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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Micronutrient Status And Telomere Length In Adult Men And Women., Christy S. Maxwell Nov 2018

Micronutrient Status And Telomere Length In Adult Men And Women., Christy S. Maxwell

Doctoral Dissertations

Background: Telomeres are the noncoding nucleotide sequences at the end of eukaryotic chromosomes, serving to protect DNA during mitotic division. Given their guanine-rich structure, telomeres are highly susceptible to oxidative damage often mediated by inflammation. Recently, telomere attrition and dysfunction have been associated with age-related diseases, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and certain cancers. Several modifiable risk factors have also been associated with shortened telomere length, including physical inactivity, obesity, stress, smoking, and poor diet. Objective: We examined the relations between vitamin B12 status, folate status, and iron status, relative to telomere length in …


Combination Regimens Using Dietary Components For The Chemoprevention Of Colorectal Cancer And Inflammation, Christina Dimarco-Crook Nov 2018

Combination Regimens Using Dietary Components For The Chemoprevention Of Colorectal Cancer And Inflammation, Christina Dimarco-Crook

Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT COMBINATION REGIMENS USING DIETARY COMPONENTS FOR THE CHEMOPREVENTION OF COLORECTAL CANCER AND INFLAMMATION September 2018 CHRISTINA DIMARCO-CROOK, B.S., IMMACULATA UNIVERSITY M.S., DREXEL UNIVERSITY Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Hang Xiao Dietary components have been found to effectively modulate multiple deregulated signaling pathways associated with the initiation and progression of carcinogenesis and inflammation in cellular and animal models. However, clinical studies have shown mixed results when examining the efficacy of individual dietary components, perhaps suggestive of the synergism that exists between multiple components within a particular food and the diet as a whole. Additional research is needed …


Epigenetic Modification Of Vitamin D-Induced Gene Expression In Human Colorectal And Breast Cancer Cell Lines, Sharmin Hossain Jul 2018

Epigenetic Modification Of Vitamin D-Induced Gene Expression In Human Colorectal And Breast Cancer Cell Lines, Sharmin Hossain

Doctoral Dissertations

Epigenetics is the study of the regulation of genes that is not dependent on nucleotide sequence. This may include heritable changes in gene activity and expression but also those that are not heritable. In recent years, epigenetic researchers have made great strides in understanding the molecular mechanisms behind cellular functions in response to diet, exercise, and other lifestyle modifications, like methylation, histone modification etc. It is now known that the epigenome is critical to healthy human development in addition to genetics, and dietary factors can modulate epigenetic alterations in cells. The classic view of cancer etiology is that genetic alterations …