BACKGROUND Cell-free DNA circulating in blood is a candidate biomarker for malignant tumors. Unlike uniformly truncated DNA released from apoptotic non diseased cells, DNA released from necrotic cancer cells varies in size. OBJECTIVES To measure the DNA integrity index in serum and the absolute DNA concentration to assess their clinical utility as potential serum biomarkers for colorectal car...

Italico rats were injected with thymidine-(3)H 6 hr after the end of 300 hr of intermittent cold treatment. This plan of experiment ensured replacement in the adrenal medulla of lost DNA which is specifically sensitive to cold treatment and has a labeling index sufficiently high for statistical evaluation. The labeling index in the adrenal medulla decreases to one-half of the initial value with...

This case-control study examined whether DNA aneuploidy in colorectal adenomas is a risk factor for subsequent adenoma recurrence. Cases (recurrent polyp formers) were defined as persons with diagnoses of new adenomas at 2 colonoscopies following the index (first) adenoma diagnosis; controls were persons with no new adenomas at a follow-up at least 1 year after the index diagnosis. Cases (n = 2...

A sharply focused laser is able to trap small particles at the laser focal point due to the difference in refractive index of the particles and that of the surrounding medium. This technique, called laser trapping, can be used to manipulate animal or bacterial cells without any contact and has been widely applied in biological research. However, it has been difficult to trap biological macromol...

The aim of this investigation was to corroborate the relationship between DNA ploidy and chromosomal variation in surgically removed colorectal cancers. For 101 specimens from 21 advanced colorectal cancers, the numerical variations in chromosomes 7, 17, and 18 among cells were measured by fluorescence in situ hybridization using DNA probes specific for centromere of each chromosome, and DNA pl...

The genome size, complexity, and ploidy of the dimorphic pathogenic fungus Histoplasma capsulatum was determined by using DNA renaturation kinetics, genomic reconstruction, and flow cytometry. Nuclear DNA was isolated from two strains, G186AS and Downs, and analyzed by renaturation kinetics and genomic reconstruction with three putative single-copy genes (calmodulin, alpha-tubulin, and beta-tub...

DNA samples derived from vertebrate skin, bodily cavities and body fluids contain both host and microbial DNA; the latter often present as a minor component. Consequently, DNA sequencing of a microbiome sample frequently yields reads originating from the microbe(s) of interest, but with a vast excess of host genome-derived reads. In this study, we used a methyl-CpG binding domain (MBD) to separ...