Inferring regulatory networks by combining perturbation screens and steady state gene expression profiles.

Reconstructing transcriptional regulatory networks is an important task in functional genomics. Data obtained from experiments that perturb genes by knockouts or RNA interference contain useful information for addressing this reconstruction problem. However, such data can be limited in size and/or are expensive to acquire.

Re-evaluation of ascorbic acid deficiency in hemodialysed patients.

In 92 uremic patients under chronic hemodialysis without ascorbic acid supplementation, serum ascorbic acid was measured before hemodialysis and between two sessions. The results indicated a more serious ascorbic acid deficiency of patients than in previous studies. This difference might be explained by the highly specific enzymatic method applied in the present study, excluding any potential interference of various serum reducing substances.