AIM To evaluate the clinical usefulness of three commercially available assays for Her-2/neu oncogene and protein measurements. The Her-2/neu protein is overexpressed, mostly as a result of gene amplification, in 20-30% of human breast cancers, and has been shown to have prognostic and predictive value for treatment with chemotherapy or the new monoclonal antibody, Herceptin. METHODS An immun...

to make an accurate estimation of the uptake of radioactivity in an organ using the conjugate view method, corrections of physical factors, such as background activity, scatter, and attenuation are needed. the aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of four different methods for background correction in activity quantification of the heart in myocardial perfusion scans. the organ activit...

Abstract This study establishes that women slave-owners were specifically inscribed into South Carolina’s laws on slave management from the first decades of English colonization. Mistresses explicitly named alongside masters or incorporated gender-neutral rubric owner in a common understanding absolute ownership and authority over enslaved people was as much rooted female mastery male. Remarkab...

Reverse transcription of extracted cellular RNA combined with real-time PCR is now an established method for sensitive detection and quantification of specific mRNA level changes in experimental models of neurological diseases. To neutralize the impact of experimental error and make quantification more precise, normalization of test gene data using data from a constantly expressed gene, a refer...

Most patients with chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) have mutations in the X-linked CYBB gene that encodes gp91phox, a component of the phagocyte NADPH oxidase. The resulting X-linked form of CGD is usually manifested in boys. Rarely, X-CGD is encountered in female carriers with extreme expression of the mutated gene. Here, we report on a woman with a novel mutation in CYBB (CCG[90-92]-->GGT)...

During segmentation of vertebrate embryos, somites form in accordance with a periodic pattern established by the segmentation clock. In the zebrafish (Danio rerio), the segmentation clock includes six hairy/enhancer of split-related (her/hes) genes, five of which oscillate due to negative autofeedback. The nonoscillating gene hes6 forms the hub of a network of 10 Her/Hes protein dimers, which i...

RT-PCR has a detection limit 10–100 fold lower than protection-assay or northern hybridisation, respectively. The RT-ribonuclease PCR quantification technique of choice depends on the target sequence, the expected range of the mRNA amount present in the tissue, the degree of accuracy required, and whether quantification needs to be relative or absolute. Externally standardised RT-PCR with quant...

A significant number of HER-2 amplified breast cancers is effectively treated by trastuzumab and further shows receptor-enhanced chemosensitivity. Recent studies have postulated transactivation of HER-2 also in tumors expressing phosphorylated/activated HER-2 (pHER-2) and of the HER-3/HER-4 ligand heregulin (HRG), independent of HER-2 amplification. As a consequence, a subset of tumors without ...