BACKGROUND Low serum retinol and hepatic tocopherol levels correlate with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk. Antiestrogen tamoxifen seems useful in HCC patients. A pilot study was performed to evaluate the effect of all-trans retinoic acid associated with tamoxifen and vitamin E on patients with advanced HCC. PATIENTS AND METHODS Fifteen consecutive patients with advanced HCC were included ...

At present, the effect of retinoic acid as an angiogenesis inhibitor in the treatment of cancer cells has been demonstrated (1, 2). These cells may lose their sensitivity to the drug after a while and 13-cis retinoic acid fails to exert its anti-angiogenic effect (1). The cancer cells are resistant to the effects of 13-cis retinoic acid can be re-sensitive to this drug through increased express...

Benzo(a)pyrene diol epoxide (BPDE), an active metabolite of the tobacco carcinogen benzo(a)pyrene, can induce p53 gene mutation, down-regulate retinoic acid receptor beta, and increase cyclooxygenase-2 expression in human epithelial cells. However, it remains unknown whether these effects are direct or indirect. To investigate the direct effects of BPDE on gene expression, we used our newly dev...

BACKGROUND The molecular mechanisms underlying the differential sensitivity of human colon carcinoma cells to retinoid mediated growth inhibition are poorly understood. AIM To identify the intracellular mechanisms responsible for resistance against retinoid mediated growth inhibition in human colon carcinoma cells. METHODS Anchorage independent growth of the human colon carcinoma cell lines...

The expression of the retinoic acid receptor beta (RAR beta) mRNA is absent or down-regulated in most human breast cancer cell lines. To investigate the role RAR beta may have in regulating the proliferation of breast cancer cells, we used retroviral vector-mediated gene transduction to introduce the human RAR beta gene into two RAR beta-negative breast tumor cell lines, MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231. R...

PURPOSE To provide a molecular rationale for negative prognostic factors more prevalent in African-American (AA) than Caucasian (Cau) women, we investigated the frequency of promoter hypermethylation in invasive ductal breast cancers in the two races. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN HIN-1, Twist, Cyclin D2, RAR-beta, and RASSF1A were analyzed in DNA from 67 AA and 44 Cau invasive ductal breast cancers, s...

Expression of the retinoic acid receptors alpha and beta (RAR-alpha and RAR-beta) was examined in F9 cells, an embryonal carcinoma cell model established for the study of retinoid metabolism and function. Addition of retinoic acid to F9 cell medium caused a dose-dependent increase in RAR-beta mRNA within 3 hr that reached 5- to 30-fold greater than the constitutively expressed mRNA by 24 hr. Th...

Takayasu's arteritis (TA), of which the first case was described by Takayasu in 1905 (1), is a chronic inflammatory disease of unknown etiology that primarily involves the aorta, its major branches, and the pulmonary and coronary arteries. Synonymssuch as aortic arch syndrome, pulseless disease and aortitis syndrome reflect this anatomic localization. TAappears to be most commonin East Asia inc...

Retinoic acid is a metabolite of vitamin A that can act as a signalling molecule in a number of developmental systems. Retinoic acid is also known to be teratogenic in mammals, causing a range of defects including abnormalities in craniofacial development. Exposure of the developing chick face to retinoic acid released slowly from a bead implanted in the wing bud results in a specific facial de...

Retinoids are known to play important roles in organ development of the lung. Retinoids exert their activity by modulating the expression of numerous genes, generally influencing gene transcription, in target cells. In the present work, the mechanism by which retinoic acid (RA) regulates surfactant protein (SP) B expression was assessed in vitro. RA (9- cis-RA) enhanced SP-B mRNA in pulmonary a...