The tyrosinase (Tyr) gene encodes the enzyme tyrosinase that catalyses the conversion of L-tyrosine into DOPA (3,4-dihydroxypheaylalanine)-quinone. The albino mutation abrogates functional activity of tyrosinase resulting in deficiency of melanin pigment production in skin and retina. Tyr maps to a region in the central position of Chromosome 7 that contains a skin tumor-modifier locus. We rescued the albino mutation in transgenic mice to assess a possible role of Tyr gene in two-stage skin carcinogenesis. Transgenic expression of the functional TyrCys allele in albino mice (Tyr Ser) caused a reduction in skin papilloma multiplicity, in four independent experiments and at three dose levels of DMBA (9,10-dimethyl-1,2- benzanthracene). In vitro mechanistic studies demonstrated that transfection of the TyrCys allele in a human squamous cell carcinoma cell line (NCI-H520) increases tyrosinase enzyme activity and confers resistance to hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative DNA damage. These results provide direct evidence that the Tyr gene can act as a skin cancer-modifier gene, whose mechanism of action may involve modulation of oxidative DNA damage.

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