Hypothesis: Activation of rapid signaling by environmental estrogens and epigenetic reprogramming in breast cancer.

ABSTRACT: Environmental and lifestyle factors are considered significant components of the increasing breast cancer risk in the last 50 years. Specifically, exposure to environmental endocrine disrupting compounds is correlated with cancer susceptibility in a variety of tissues. In both human and rodent models, the exposure to ubiquitous environmental estrogens during early life has been shown to disrupt normal mammary development and cause permanent adverse effects. Recent studies indicate that environmental estrogens not only have the ability to disrupt estrogen receptor (ER) signaling, but can also reprogram the epigenome by altering DNA and histone methylation through rapid, nongenomic ER actions. We have observed xenoestrogen-mediated activation of several nongenomic signaling pathways and have

SUBMITTER: Trevino LS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4563990 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature