Gene environment interactions and vascular lesions

Abstract

Despite the extensive research in the field of tumor angiogenesis, the complex interaction of genes with environmental factors is not yet understood in terms of development and aggressiveness of vascular lesions in different human tumor types. Environmental risk factors such as tobacco smoke, alcohol, xenobiotics, arsenic, and air pollutants are the exposures studied most frequently for interactions with genetic polymorphisms in cancer. To date, results from the literature show no direct studies of angiogenic gene environment interactions. However, it is important to study angiogenic gene environment interactions because of the influence that vascular lesions have on the invasiveness of cancer. In this chapter, we review the literature to determine the possible role of angiogenic gene environment interactions in vascular lesion formation. We have focused our efforts using mainly estrogenic compounds as the model to describe the role of gene environment interactions in the pathogenesis of vascular lesions. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.