To understand the regulation of CC chemokine receptor 3 (CCR3) expression, its gene structure and promoter have been characterized. The CCR3 gene contains 4 exons that give rise to multiple messenger RNA (mRNA) species by alternative splicing. Exon 1 is present in all transcripts, whereas exon 2 or 3 is present at low frequency (< 10%). Exon 4 contains the open reading frame and 11 bp of the 5*...

The DRB3 gene is a highly polymorphic major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II gene and plays an important role in variability of immune responsiveness and disease resistance. In the present study, the MHC class II DRB3 gene in water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) populations from Northwest regions of Iran was investigated through PCR-SSCP. Genomic DNA was extracted from whole blood samples c...

Development of resistance to tamoxifen is a serious problem in treatment of breast cancer patients. Although the mechanisms for development of resistance are unclear, an altered expression of alternatively spliced estrogen receptor (ER) mRNA has been suggested to be involved. We have looked for differential expression of ER splice variants lacking exon 2 (ERdeltaE2), exon 3 (ERdeltaE3), exon 4 ...

The majority of cases with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) have no tau deposition in the brain, yet mutations in the tau gene lead to a similar clinical phenotype with insoluble tau depositing in neuropathological lesions. We report two tau gene mutations at positions +19 and +29, in the intronic sequences immediately following the stem loop structure in exon 10, which segregate with FTD. Exon-tr...

The discovery of close to 20 different mutations in the gene encoding the microtubule-associated protein tau in frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17) has shown that dysfunction of tau protein causes neurodegeneration and dementia (Hutton et al., 1998; Poorkaj et al., 1998; Spillantini et al., 1998; reviewed in Spillantini et al., 2000). It has implications f...