Pancreatic insulin-producing cells differentiated from human embryonic stem cells correct hyperglycemia in SCID/NOD mice, an animal model of diabetes.

Background: Human pancreatic islet transplantation is a prospective curative treatment for diabetes. However, the lack of donor pancreases greatly limits this approach. One approach to overcome the limited supply of donor pancreases is to generate functional islets from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), a cell line with unlimited proliferative capacity, through rapid directed differentiation.

Functional analysis of human cancer-associated genes and their association with the testes and epididymis.

Human cancer-associated UniGene sets (NCBI GeneBank) provide a platform for identifying differentially-expressed genes in human cancers. The present study identified and characterized a set of human cancer-associated genes using the Digital Differential Display (DDD) and functional analysis tools. A total of 1,904 genes were differentially expressed in 15 cancer types, including genes that had been previously shown to be specific in certain human cancers.

A new bioinformatics insight into human cancer-associated proteins.

Cancer is a complex disease caused by multiple factors including genetic mutations, and environmental factors. Cancer-associated proteins are potential biomarkers or targets for diagnostic and therapeutic interventions in cancer. The Universal Protein Resourse (UniPort) is a well-annotated comprehensive resourse for protein sequence records.

[Fine mapping of susceptibility genes loci within chromosome 1 in Chinese Han families with type 2 diabetes].

Objectives: To confirm previous whole-genome scan results of mapping type 2 diabetes susceptibility genes in chromosome 1 in Northern Chinese Han population by conducting a new genome scan with both an enlarged number of type 2 diabetes families and a new set of microsatellite markers.

Methods: A genome scan method was applied. After multiplexed PCR, electrophoreses, genescan and genotyping analysis, size informations for all loci were obtained, and a further study was done using both parametric and non-parametric linkage analysis to calculate the P-values and Z-values of these loci.