selleck Nutlin-3a None of these 3 SNPs was associated with HBV disease activity. Supporting Information Table S1 Hardy-Weinberg calculations for all 3 polymorphisms in the HBV carriers, non-HBV infected and HBV clearance subject groups. (DOCX) Click here for additional data file.(13K, docx) Table S2 Linkage disequilibrium data in the HBV carriers, non-HBV infected and clearance subjects. (DOCX) Click here for additional data file.(16K, docx) Funding Statement The authors have no support or funding to report.
Metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading causes of cancer death in Western countries (Siegel et al, 2012). Although the overall 5-year survival from CRC is ~60% in population-based series, prognosis is well established to be strongly linked to stage at presentation.

However, there is variation in the prognosis for patients with the same-stage disease; hence, it is highly desirable to have additional markers more strictly related to the individual behaviour of the CRC in order to better individualise therapy. Such markers may serve as the basis for clinical trials to further improve the survival of patients with CRC, as well as avoid the unnecessary use of adjuvant treatment. Four-and�Ca-half LIM domains protein 2 (FHL2), also known as downregulated in rhabdomyosarcoma LIM protein, is the second member of a small family of five proteins with four-and-a-half LIM domains (Genini et al, 1997). This domain is a specialised double zinc-finger protein motif that has versatile cellular roles as regulators of gene expression, cyto-architecture, cell adhesion, cell motility, and signal transduction (R��taux and Bachy, 2002; Kadrmas and Beckerle, 2004; Johannessen et al, 2006).

The acronym LIM is derived from the names of three transcription factors, Lin-11, Isl-1, and Mec-3, in which such a domain was first identified (Johannessen et al, 2006). Four-and-a-half LIM domains protein 2 is expressed in many normal human tissues such as the heart, ovary, kidney, prostate, testis, small intestine, and colon (Genini et al, 1997; Chan et al, 1998; Scholl et al, 2000). The protein is intriguing because it can function as either an activator or repressor of target proteins in a cell type-dependent fashion.

It functions also as a coactivator of many transcription factors, such as ��-catenin, activator protein-1, CRE-binding protein and extracellular signal-regulated kinase 2 (Morlon and Sassone-Corsi, 2003; Wei et al, 2003; Johannessen et al, 2006); and as a corepressor of the promyelocytic leukaemia zinc-finger protein in muscle cells (McLoughlin et al, 2002). Four-and-a-half LIM domains protein 2 has been identified as an oncoprotein in several GSK-3 types of cancer. The mRNA level of FHL2 is elevated in both low- and high-grade glioma, and overexpression of FHL2 stimulates the proliferation, anchorage-independent growth, and migration of human glioblastoma cells (Li et al, 2008).