The research article by Drs. McKinzie and Parsons is unique, in that it directly measures induction of a mutation with established importance in the azoxymethane rat colon cancer model (K-Ras codon 12 GAT mutation) only one week after exposure.
Abraham and Brooks show for the first time that 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2’-deoxyadenosine (8-oxo-dA), within the appropriate target sequences, increased the binding of two transcription factors (NF-kappa B and CREB).
The article stresses the importance of using a weight of evidence approach, as well as considering multiple types of data, and not just genotoxicity data.
This highly-informative review covers general principles of epigenetics, the etiology of epialleles, and “stochastic factors” that induce epialleles, along with the strengths of different model systems and methodologies used in epigenetic research.
