Berger,C.; Berger,B.; Parson,W.; The popularity of dogs as faithful human companions instigates forensically relevant issues on a regular basis. Domestic dogs take an active role as causers of accidents and as offenders of attacks; even more frequently dogs act as link between victim and suspect in a crime case due to the fact that dog holders live in an environment rich of canine material. Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA analyses of canine cells have been applied successfully in individual cases. [Read More]

Weinberger,B.; Welzl,K.; Herndler-Brandstetter,D.; Parson,W.; Grubeck-Loebenstein,B.; Highly differentiated CD28 effector T cells which accumulate in a variety of diseases and also with increasing age contribute to inflammatory processes, limit immunological space and diversity, and are associated with immunological dysfunction and reduced responses to vaccination. Elimination of CD28 T cells has been suggested as a measure for immunological rejuvenation but may lead to the loss of important T cell specificities. Using T cells specific for the immunodominant CMV-derived epitope NLVPMVATV as a model, we show that the same clonotypes are present in CD8(+)CD28(+) naive/early memory and CD8(+)CD28 effector T cells. [Read More]

Schrott-Fischer,A.; Bitsche,M.; Humpel,C.; Walcher,C.; Maier,H.; Jellinger,K.; Rabl,W.; Glueckert,R.; Marksteiner,J.; Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder which primarily affects motor neurons. Eight cases of ALS and seven control cases were studied with semiquantitative immunocytochemistry for chromogranin A, chromogranin B and secretogranin II that are soluble constituents of large dense core vesicles, synaptophysin as a membrane protein of small synaptic vesicles and superoxide dismutase 1. Among the chromogranin peptides, the number and staining intensity of motor neurons was highest for chromogranin A. [Read More]

Niederstätter,H.; Parson,W.; BACKGROUND: For large scale studies aiming at a better understanding of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), sequence variation in particular mt haplogroups (hgs) and population structure, reliable low-cost high-throughput genotyping assays are needed. Furthermore, methods facilitating sensitive mixture detection and relative quantification of allele proportions are indispensable for the study of heteroplasmy, mitochondrial sequence evolution, and mitochondrial disorders. Here the properties of a homogeneous competitive duplex allele specific PCR (ARMS) assay were scrutinized in the light of these requirements. [Read More]

Zimmermann,B.; Bodner,M.; Amory,S; Fendt,L.; Röck,A.; Horst,D.; Horst,B; Sanguansermsri,T.; Parson,W.; Brandstätter,A.; The immigration of diverse ethnic groups over the past centuries from surrounding countries into Thailand left footprints in the genetic composition of Thai mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) lineages. The entire mtDNA control region (1122 bp) was typed in 190 unrelated male volunteers from the northern Thailand province of Chiang Mai following highest quality standards. For a more precise haplogroup classification selected SNPs from the mtDNA coding region were genotyped. [Read More]