Transgenic mice carrying an integrated subgenomic human hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA fragment coding for the viral envelope polypeptides, represent a model for the study of the mechanisms involved in hepatocarcinogenesis. The mice develop a progressive liver injury characterized by inflammation, regenerative hyperplasia and dysplasia terminating in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) at around 18-21 ...

Case-control studies have implicated rare length H-ras minisatellite alleles in cancer risk. In Europeans, this locus has four common alleles, and a larger number of rare alleles; possession of a rare allele has been identified as a risk factor responsible for 5-10% of some cancers. This unusual model of predisposition has been controversial in case-control studies, but also makes characteristi...

We have determined the mitotic stability of micro- and mini-satellite DNA sequences in SV40-immortalized Werner syndrome (WS) and control fibroblast cell lines. Five microsatellite loci were genotyped in two WS and two control SV40-immortalized fibroblast cell lines and in 154 independent primary or secondary clones derived from these. We used four minisatellite "core" or individual locus probe...

Minisatellites are DNA tandem repeats exhibiting size polymorphism among individuals of a population. This polymorphism is generated by two different mechanisms, both in human and yeast cells, "replication slippage" during S-phase DNA synthesis and "repair slippage" associated to meiotic gene conversion. The Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome contains numerous natural minisatellites. They are loca...

This study examined minisatellite DNA variation in three groups of Auckland Island teals from three locations (Boat Bay, Nellie Spit and East Coast). To determine whether teals showed high levels of natal philopatry, we were asked to test two hypotheses: 1) birds within each group are more closely related to each than to those in other groups; and 2) birds from nearby sites, Boat Bay and Nellie...

Germline minisatellite mutation rates were investigated in male workers occupationally exposed to radiation at the Sellafield nuclear facility. DNA samples from 160 families with 255 offspring were analysed for mutations at eight hypervariable minisatellite loci (B6.7, CEB1, CEB15, CEB25, CEB36, MS1, MS31, MS32) by Southern hybridisation. No significant difference was observed between the pater...

background: classification of molar gestation into complete hydatidiform mole (chm) and partial hydatidiform mole (phm) is done according to clinical, ultrasonographic, histologic and genetic criteria. however, making a distinction between chm and phm using histologic criteria alone may be difficult and several studies have shown that misclassifications are frequent, even for experienced pathol...

Analysis of germline mutation rate at human minisatellites among children born in areas of the Mogilev district of Belarus heavily polluted after the Chernobyl accident has been extended, both by recruiting more families from the affected region and by using five additional minisatellite probes, including multi-locus probe 33.6 and four hypervariable single-locus probes. These additional data c...

Many tandemly repeated minisatellite loci display extreme levels of length variation as a consequence of high rates of spontaneous germline mutation altering repeat copy number. Direct screening for new allele lengths by small-pool PCR has shown that instability at the human minisatellite locus MS205 (D16S309) is largely germline specific and usually results in the gain or loss of just a few re...