Breast Cancer
Word Count: 2,402
The aim of the study will be to investigate the functions and roles of "Id-1" and "Id-3" proteins, and to see if their overexpression is responsible for human breast cancer (Jang et al. 2006). Id-1 and Id-3 are part of the Id protein family, which contains all of Id-1, Id-2, I-d 3 and Id-4. Id an inhibitor of DNA binding and differentiation in human cells. (Jang et al. 2006) Id protein also controls a number of cell cycle regulatory DNA. In the experiment, Id-1 and Id-3 will be tested because our hypothesis is that the proteins' overexpression in the body is believed to cause tumor growth and angiogenesis.
Before getting into the details of the experiment, a couple of terms and ideas should be clarified. Angiogenesis is the formation and development of blood vessels. It is normal for this process to occur during fetal development and during the menstrual cycle in females. However if angiogenesis occurs in any other case than the cases mentioned above, this is not normal and could eventually be fatal (Folkman 1985). Cancer cells go through the process of angiogenesis so they can spread and metastasize throughout body and receive the nutrients necessary for their ongoing survival (Margalit et al. 1996). Cancer cells also metastasize by getting into the general blood steam. They are localized in one area and are called "benign" cells. Once they metastasize, they are called malignant which is known as the "human killer" (Dewan et al. 2005).
Breast cancer is the number one killer in female cancer cases, killing over 40,000 women each year (Garger 2006). MCF-7 is the breast cancer cell line most commonly found in patients suffering breast cancer. Since it is the most common cell line, researchers performed an experiment on MCF-7 cells (Jang et al. 2006). At the end of their experiment, they were able to determine that there was overexpression of the proteins Id-1 and Id-3 when MCF-7 cells were present (Jang et al. 2006)....
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