Three-dimensional graph displaying the interaction of estrogen exposure, enzyme genotypes, and resulting AP sites per 105 nucleotides. We display estrogen exposure in tertiles on the -axis. Estrogen exposure can be represented by actual values, measured in pmol/L, in combination with semiquantitative estimates of each woman’s overall exposure to estrogen. The latter can be derived by taking into account her total years of ovulation as a function of current age, age at menarche, age at menopause, numbers of full-term pregnancies, and the dosage and duration of the use of exogenous estrogens. Thus, as far as the model is concerned, exogenous and endogenous estrogens can be combined although their precise contribution to estrogen exposure is presently unknown. The -axis represents the combined effects of wild-type and variant enzyme haplotypes in the oxidative estrogen metabolism and BER pathways on AP levels. In theory, all enzyme genotype combinations shown in Figures 4(b) and 4(c) could be plotted. However for clarity, we have plotted only the wild-type and the lowest and highest variant haplotypes, separated into tertiles based on their respective AP sites per 105 nucleotides, which is represented on the -axis. (The authors acknowledge Eric Parl for the design of this figure.)
