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- Björkblom, Carina, et al.
(author)
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Estrogenic and androgenic effects of municipal wastewater effluent on reproductive endpoint biomarkers in three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)
- 2009
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In: Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. - : Wiley-Blackwell. - 0730-7268 .- 1552-8618. ; 28:5, s. 1063-1071
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Municipal wastewater treatment plants have been associated with the release of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, which consequently lead to alterations of reproductive function in aquatic organisms. The three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) has quantifiable biomarkers for assessment of both estrogen (vitellogenin) and androgen (spiggin) activity, which makes this species very valuable in the research of endocrine disruption. The estrogenic and androgenic biomarkers were used for evaluating exposure effects of municipal wastewater effluent. We evaluated the effects of 17alpha-ethinylestradiol (EE2), 17alpha-methyltestosterone (MT), and wastewater effluents on induction of vitellogenin and spiggin production, gonadosomatic index, hepatosomatic index, nephrosomatic index, plasma steroid levels, and histopathology. Adult female and male sticklebacks were exposed to 20 ng/L of EE2, 10 microg/L of MT, and wastewater effluent (10, 50, and 80% of original concentration) in a flow-through system for an exposure of one week and an extended exposure of four weeks. Chemical analyses of the steroids were done for verification of exposure concentrations and presence in the used wastewater. Our results show that municipal wastewater effluent exerts estrogenic action on three-spined stickleback as observed by elevated vitellogenin levels in exposed fish, corresponding to the effect seen in fish exposed to EE2. Furthermore, wastewater and EE2 exerted similar histopathological effects on testis of exposed fish. Although domestic effluent is suspected to have a high content of natural androgens, no obvious androgenic effect of wastewater was observed in the present study.
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2. |
- Hill, Deirdre A., et al.
(author)
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Breast cancer risk following radiotherapy for Hodgkin lymphoma : modification by other risk factors
- 2005
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In: Blood. - : American Society of Hematology. - 0006-4971 .- 1528-0020. ; 106:10, s. 3358-65
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The importance of genetic and other risk factors in the development of breast cancer after radiotherapy (RT) for Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) has not been determined. We analyzed data from a breast cancer case-control study (105 patients, 266 control subjects) conducted among 3 817 survivors of HL diagnosed at age 30 years or younger in 6 population-based cancer registries. Odds ratios (ORs) and excess relative risks (ERRs) were calculated using conditional regression. Women who received RT exposure (> or = 5 Gy radiation dose to the breast) had a 2.7-fold increased breast cancer risk (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.4-5.2), compared with those given less than 5 Gy. RT exposure (> or = 5 Gy) was associated with an OR of 0.8 (95% CI, 0.2-3.4) among women with a first- or second-degree family history of breast or ovarian cancer, and 5.8 (95% CI, 2.1-16.3) among all other women (interaction P = .03). History of a live birth appeared to increase the breast cancer risk associated with RT among women not treated with ovarian-damaging therapies. Breast cancer risk following RT varied little according to other factors. The additional increased relative risk of breast cancer after RT for HL is unlikely to be larger among women with a family history of breast or ovarian cancer than among other women.
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- Laakso, Mervi, et al.
(author)
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Basoluminal carcinoma: A new biologically and prognostically distinct entity between basal and luminal breast cancer
- 2006
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In: Clinical Cancer Research. - 1078-0432. ; 12:14, s. 4185-4191
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose: Breast carcinomas expressing basal epithelium cytokeratins constitute a tumor subgroup that is typically hormone receptor negative and shows a distinct gene expression profile. Based on variable basal cytokeratin immunostaining patterns, we hypothesized that the "basal phenotype" tumor group may comprise more than one biological entity. Experimental Design: Basal cytokeratins 5 and 14 (CK5/14) were stained by immunohistochemistry and the percentage of positive cells was defined by image analysis. The results thus obtained were compared with clinicopathologic characteristics and relapse-free survival. Results: Of the 506 breast tumors, 53 (10.5%) showed immunoreactivity for CK5/14. Basal cytokeratin expression showed up as two microscopically distinguishable subtypes, i.e., a uniformly positive type ("basal") and a partially positive type ("basoluminal") often displaying a checkerboard-type intratumoral heterogeneity. These subgroups could also be separated with a third basal cytokeratin (CK17, P < 0,0001). Both basal and basoluminal subtypes were hormone receptor negative and of high grade, but differed with respect to the Ki-67 labeling index (P = 0.0014), vimentin (P = 0.005), and c-kit (P = 0.02), which were more frequently expressed in basal than in basoluminal tumors. In contrast, the amplification of HER-2 was found almost exclusively in the basoluminal subgroup (P = 0.009). Compared with the basal tumors, basoluminal tumors associated with significantly shorter relapse-free survival (P = 0.01), which was not explained by their more frequent HER-2 amplification. Conclusions: We conclude that the intratumoral heterogeneity in basal cytokeratin expression can be used to define two distinct breast cancer subtypes, basal and basoluminal, with distinctive features related to proliferation activity, oncogene and biomarker status, and patient survival.
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4. |
- Leppanen, Olli, et al.
(author)
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ATP depletion in macrophages in the core of advanced rabbit atherosclerotic plaques in vivo
- 2006
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In: Atherosclerosis. ; 188:2, s. 323-30
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The cores of rabbit plaques in vivo are hypoxic, suggesting that ATP depletion due to an insufficient supply of oxygen and nutrients could contribute to macrophage death in atherosclerotic plaques. During hypoxia, however, macrophages maintain ATP levels by anaerobic glycolysis. To directly assess ATP and glucose metabolites in plaques in vivo, we used bioluminescence imaging to map the concentrations of ATP, glucose, glycogen, and lactate in normal and atherosclerotic rabbit aortas in vivo. Hypoxia was assessed with NITP (7-(4'-(2-nitroimidazol-1-yl)-butyl)-theophylline). Normal aortas and plaques <500 microm thick were not hypoxic and had homogenous concentrations of energy metabolites. In plaques >500 microm thick, however, the cores were characterized by ATP depletion, low concentrations of glucose and glycogen, and a high concentration of lactate. A majority of ATP-depleted macrophages within the core were viable but severely hypoxic and glucose depleted. Hyperoxia in vitro reversed the ATP depletion in macrophages in viable areas of the core. Our findings suggest that ATP depletion contributes to the death of macrophages in atherosclerotic lesions and to the formation of a necrotic core.
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