Abstract: To evaluate the effect of alcohol cessation on the risk of developing laryngeal and pharyngeal cancers, combining available evidence in the scientific literature in a meta-analysis.
Abstract: Policies that empower individuals and communities may be appropriate for public health, and more broadly. Simple, transparent and acceptable tools are therefore required to evaluate policies from an empowerment perspective. In 2008, the South African Department of Health (DOHSA) drafted a policy to endorse the integration of African Traditional Medicine (ATM) into the public health sector, following the World Health Organization's (WHO) long-standing directives.
Abstract: Previous studies in a fetal erythroid cell line demonstrated that the transcription factor, Krüppel-like factor 11 (KLF11), could specifically induce transcription from a gamma-globin gene promoter, and that this induction was mediated through a specific canonical CACCC cis-DNA binding motif. We report here that ectopic expression of KLF11 can also induce fetal gamma-globin gene expression in the setting of adult erythropoiesis both in vitro and in vivo. Studies in an adult-stage murine erythroleukemia (MEL) cell line demonstrated that retrovirus vector-mediated transduction of KLF11 could increase both the amount of expression from a basally active, but not from a overtly silenced, recombinant gamma-globin transgene, as well as the frequency of cells expressing this transgene. A similar pattern of gamma-globin gene induction was also observed both in vitro and in vivo following KLF11 transduction of bone marrow from mice containing a basally active gamma-globin transgene. These studies provide the first evidence that ectopic expression of a transcription factor can induce gamma-globin gene expression in vivo during adult erythropoiesis.
Abstract: Sp1/Krüppel-like factor (KLF) family of transcription factors regulates diverse biological processes including cell growth, differentiation, and development through modulation of gene expression. This family of factors regulates transcription positively and negatively by binding to the GC and GT/CACCC boxes in the promoter through their highly conserved three zinc finger domains. Although the molecular mechanism of gene regulation by this family of proteins has been well studied, their exact role in growth and development in vivo remains largely unknown. KLF11 has been implicated in the regulation of cell growth and gene expression. To determine the physiological function of KLF11, we generated KLF11-null mice by gene-targeting technology. Homologous KLF11(-/-) mice were bred normally and were fertile. Hematopoiesis at all stages of development was normal in the KLF11(-/-) mice. There was no effect on globin gene expression. These mice lived as long as the wild-type mice without evident pathological defects. Thus, despite its cell growth inhibition and transcriptional regulation functions observed when transiently or stably expressed in cultured cells in vitro, the results from genetic knockout suggest that KLF11 is not absolutely required for hematopoiesis, growth, and development.
