Survey on batch-to-batch variation in spray paints: a collaborative study.

This study represents the most extensive analysis of batch-to-batch variations in spray paint samples to date. The survey was performed as a collaborative project of the ENFSI (European Network of Forensic Science Institutes) Paint and Glass Working Group (EPG) and involved 11 laboratories. Several studies have already shown that paint samples of similar color but from different manufacturers can usually be differentiated using an appropriate analytical sequence.

Exon array analysis using re-defined probe sets results in reliable identification of alternatively spliced genes in non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: Treatment of non-small cell lung cancer with novel targeted therapies is a major unmet clinical need. Alternative splicing is a mechanism which generates diverse protein products and is of functional relevance in cancer.

Results: In this study, a genome-wide analysis of the alteration of splicing patterns between lung cancer and normal lung tissue was performed.

Prepubertal onset of diabetes prevents expression of renal cortical connective tissue growth factor.

Puberty unmasks or accelerates the nephropathy of diabetes mellitus (DM). We performed focused microarray analysis to test the hypothesis that one or more genes in the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) signaling system would be differentially regulated in male rats depending on their age at onset of DM. Littermates were started on the 6-week protocol at 4 weeks or 14 weeks of age.

Testosterone treatment promotes tubular damage in experimental diabetes in prepubertal rats.

Puberty unmasks or accelerates progressive kidney diseases, including diabetes mellitus (DM), perhaps through effects of sex steroids. To test the hypothesis that rising androgen levels at puberty permit diabetic kidney damage, we studied four groups of male rats with and without streptozocin-induced DM: adult onset (A), adult onset after castration (AC), juvenile onset (J), and juvenile onset with testosterone treatment (JT). Profibrotic markers were measured after 6 wk with blood glucose levels 300-450 mg/dl.

Compensatory kidney growth in estrogen receptor-alpha null mice.

Females are relatively protected in many progressive kidney diseases. Processes of kidney scarring and growth are intricately linked, and female kidneys are smaller than male kidneys. To better understand links between sex, growth, and the kidney, we examined compensatory kidney growth (CKG) after uninephrectomy (Unx) in wild-type and estrogen receptor-alpha null mice (ERKO).