Elucidating the Kinetics of Expression and Immune Cell Infiltration Resulting from Plasmid Gene Delivery Enhanced by Surface Dermal Electroporation.

The skin is an attractive tissue for vaccination in a clinical setting due to the accessibility of the target, the ease of monitoring and most importantly the immune competent nature of the dermal tissue. While skin electroporation offers an exciting and novel future methodology for the delivery of DNA vaccines in the clinic, little is known about the actual mechanism of the approach and the elucidation of the resulting immune responses. To further understand the mechanism of this platform, the expression kinetics and localization of a reporter plasmid delivered via a surface dermal electroporation (SEP) device as well as the effect that this treatment would have on the resident immune cells in that tissue was investigated.

Benign prostate-specific antigen (BPSA) in serum is increased in benign prostate disease.

Background: BPSA is a "benign" form of free prostate-specific antigen (PSA) that is increased in prostate transition zone tissues of men with pathologic benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). We developed an immunoassay to determine the concentration of BPSA in the serum of men with BPH.

Methods: The BPSA antigen was purified by HPLC, and murine monoclonal antibodies were prepared by standard methods.