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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: Photochem Photobiol. 2011 Nov 17;88(5):1066–1074. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-1097.2011.01020.x

Figure 1.

Figure 1

This hypothetical model depicts the: (i) progression of a normal skin cell into a cancer cell following epigenetic alterations under the influence of UV radiation, and (ii) the chemopreventive mechanism or targets of bioactive dietary components. Left Panel, cells containing a relatively uniform epigenetic code. Middle Panel, aging and the associated exposures to UV radiation alter epigenetic information in epidermal cell subsets such that, epigenetic mosaicism develops in patches of epidermal cells that have subtly altered gene expression. Right Panel, the sum total of changes in some of these patches result in neoplastic transformation. Topical application or dietary supplementation of bioactive food components may block, inhibit or slow down the progressing epigenetic alterations in cells exposed to UV radiation.