Glucocorticoid regulates various physiological processes via the activation and repression of gene expression. The anti-inflammatory effects and the adverse effects are believed to be dependent on the repression and the activation of genes, respectively. Reporter gene assay is a useful technique to separately evaluate these two functions and has been used for in vitro screening of novel ligands...

Recent progress in our knowledge of gene expression systems provides evidence that many industrial chemicals affect the transcriptional machineries directly or indirectly, and gene expression is now recognized as one of the main targets of many chemicals. In view of the increasing number of man-made chemicals, it is therefore necessary to establish a reliable gene expression assay with rapidity...

The beta-glucuronidase reporter gene has been used to develop a sensitive assay for the excision of transposable elements introduced into transgenic plants. The reporter gene, inactivated by the insertion of the maize transposable element Activator (Ac) into the 5'-untranslated leader, was introduced into the genome of tobacco by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Reactivation of the beta-g...

The transfection assay is an important tool for evaluating the health effects of industrial chemicals, with the reporter gene expression as an indicator. However, heavy metals often influence the expression of the reference plasmids used to correct variations in transfection efficiency between assay plates, reducing the reliability of this assay. We found that the target of heavy metals is the ...

Development of an in vivo gene reporter assay to assess interactions among the components of the transcription machinery in Mycobacterium tuberculosis remains a challenge to scientists due to the tediousness of generation of mutant strains of the extremely slow-growing bacterium. We have developed a recombinant mCherry reporter assay that enables us to monitor the interactions of Mycobacterium ...

Luciferase is used as a reporter enzyme to estimate gene expression in prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells because the amount of luciferase present is correlated with light intensity in the presence of excess luciferin (1). Furthermore, its sensitivity and range of linear responses are superior to those of other typical reporters (2). When the luciferase gene containing a target promoter region is ...

Synthetic musk fragrance compounds, such as polycyclic musks (PCMs), are a group of chemicals used extensively as personal care products, and can be found in the environment and the human body. PCMs, such as 1,3,4,6,7,8-hexahydro-4,6,6,7,8,8-hexa-methylcyclopenta-gamma-2-benzopyran (HHCB) and 7-acetyl-1,1,3,4,4,6-hexamethyltetralin (AHTN), are known to have agonistic activities toward human est...

Transient transfection is a widely used tool for the identification of cis-acting regulatory elements. These elements are detected by their effect on the expression of a reporter gene, which is quantified by measuring the reporter gene product in the form of mRNA, protein (hGH), or enzymes (CAT, luciferase). Measurements of mRNA levels have several advantages over enzyme or protein assays. Howe...