
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13. |
- Wang, Zhaoming, et al.
(författare)
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Further Confirmation of Germline Glioma Risk Variant rs78378222 in TP53 and Its Implication in Tumor Tissues via Integrative Analysis of TCGA Data
- 2015
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Ingår i: Human Mutation. - : Hindawi Limited. - 1059-7794 .- 1098-1004. ; 36:7, s. 684-688
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We confirmed strong association of rs78378222:A>C (per allele odds ratio [OR] = 3.14; P = 6.48 x 10(-11)), a germline rare single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in TP53, via imputation of a genome-wide association study of glioma (1,856 cases and 4,955 controls). We subsequently performed integrative analyses on the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data for GBM (glioblastoma multiforme) and LUAD (lung adenocarcinoma). Based on SNP data, we imputed genotypes for rs78378222 and selected individuals carrying rare risk allele (C). Using RNA sequencing data, we observed aberrant transcripts with approximate to 3 kb longer than normal for those individuals. Using exome sequencing data, we further showed that loss of haplotype carrying common protective allele (A) occurred somatically in GBM but not in LUAD. Our bioinformatic analysis suggests rare risk allele (C) disrupts mRNA termination, and an allelic loss of a genomic region harboring common protective allele (A) occurs during tumor initiation or progression for glioma.
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14. |
- Watts, Eleanor L., et al.
(författare)
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Circulating sex hormones in relation to anthropometric, sociodemographic and behavioural factors in an international dataset of 12,300 men
- 2017
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 12:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: Sex hormones have been implicated in the etiology of a number of diseases. To better understand disease etiology and the mechanisms of disease-risk factor associations, this analysis aimed to investigate the associations of anthropometric, sociodemographic and behavioural factors with a range of circulating sex hormones and sex hormone-binding globulin.Methods: Statistical analyses of individual participant data from 12,330 male controls aged 25–85 years from 25 studies involved in the Endogenous Hormones Nutritional Biomarkers and Prostate Cancer Collaborative Group. Analysis of variance was used to estimate geometric means adjusted for study and relevant covariates.Results: Older age was associated with higher concentrations of sex hormone-binding globulin and dihydrotestosterone and lower concentrations of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, free testosterone, androstenedione, androstanediol glucuronide and free estradiol. Higher body mass index was associated with higher concentrations of free estradiol, androstanediol glucuronide, estradiol and estrone and lower concentrations of dihydrotestosterone, testosterone, sex hormone-binding globulin, free testosterone, androstenedione and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate. Taller height was associated with lower concentrations of androstenedione, testosterone, free testosterone and sex hormone-binding globulin and higher concentrations of androstanediol glucuronide. Current smoking was associated with higher concentrations of androstenedione, sex hormone-binding globulin and testosterone. Alcohol consumption was associated with higher concentrations of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, androstenedione and androstanediol glucuronide. East Asians had lower concentrations of androstanediol glucuronide and African Americans had higher concentrations of estrogens. Education and marital status were modestly associated with a small number of hormones.Conclusion: Circulating sex hormones in men are strongly associated with age and body mass index, and to a lesser extent with smoking status and alcohol consumption.
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