Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP) is a rare autosomal dominantly inherited colorectal cancer syndrome. Individuals with FAP often undergo colectomy and are recommended to follow several surveillance protocols. Biological relatives of persons with FAP may also be at risk and thus should undergo genetic counseling. Screening adherence, genetic testing, and other health behaviors among individu...

Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is a genetically transmitted disease affecting the colon. It is characterized by the presence of several (at least 100) adenomatous polyps, each able to develop into carcinomas, and by other extra-colonic signs such as skin and bone lesions. Within the framework of research studies to identify phenotyphic markers for early detection of subjects at risk withi...

PURPOSE Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy (FAP) patients. Erythropoietin (EPO) is a cytokine that has been shown to play a role in neuroprotection and is endogenously produced in the eye. EPO levels in the aqueous humor are increased in eyes with glaucoma. In this study, we evaluated the EPO concentration in the aqueous humor of FAP a...

PURPOSE Allelic loss at chromosome 4q21-23 occurs frequently in human hepatocellular carcinoma, and the putative tumor suppressor gene (TSG) has not yet been identified. We studied the Fas-associated phosphatase-1 (FAP-1) gene as a potential candidate TSG in this region. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN The expression level of FAP-1 RNA in hepatocellular carcinomas was evaluated by RNase protection and qu...

A transthyretin variant with a methionine for valine substitution at position 30 [TTR(Met30)] is found in Portuguese patients with familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy (FAP). Effective, rapid, small- and semimicro-scale (immunoblotting) procedures were developed to determine whether or not TTR(Met30) is present in the plasma of an individual subject. The immunoblotting procedure employs only 0.1...

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAs) are desmoplastic and can undergo epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition to confer metastasis and chemoresistance. Studies have demonstrated that phenotypically and functionally distinct stromal cell populations exist in PDAs. Fibroblast activation protein-expressing (FAP-expressing) cells act to enhance PDA progression, while α-smooth muscle actin myofibro...

Fibroblast activation protein (FAP) is a transmembrane serine peptidase that belongs to the prolyl peptidase family. FAP has been implicated in cancer; however, its specific role remains elusive because inhibitors that distinguish FAP from other prolyl peptidases like dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) have not been developed. To identify peptide motifs for FAP-selective inhibitor design, we used P...

PURPOSE Human fibroblast activation protein (FAP)/seprase is a 97-kDa surface glycoprotein expressed on tumor associated fibroblasts in the majority of epithelial cancers including colon adenocarcinomas. FAP overexpression in human tumor cells has been shown to promote tumor growth in animal models, and clinical trials targeting FAP enzymatic activity have been initiated. The primary objective ...

Fibroblast activation protein (FAP) or seprase, which belongs to the group type II integral serine proteases, is an integral membrane serine peptidase. Previous studies have demonstrated that FAP has an effect on tumor growth, proliferation and invasion. However, the cellular functional role that FAP plays in osteosarcoma (OS) remains unknown. The aim of the present study was to investigate the...