Incubation of human thymocytes in the presence of phorbol esters caused a reversible decrease in the mRNAs encoding terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase (TdT; EC 2.7.7.31) and adenosine deaminase (ADA; EC 3.5.4.4) and an increase in the mRNA encoding purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP; EC 2.4.2.1). The effect of phorbol esters on TdT and ADA mRNA levels can be attributed to an apparent decrea...

Human T-lymphoblastoid cell lines RPMI 8402, MOLT-3, and CCRF-CEM were treated with interferon (IFN) to determine if the treatment would result in the disappearance of cellular terminaldeoxynucleotidyltransferase (TdT), a possible differentiation marker for T-lymphocytes. Incubation of RPMI 8402 cells in the presence of IFN preparation caused a decrease in the number of TdT-positive cells and i...

Abstract Vision restoration is an ideal medical application for optogenetics, because the eye provides direct optical access to retina stimulation. Optogenetic therapy could be used diseases involving photoreceptor degeneration, such as retinitis pigmentosa or age-related macular degeneration. We describe here selection, in non-human primates, of a specific optogenetic construct currently teste...

Patients regard healthcare professionals, particularly physicians, as role models for leading a healthy lifestyle. Healthcare professionals’ own behaviour and attitudes concerning healthy lifestyles have an influence on the counselling of patients. A recent survey in the USA reported ,6% tobacco use among healthcare professionals [1], while 41% of Chinese male medical doctors smoke [2]. Tobacco...

Transfusional iron overload is a major target in the care of patients with transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT) and other refractory anemias. Iron accumulates in the liver, heart, and endocrine organs leading to a wide array of complications. In this review, we summarize the characteristics of the approved iron chelators, deferoxamine, deferiprone, and deferasirox, and the evidence behind th...

The transmission/disequilibrium test (TDT) is a popular method for detection of the genetic basis of a disease. Investigators planning such studies require computation of sample size and power, allowing for a general genetic model. Here, a rigorous method is presented for obtaining the power approximations of the TDT for samples consisting of families with either a single affected child or affe...

We propose a new method for family-based tests of association and linkage called transmission/disequilibrium tests incorporating unaffected offspring (TDTU). This new approach, constructed based on transmission/disequilibrium tests for quantitative traits (QTDT), provides a natural extension of the transmission/disequilibrium test (TDT) to utilize transmission information from heterozygous pare...

The transmission disequilibrium test (TDT) customarily uses affected children and their parents (often case-parent trios, TDTD). Control-parent trios are necessary to guard against spurious significant results due to segregation distortion but are not generally utilized in the identification of disease susceptibility loci (DSL). Controls are often easy to recruit and the TDT can easily be exten...

Selection of cases with additional affected relatives has been shown to increase the power of the case-control association design. We investigated whether this strategy can also improve the power of family-based association studies that use the transmission disequilibrium test (TDT), while accounting for the effects of residual polygenic and environmental factors on disease liability. Ascertain...

We have studied the expression of mRNA encoding adenosine deaminase (ADA; EC 3.5.4.4), purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP; EC 2.4.2.1), and terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase (TdT; EC 2.7.7.31) in different leukemic cell lines of Band T-cell lineage. Incubation of leukemic cells in the presence of the phorbol esters, 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate or phorbol 12,13-dibutyrate, resulted...