Establishment of real-time polymerase chain reaction method for quantitative analysis of asparagine synthetase expression.

We established a real-time quantitative PCR (RQ-PCR) with which to measure abundance of the asparagine synthetase (AS) mRNA. The level of AS mRNA paralleled AS enzyme activity, as well as the AS protein level detected by Western blotting and by in situ immunostaining. Cytotoxicity tests in vitro showed that the AS mRNA level also synchronized with cellular resistance to L-asparaginase in cell lines.

7,12-DMBA-induced rat leukemia: a review with insights into future research.

7,12-Dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA) elicits leukemia in Long-Evans rats (LE). This leukemia is mostly erythroblastic and 30% of leukemias have total and partial trisomy of #2 chromosome and the rest have diploid karyotype. The common duplication site is in 2q26-q34 and N-ras gene is located in 2q34.

A novel missense mutation in the DKC1 gene in a Japanese family with X-linked dyskeratosis congenita.

The authors report 2 male patients with dyskeratosis congenita (DC) in a Japanese kindred. Sequencing of the complementary DNA of the dyskerin gene (DKC1) revealed a T-to-C transition at nucleotide 1285 in exon 12 that resulted in a novel missense mutation L398P. Despite harboring the same mutation in the DKC1 gene, one patient had significantly milder hematological symptoms than the other, indicating that there may be other factors that determine the severity of DC.