News in Brief

In a series of studies from 2011, researchers made several discoveries related to skin conditions and cancer. One study published in PLoS Genetics identified that ATF2, a transcription factor, is highly active in melanomas and is involved in their development. Mice with inactivated ATF2 in melanocytes did not develop melanoma, suggesting a potential target for intervention. Another study in Nature found that the histone variant macroH2A could suppress melanoma progression by regulating CDK8, with lower levels of macroH2A linked to more aggressive melanoma. A study from Penn State College of Medicine indicated that targeting MIC-1 could reduce melanoma tumorigenesis and vascular development. A clinical trial suggested that celecoxib, a COX-2 inhibitor, might help prevent nonmelanoma skin cancers. Research in the Journal of Clinical Investigation showed that male pattern balding is likely due to a failure of hair follicle stem cells to convert to progenitor cells, not a loss of stem cells, which could lead to new hair loss treatments. Additionally, a study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that men with androgenetic alopecia have normal levels of hair follicle stem cells but lack certain progenitor cells. Another study led by Anna De Benedetto at the University of Rochester Medical Center proposed that increasing claudin-1 levels might be a new treatment for eczema. These findings were awaiting further research at the time of the report.