The carryover of previously amplified sequences (amplicons) into new PCR reactions is a serious problem. Recently Furrer et al. reported a 'pre-PCR' sterilization technique using DNase I or restriction enzymes for contamination control (1). Unfortunately, these methods require the reaction tube to be re-opened to add target DNA and Taq polymerase following the enzymatic treatment (providing an ...

BACKGROUND Psoriasis is an inflammatory disease characterized by increased squamous cell proliferation and impaired differentiation. Vitamin D, Calcitriol, and its analogues are successfully used for psoriasis therapy. However, it is unknown why some psoriasis patients are resistant to Vitamin D therapy. Vitamin D mediates its activity by a nuclear receptor. It is suggested that polymorphisms a...

Important in understanding the regulation of gene transcription is the elucidation of specific protein-DNA interactions that occur in vivo. One strategy for such in vivo footprinting involves the treatment of whole cells with dimethyl sulphate (DMS), which leads to methylation of guanine residues in DNA at the N7 position (1, 2). This N7 atom lies in the major groove and its susceptibility to m...

The vitamin D endocrine system regulates bone metabolism and calcium homeostasis as well as cellular proliferation and differentiation. Vitamin D receptor (VDR) mediates Vit-D activity, thus VDR gene polymorphisms may correlate with different diseases. This study aimed to determine the distribution of VDR gene (Taq-I and Apa-I) polymorphisms using a RFLP in unrelated normal healthy individuals ...

This study examines the relation between the bid-ask spread from the daily CRSP data and the bid-ask spread from the intraday TAQ data. We show that the CRSP-based spread is highly correlated with the TAQ-based spread across stocks using data from 1993 through 2009. The simple CRSP-based spread provides a better approximation of the TAQ-based spread than all other low-frequency liquidity measur...

In this study, we used DNA polymorphisms for carrier detection and prenatal diagnosis of hemophilia A in a large group of Italian families. The restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) investigated were the intragenic polymorphic Bc/I site within the factor VIII gene; the extragenic multiallelic Taq I system at the St14 locus; and the extragenic Bg/II site at the DX13 locus. The factor...