Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma (UTUC) is an uncommon disease which occurs more frequently in some regions of Balkan countries than in other areas in the world. Investigation of UTUC in the South Morava River basin and its tributaries where BEN is endemic revealed increased frequency not only of tumour of the renal pelvis and ureter but also of urinary bladder tumours. A comparative morphologi...

Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN), a familial chronic tubulo interstitial disease with a slow progression to terminal renal failure, affects people living in the alluvial plains along the tributaries of the Danube River. One of its most peculiar characteristics is a strong association with upper urothelial cancer. An increased incidence of upper urinary tract (UUT) transitional cell cancer (TCC)...

The abundance of Geobacter species in contaminated aquifers in which benzene is anaerobically degraded has led to the suggestion that some Geobacter species might be capable of anaerobic benzene degradation, but this has never been documented. A strain of Geobacter, designated strain Ben, was isolated from sediments from the Fe(III)-reducing zone of a petroleum-contaminated aquifer in which the...

TFII-I is an unusual transcription factor possessing both basal and signal-induced transcriptional functions. Here we report the characterization of a TFII-I-related factor (MusTRD1/BEN) that regulates transcriptional functions of TFII-I by controlling its nuclear residency. MusTRD1/BEN has five or six direct repeats, each containing helix--loop--helix motifs, and, thus, belongs to the TFII-I f...

The expression pattern of the immunoglobulin DM-GRASP/BEN gene was studied in the mouse embryo using in situ hybridization. DM-GRASP/BEN is expressed in the spinal cord in a subset of motoneurons expressing Islet-1, and non homogeneously in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG). In contrast, it's expression is homogeneous in the vestibulo-cochlear and trigemminal ganglia. DM-GRASP/BEN is also expressed...