Abstract
Microsatellite variation (CAG and GGC repeats) of the androgen receptor (AR) gene shows remarkable differences among African and non-African populations. In vitro studies have demonstrated an inverse relationship between the length of both microsatellites and AR activity. This fact may explain the observed association of the AR gene with prostate cancer and the strong ethnic differences in the incidence of this cancer. CAG and GGC genetic variation has been tested in a large set of populations from the Ivory Coast as well as 12 Mediterranean samples whose variation is described for the first time. The pattern of frequencies observed in the Ivory Coast agrees with data previously reported for other Sub-Saharan populations. Concerning the Mediterranean variation, Sardinian samples are characterised by low genetic diversities, and Egyptian Siwa Berbers by a particular pattern of GGC frequencies. High and Middle Atlas Moroccan Berbers are the most closely related to the Sub-Saharan variation. For both the CAG and GGC repeats, the Ivory Coast and some Moroccan samples exhibit high frequencies of low size alleles (CAG under 18 repeats, and GGC under 15 repeats) that have been associated with prostate cancer.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to all the donors for providing blood samples and to the people who contributed to their collection. In particular, we thank Prof. André Chaventré and Dr. Gil Bellis (for the samples from Ivory Coast), Dr. Francisco Luna (samples from South Spain), Dr. Angelica Saetta (samples from Greece), and Dr. Nisrine Bissar (samples from Turkey). We acknowledge with thanks the help of Prof. Josep Anton Sanchez (Departament d’Estadística, Facultat de Biologia, UB). We are grateful to the Unit of Descriptive Epidemiology at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (http://www.dep.iarc.fr) for access to the GLOBOCAN 2002 database. This research was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología projects BMC2002-01224 and BSO2002-10225-E. This work, as part of the European Science Foundation EUROCORES Programme OMLL, was supported by funds from the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia BSO2002-10225-E, CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France) and the EC Sixth Framework Programme under contract no. ERAS-CT-2003-980409. The sampling of the Berbers from Morocco and Egypt was supported by the Conseil Régional de Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse (France).
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Esteban, E., Rodon, N., Via, M. et al. Androgen receptor CAG and GGC polymorphisms in Mediterraneans: repeat dynamics and population relationships. J Hum Genet 51, 129–136 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10038-005-0336-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10038-005-0336-7
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