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Article
A novel amplification target, DUSP26, promotes anaplastic thyroid cancer cell growth by inhibiting p38 MAPK activity
Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is one of the most lethal of all human tumors, but cytogenetic information concerning ATC is extremely limited. Using our in-house array-based comparative genomic hybridization ...
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Article
Antisense and nonantisense effects of antisense Bcl-2 on multiple roles of Bcl-2 as a chemosensitizer in cancer therapy
Bcl-2 is an oncoprotein that plays a critical role in inhibiting apoptotic cell death in the mitochondria-dependent pathway in cancer chemotherapy. As a strategy for blocking Bcl-2 for enhancement of the chemo...
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Article
Role of the unfolded protein response in cell death
Unfolded protein response (UPR) is an important genomic response to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. The ER chaperones, GRP78 and Gadd153, play critical roles in cell survival or cell death as part of the UP...
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Article
Evidence for natural selection in the HAVCR1 gene: high degree of amino-acid variability in the mucin domain of human HAVCR1 protein
The family of genes encoding T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin-domain containing proteins (Tim), which are cell-surface molecules expressed in CD4+ T helper cells, has important roles in the immune system. Here, we...
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Article
Open AccessDecreased expression of haemoglobin beta (HBB) gene in anaplastic thyroid cancer and recovory of its expression inhibits cell growth
Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is one of the most fulminant and foetal diseases in human malignancies. However, the genetic alterations and carcinogenic mechanisms of ATC are still unclear. Recently, we inves...
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Article
Association of the –381T/C promoter variation of the brain natriuretic peptide gene with low bone-mineral density and rapid postmenopausal bone loss
Osteoporosis is believed to result from interplay among multiple environmental and genetic determinants, including factors that regulate bone-mineral density (BMD). Recent quantitative trait locus analysis in...
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Article
Hypermethylation associated with inactivation of the SOCS-1 gene, a JAK/STAT inhibitor, in human hepatoblastomas
We recently demonstrated inactivation in hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) of the gene encoding SOCS1/JAB1/SSI-1, a JAK-binding protein that regulates the JAK/STAT signal-transduction pathway. In a follow-up i...
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Article
Association of common missense changes in ELAC2 (HPC2) with prostate cancer in a Japanese case–control series
The recently identified prostate cancer susceptibility gene ELAC2 (HPC2) harbors two common missense variants, a serine to leucine substitution at residue 217 (Leu217) and an alanine to threonine substitution at...
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Article
Interaction between the LDL-receptor gene bearing a novel mutation and a variant in the apolipoprotein A-II promoter: molecular study in a 1135-member familial hypercholesterolemia kindred
Lipid and lipoprotein concentrations in plasma generally reflect complex influences of multiple genetic loci. Even an autosomal dominant disorder, familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), is characterized by pheno...
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Article
Head-to-head juxtaposition of Fas-associated phosphatase-1 (FAP-1) and c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase 3 (JNK3) genes: genomic structure and seven polymorphisms of the FAP-1 gene
When characterizing the 5′ flanking region of the c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase 3 (JNK3) gene at 4q21–22, where frequent allelic losses and loss of expression had been detected in patients with brain tumors and hepa...
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Article
Clinical variant of Tangier disease in Japan: mutation of the ABCA1 gene in hypoalphalipoproteinemia with corneal lipidosis
Despite progress in molecular characterization, specific diagnoses of disorders belonging to a group of in-herited hypoalphalipoproteinemias, i.e., apolipoprotein AI deficiency, lecithin-cholesterol acyltrans...
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Article
Genomic structure and eight novel exonic polymorphisms of the human N-cadherin gene
Analysis of the detailed genomic structure of human N-cadherin revealed that the 16-exon gene is more than 72 kb in length and that it consists of a mosaic of exons. Five repeated cadherin domains, a transmem...
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Article
Eight novel mutations and functional impairments of the LDL receptor in familial hypercholesterolemia in the north of Japan
In the course of investigations of familial coronary artery disease in Hokkaido, the northland of Japan, we identified 13 families affected by familial hypercholesterolemia. Among them, we identified eight no...
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Article
Linkage disequilibrium and haplotype analysis among four novel single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the human leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) gene
Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is a pleiotropic cytokine implicated in various pathological conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis. Despite the possible importance of LIF as a therapeutic...
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Article
Thirteen single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the human osteopontin gene identified by sequencing of the entire gene in Japanese individuals
Osteopontin (OPN) is one of the major noncollagenous bone matrix proteins produced by osteoblasts and osteoclasts. We systematically surveyed the entire structure of the OPN gene for single-nucleotide polymorphi...
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Article
Linkage disequilibrium and haplotype analysis among ten single-nucleotide polymorphisms of interleukin 11 identified by sequencing of the gene
Interleukin 11 (IL11) is a member of the interleukin 6 (IL6)-related cytokine subfamily, which stimulates T cell-dependent development of immunoglobulin-producing B cells. IL11 is also an important paracrine ...
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Article
Linkage disequilibrium and haplotype analysis among eight novel single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the human tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) gene
Tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA), a serine protease, activates the conversion of plasminogen to the fibrinolytic protein, plasmin. The t-PA gene, mapped to chromosome 8p12-p11.2, contains 14 exons. An Al...
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Article
Gene fusion involving HMGIC is a frequent aberration in uterine leiomyomas
HMGIC, a high-mobility-group protein gene encoding an architectural transcription factor, was recently identified as the target of gene fusion in a variety of human benign mesenchymal tumors; some of these event...
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Article
Definition of a 1-Mb homozygous deletion at 9q32-q33 in a human bladder-cancer cell line
We performed detailed molecular analyses of a suspected homozygous deletion on chromosome 9q32-q33 in a bladder-cancer cell line (KYBTDS) derived from a superficial papillary transitional cell carcinoma (TCC)...
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Article
Two novel single-nucleotide polymorphisms of the Caspase-9 (CASP9) gene in the Japanese population
We identified two single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the human Caspase-9 (CASP9) gene (1p36.3), which encodes an apoptosis-related cysteine protease, by screening all exons and exon-intron boundaries. T...
