A Study on Role of Gap Junction Protein Connexins in Skin Cancer

Skin act as a crucial environmental interface allocating a protective envelope that is functioning as essentially first line of defense system in body (Samarasinghe and Madan, 2012). Skin cancer is the most prevalent type of cancer globally accounts for at least 40% of cases (Gordon, 2013). In India, skin cancer accounts for about 1-2% of all cancers (Koch et al., 2015). Nowadays, it has become a major growing public health problem (Samarasinghe and Madan, 2012). Skin cancer develops and affects mainly the epidermis and it is primarily of three type’s basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma. Non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSCs) comprise of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and basal cell carcinoma (BCC) (Eisemann et al., 2014). It affects the normal functioning of skin and pathogenesis that involve development of lesions and thickened corrugated epidermis, hyperkeratosis and hyper-proliferative epidermis majorly. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), occupational and environmental exposures to arsenic are the other common cause of NMSCs (Surdu et al., 2013). The 7,12dimethybenz (a) anthracene (DMBA) is one of the PAH which is the most commonly used chemical to induce the skin cancer model. The various cellular and biochemical components play a vital role in carcinogenesis treatment. For carcinogenesis treatment the optimum levels of growth factors, inflammatory elements and molecular markers is required. In skin carcinogenesis, this synchronization is interrupted due to various factors such as cytokines, pro-apoptotic factors, oxidative stress, pro-inflammatory cytokines (Maru et al., 2014). Skin cancer may leads to DNA damage in the skin that includes DNA single and double strands break, DNA base damage and cross-linking between DNA and proteins (Van et al., 2010).Chemopreventive conspiracies affecting initiation, promotion or progression, play an important role in decelerating or inhibiting the carcinogenesis process (Umar et al., 2012).It is interesting to study the chemopreventive actions of certain compounds prevent carcinogenesis. Similarly there are certain natural compounds that are involved in cancer treatment, once the disease is onset. These include the DNA-reactive compounds, stimulation of DNA repair mechanism, and free radical scavenging activity (Eisemann et al., 2014).