A miR-29a-driven negative feedback loop regulates peripheral glucocorticoid receptor signaling.

The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) represents the crucial molecular mediator of key endocrine, glucocorticoid hormone-dependent regulatory circuits, including control of glucose, protein, and lipid homeostasis. Consequently, aberrant glucocorticoid signaling is linked to severe metabolic disorders, including insulin resistance, obesity, and hyperglycemia, all of which also appear upon chronic glucocorticoid therapy for the treatment of inflammatory conditions. Of note, long-term glucocorticoid exposure under these therapeutic conditions typically induces glucocorticoid resistance, requiring higher doses and consequently triggering more severe metabolic phenotypes.

Contamination incidents in the pre-analytical phase of forensic DNA analysis in Austria-Statistics of 17 years.

Forensic DNA analyses have become more and more sensitive in the past years. With the ability to generate DNA profiles even from minute amounts of cellular material also the possibility to detect DNA on trace material that originates from persons not linked to the crime event, such as crime scene investigators, increases. The contamination of crime scene samples can lead to false positive results and misinterpretation that can cause deceptive investigations.

Yfiler(®) Plus amplification kit validation and calculation of forensic parameters for two Austrian populations.

With the new 6-dye AmpFISTR(®) Yfiler(®) Plus amplification kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) a set of 25 Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat loci (Y-STRs), including seven rapidly mutating Y-STRs (RM Y-STRs), is now available for forensic DNA typing. In this study we present our validation data for the AmpFISTR(®) Yfiler(®) Plus amplification kit and show the results of Y-chromosomal typing of 425 unrelated male individuals from two Austrian populations (Salzburg and Upper Austria) with the AmpFISTR(®) Yfiler(®) Plus amplification kit. Forensic parameters were calculated and compared for four Y-STR marker sets.