Sex differences in the effects of inherited bitter thiourea sensitivity on body weight in 4-6-year-old children.

Previous studies have shown that inherited taste blindness to bitter compounds like 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) may be a risk factor for obesity, but this literature has been highly controversial. The objectives of this study were (i) to confirm findings that show an interaction between PROP status and sex on BMI z-score, and (ii) to determine if sex also interacts with variations in TAS2R38 (phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) genotype) to influence weight status in 4-6 year olds. Also, we tested whether nontaster children consumed more fat and total energy at laboratory-based meals.

Changes in alternative brain-derived neurotrophic factor transcript expression in the developing human prefrontal cortex.

In this study, we determined when and through which promoter brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) transcription is regulated during the protracted period of human frontal cortex development. Using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, we examined the expression of the four most abundant alternative 5' exons of the BDNF gene (exons I, II, IV, and VI) in RNA extracted from the prefrontal cortex. We found that expression of transcripts I-IX and VI-IX was highest during infancy, whereas that of transcript II-IX was lowest just after birth, slowly increasing to reach a peak in toddlers.

Use of RNA interference to elucidate the effect of MYCN on cell cycle in neuroblastoma.

Background: MYCN amplification marks poor prognosis in neuroblastoma (NB) tumors. In evaluating the mechanisms by which retinoic acid (RA) or nerve growth factor (NGF) decrease cell number in MYCN amplified NB cells, we have identified a number of proteins whose expression either decreases (E2F, CDC2, CDK6, cyclin dependent kinase activity) or increases (p27) in association with a decrease in MYCN expression. However, it was still unclear which were MYCN dependent effects or not.