A facile, branched DNA assay to quantitatively measure glucocorticoid receptor auto-regulation in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia / 癌症

Glucocorticoid (GC) steroid hormones are used to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) because of their pro-apoptotic effects in hematopoietic cells. However, not all leukemia cells are sensitive to GC, and no assay to stratify patients is available. In the GC-sensitive T-cell ALL cell line CEM-C7, auto-up-regulation of RNA transcripts for the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) correlates with increased apoptotic response. This study aimed to determine if a facile assay of GR transcript levels might be promising for stratifying ALL patients into hormone-sensitive and hormone-resistant populations. The GR transcript profiles of various lymphoid cell lines and 4 bone marrow samples from patients with T-cell ALL were analyzed using both an optimized branched DNA (bDNA) assay and a real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assay. There were significant correlations between both assay platforms when measuring total GR (exon 5/6) transcripts in various cell lines and patient samples, but not for a probe set that detects a specific, low abundance GR transcript (exon 1A3). Our results suggest that the bDNA platform is reproducible and precise when measuring total GR transcripts and, with further development, may ultimately offer a simple clinical assay to aid in the prediction of GC-sensitivity in ALL patients.

Psychometric properties of the Spanish-language child depression inventory with Hispanic children who are secondary victims of domestic violence.

The Child Depression Inventory (CDI), a self-report instrument that measures depressive symptomatology in children, has been shown to have adequate construct validity (Kovacs, 1983, 1992). However, limited research has been conducted with minority children and adolescents. In the present study, the construct validity of the Spanish-language version of the Child Depression Inventory (CDI-S) ages 8-12 years (N = 100). The CDI was developed by Maria Kovacs (1992) and has been a widely used instrument for screening depression in children. Fifty of the children had witnessed domestic violence (secondary victims of domestic violence) and received psychological services for victims of domestic violence, and fifty had not witnessed domestic violence. To identify the group of non-victims of domestic violence, their mothers completed the Conflict Tactic Scale (CIS). The CDI is a self-report instrument used to measure symptoms of depression. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed including the 27 items that make up the instrument, using principal component analysis as the extraction method and Varimax rotations. This analysis revealed that the CDI measures five dimensions of depression in the child. However, differences were found in the factor structure of the Spanish CDI when compared with the original version. Additionally, its internal consistency was documented.