Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0043346 (xeroderma pigmentosum)
 2,924 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Because of the importance of human cells, particularly human epithelial cells, in cancer research, we have studied certain phases or events of carcinogenesis using human epidermal cells in primary culture. 1) We found that human epidermal cells are capable of metabolizing benzo[a]pyrene. Large inter-individual variations are found in the basal and induced arylhydrocarbon-hydroxylase activities. 2) UV-induced unscheduled DNA synthesis was demonstrated in human epidermal cells on autoradiographs. We also found that DNA repair is defective in epidermal cells isolated from xeroderma pigmentosum by a new explant-outgrowth culture. 3) Human epidermal cells are unique in that there is a large number of binding sites to phorbol esters compared with mouse epidermal cells, but there is no down-regulation. Further, human epidermal cells show essentially negative responses to tumor promoters, i.e., no stimulation of DNA synthesis, sugar uptake, and no induction of ornithine decarboxylase activity. 4) Human epidermal cells contain 1.5 x 10(5) binding sites per cell for epidermal growth factor (EGF), whereas squamous cell carcinomas of skin and oral cavity have larger amounts of EGF receptors in the order of 10(6) per cell. 5) Based on the above results, we attempted to transform human epidermal cells by the treatment with chemical carcinogens, but until now no transformation was obtained.
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PMID:Use of human epidermal cells in the study of carcinogenesis. 265 1

Patients with xeroderma pigmentosum (XP), a DNA repair disorder, run a large risk of developing skin cancer in sun-exposed areas. Cancer proneness in these patients correlates with a mammalian SOS-like response, "enhanced reactivation (ER) of viruses." Here, we report that radiation-induced activation of the ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) gene, a putative proto-oncogene, is required for this response. Various diploid fibroblast strains derived from a non-cancer-prone subclass of XP patients, which lack the ER response, were irradiated with 2 J/m2 and assessed for gene induction. In these fibroblasts, an absence of induction of ODC by UV-C was observed at the levels of mRNA, protein, and enzyme activity. This lack of induction is quite specific because the genes for fos and collagenase were induced as they were in normal XP cells. The apparent linkage between non-cancer proneness and a lack of ER and ODC induction was confirmed in a fibroblast strain derived from a patient with another DNA repair disorder, trichothiodystrophy, which does not lead to cancer proneness: in these cells, no induction of the ER response nor of ODC occurs after UV-C irradiation. Repair deficiency, however, is not essential because the simultaneous lack of ODC and ER induction after 10 J/m2 UV-C was found in at least one repair-proficient fibroblast. Next, a specific inhibitor of ODC, difluoromethylornithine, at a dose of 10 mM, completely blocked the ER response in cultured normal skin fibroblasts, suggesting that the ODC enzyme is in fact essential for the ER response. Difluoromethylornithine, although it did not affect other processes such as DNA repair, leads to a block in the cell division cycle at the G1-S transition. Interestingly, other blockers of this transition, wortmannin (500 nM) and mimosine (100 mM), also decreased the ER response. Finally, the ER and ODC responses also seem to be linked after treatment with X-irradiation (3 Gy), suggesting that both are part of a general response to DNA damage, at least in human skin fibroblasts. Apart from the abnormal ER and ODC responses, fibroblasts from non-tumor-prone XP patients react in the same way to radiation as do fibroblasts from tumor-prone XP patients with respect to other parameters. Thus, the lack of ODC induction after radiation may help to protect XP patients against skin carcinogenesis.
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PMID:A lack of radiation-induced ornithine decarboxylase activity prevents enhanced reactivation of herpes simplex virus and is linked to non-cancer proneness in xeroderma pigmentosum patients. 933 Nov 2

Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) patients are deficient in nucleotide excision repair (NER) because of mutations in one of the genes coding for NER enzymes. This results predominantly in high frequency of UV-induced skin tumors at an early age; the most severe phenotype is found in patients of complementation group A (XPA). However, in a subset of these XPA patients no skin tumors appear, even at advanced age. Fibroblasts of this subset of patients are not capable of raising UV-induced enhanced reactivation (ER) of viruses and up-regulation of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC). We hypothesized that prevention of ODC induction would protect NER-deficient patients from cancer. To simulate the situation in XPA patients, we used a hairless Xpa knockout mouse model and down-regulated the ODC activity by difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) administered in the drinking water. The DFMO treatment significantly suppressed UV-induced carcinogenesis. In a crossover study, we additionally found that discontinuation of the DFMO treatment resulted in a rapid appearance of skin tumors, up to levels found in mice not treated with DFMO. Late-stage DFMO treatment significantly reduced the number of carcinomas by a factor of 2-3, and it appeared to select for carcinomas with high ODC activity. These results indicate that DFMO suppresses the outgrowth but not the initiation of UV-induced tumors. The DFMO treatment reduced the tumor load but did not offer the Xpa knockout mice full protection against UV carcinogenesis.
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PMID:Suppression of UV carcinogenesis by difluoromethylornithine in nucleotide excision repair-deficient Xpa knockout mice. 1188 2