BACKGROUND The binding of cyclins to cyclin-dependent kinases regulates cell proliferation. Overexpression of cyclins is believed to deregulate the cell cycle in human tumors. Here the expression of G1 cyclins D1 and D3, and of Ki-67 in a variety of bone and soft tissue sarcomas was assessed as compared to adjacent normal tissue and to a subset of leiomyomas. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twenty-nine...

Leiomyoma of the bilateral testicular tunica albuginea is extremely rare. To our knowledge, there are only 3 definitely reported cases. This is the first report of bilateral testicular tunica albuginea leiomyomas as a potential cause of male infertility. Herein, we report a case of a 47-year-old man who presented with painless bilateral testicular masses for more than 30 years, besides he also ...

OBJECTIVE Despite the high prevalence of uterine leiomyoma in women, little is known about the pathophysiology of this tumor. This study intends to define the epigenetic modulation of this tumor. METHODS Twenty-three pairs of leiomyomas and their adjacent myometria were collected. Status of DNA global methylation was determined by using DNA methyl acceptance assay and immunohistochemistry sta...

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) is an important signaling molecule in cells of mesenchymal origin, inducing differentiation and regulating cell proliferation in several cell types such as vascular smooth muscle cells. Leiomyomas arise from smooth muscle cells of the uterine myometrium with an incidence rate as high as 70% in women of reproductive age. PPAR signaling has not be...

Uterine leiomyomas are the most common benign pelvic tumors in women [1, 2]. They are monoclonal tumors of the smooth muscle cells of the myometrium and consist of large amounts of extracellular matrix that contains collagen, fibronectin and proteoglycan [2, 3]. A thin pseudocapsule that is composed of areolar tissue and compressed muscle fibers usually surrounds the tumors [4]. Leiomyomas may ...

....................................................................................................... 8 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ................................................................ 10 1. Tumorigenesis ....................................................................................................................... 10 2. Genetics of cancer .......................................

We purified the major mitogen for human smooth muscle-like cells in leiomyoma extracts by sequential liquid chromatography on (a) carboxymethyl-Sepharose, (b) heparin-Sepharose columns, (c) cartridges of C18 silica, and (d) linear gradient reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography. The mitogenic activity of the leiomyoma extract throughout purification was tested by tritiated thymidi...

Uterine leiomyomas are the most common uterine tumors in women. Estrogen receptor-alpha (ER-alpha) is more highly expressed in uterine leiomyomas than in normal myometrium, suggesting a link between uterine leiomyomas and ER-alpha expression. DNA methylation is an epigenetic mechanism of gene regulation and plays important roles in normal embryonic development and in disease progression includi...

Uterine leiomyomas are benign tumors that can cause pain, bleeding, and infertility in some women. Mediator complex subunit 12 (MED12) exon 2 variants are associated with uterine leiomyomas; however, the causality of MED12 variants, their genetic mode of action, and their role in genomic instability have not been established. Here, we generated a mouse model that conditionally expresses a Med12...

Global expression profiling studies showed that miRNAs are aberrantly expressed in uterine leiomyomas (ULMs) and are involved in ULM pathogenesis. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are another group of regulatory RNA whose expression and roles in ULMs have not been explored. In this study, we examined the global expressions of lncRNAs and mRNAs in ULMs using microarray and interrogated their interr...