After irradiation these cells were co-cultured in ELISpots with MHC matched splenocytes either from chickens exposed to influenza virus or from vaccinated chickens.

In both experimental scenarios we were able to demonstrate the presence of antigen specific T cells. We also demonstrated by flow cytometry that the IFNγ producing cells were principally CD8 positive. The assay was reproducible, with high sensitivity and low background noise, and will be a useful tool in the analysis of CD8 T cell responses. Inbred lines of White Leghorn chickens, Line O (haplotype B21) or Line 15 (B15) (Miller et al., 2004), were produced and maintained at the Pirbright Institute (Compton, UK) in specific pathogen-free (SPF)

conditions and fed ad libitum. For infection studies birds were housed in self-contained BioFlex® B50 Rigid Body Poultry isolators (Bell Isolation PD98059 concentration Systems). Animal procedures were carried out in accordance with local ethical review and UK Home Office requirements (Home Office, 1986). LPAI virus (A/Turkey/England/1977/H7N7) was grown in embryonated chicken eggs using standard methods described Smad inhibitor elsewhere (World Health Organization. Dept. of Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response., 2002). Viral titer was estimated by plaque assay on Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells, using standard techniques (Gaush and Smith, 1968). Virus was inactivated in a final concentration of 0.094% β-propiolactone (ACROS Gefitinib mouse Organics, Geel, Belgium), as described previously (Jonges et al., 2010) and aliquots were stored at − 80 °C until its use. Inactivation was verified by the absence of plaques on MDCK cells. Recombinant Fowlpox virus (rFPV) vectors expressing NP and M1 transgenes from avian influenza A/Turkey/Turkey/1/2005 (H5N1) or GFP were the kind gift of Dr. Mike Skinner (Imperial College). Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) virus expressing a fusion protein of nucleoprotein and matrix protein 1 (MVA-NpM1) from influenza A/Panama/2007/99 (H3N2) was supplied by the Vector Core Facility at the Jenner Institute (Oxford, UK) (Berthoud et al., 2011). In a first round of

experiments, 3 week old birds were randomly allocated to infected or control groups. Birds were challenged by intranasal inoculation of LPAI (A/Turkey/England/1977 H7N7) at a dose of 3.4×107 pfu in 100 μl PBS per bird. In the second round of experiments, birds were vaccinated subcutaneously with 105 pfu rFPV at 1 day old, boosted with the same dose at 9 days old, and challenged with LPAI, as above, at 4 weeks old. Birds were killed 10 days post-infection. Sterile polyester tipped swabs (Fisher Scientific, UK) were used to sample buccal cavities, transferred to a solution of viral transport media (World Health Organization. Dept. of Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response., 2002), vortexed briefly, clarified of debris by centrifugation at 450 ×g for 2 min and stored at –80 °C.

(2009)

or habitat sensitivity, as implemented by Hiscock & Tyler-Walters (2006). Finally, if biomass data were replaced with abundance of macrozoobenthos in the provider module, the method could be used, e.g. to assess seabed quality according to the Benthic Quality Index Afatinib concentration introduced by Rosenberg et al. (2004). The authors are grateful to Dr Dan Minchin, Dr Chingiz Nigmatullin and Prof. Sergej Olenin for constructive comments and language corrections. “
“The 6th Study Conference on BALTEX was devoted to changing water, energy and biogeochemical cycles in the Baltic Sea basin. The conference took place at Międzyzdroje, on the island of Wolin, Poland, on 14–18 June 2010. More on the conference, including the programme divided according to the scientific sessions, volume of the presentation abstracts, and list of participants can be found on the BALTEX website (http://www.baltex-research.eu/wolin2010/index.html). It is the privilege of the host country to publish the conference proceedings. Even before the conference, it had been decided that the proceedings would be published as a special volume of Oceanologia, the journal of the Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences,

see more Sopot (http://www.iopan.gda.pl). Altogether, 21 manuscripts were submitted. Following the usual, strict, peer review procedure, 15 were accepted for publication and are included in this volume. The manuscripts cover a broad range of topics, but the relationship to the conference subjects and the BALTEX thematic field – cycles of water and energy in the Baltic Sea catchment area is perfectly clear. With the great variety of topics covered in the accepted papers, it should not be a problem to select a paper that would be specific enough to be placed at the beginning of the volume. On the other hand, nobody really knows where the water cycle begins: is it in a river or the sea, or yet somewhere else? Nevertheless, it seems that most of us appreciate the connection between rain and river, river and sea, and not vice versa. For this reason alone, the volume begins with papers on atmospheric

modelling, which are followed by two papers dealing with precipitation changes over Lithuania and Latvia. Then comes a paper describing the moisture Chlormezanone changes in the easternmost part of the Baltic catchment area. Water level changes in the southern Baltic lagoons are a logical follow-up: these were investigated, and the increasing trend was found to be statistically significant. Other aspects relating to the sea include wave climate and storm surges, topics important from the point of view of marine transport and coastal erosion; both are represented in the volume. Biogeochemistry is represented by the quantitative assessment of phosphorus accumulation, nitrogen deposition to the sea from the atmosphere and nitrogen upwelling.

It also is worth noting that although the relative risk was 40% higher in women with diagnosed CD, the absolute excess risk was calculated to be only 0.5%. The overall rate of new clinically recorded fertility problems in women with symptomatic CD was found to be slightly lower than the rates in women without CD. These lower rates may be explained by an increased focus on resolving celiac symptoms before women try to conceive or the lack of more specific metrics of disease severity in our data. The current evidence regarding CD in small groups of women with unexplained infertility from a small number of studies has been generalized to raise

concern among all women with CD by highlighting women with infertility as one of the associated conditions www.selleckchem.com/products/Y-27632.html in CD.17, 45 and 46 Although undiagnosed CD is likely to be an underlying cause of unexplained infertility for some women, our findings indicate that most women with celiac disease, either undiagnosed or diagnosed, do not have a substantially

greater likelihood of clinically Navitoclax concentration recorded fertility problems than women without CD. Therefore, screening when women initially present with fertility problems may not identify a significant number of women with CD, beyond the general population prevalence. This may not always apply to subgroups of women with severe celiac disease. However, in terms of the clinical burden of fertility problems at a population level, these findings should be reassuring for women with CD and all stakeholders involved in

their care. “
“Infliximab is a recombinant chimeric IgG-1κ monoclonal antibody that neutralizes the biologic activity of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α. Infliximab is approved for the treatment of patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis (UC) based on the results of Depsipeptide research buy the Active Ulcerative Colitis Trials 1 and 2 (ACT-1 and ACT-2), which evaluated 728 patients with moderate-to-severe disease. In these studies, patients treated with infliximab at weeks 0, 2, and 6 and every 8 weeks thereafter were more likely to show clinical response, clinical remission, and mucosal healing at weeks 8, 30, and 54 than patients assigned to placebo.1 and 2 Previous pharmacokinetic (PK) evaluations of infliximab use in patients with UC have shown a linear relationship between dose and serum infliximab concentration,3 and that the systemic disposition of infliximab is influenced by body weight, serum albumin level, and the formation of antibodies to infliximab (ATI).4 In addition, serum infliximab concentrations have been found to influence the response to treatment in Crohn’s disease,5 and 6 rheumatoid arthritis,7 and psoriasis.8 Therapeutic drug monitoring potentially can improve outcomes in patients receiving TNF antagonists, particularly in those who have lost response to these agents owing to inadequate serum drug concentrations.

Setting: Tertiary care center in China.

Patients: Outpatients made an appointment for colonoscopy. Intervention: Subjects were randomly assigned to receive telephone-based re-education on the day before colonoscopy (re-education group) or routine education on the day of appointment (control group) for bowel preparation. Primary outcome: the rate of adequate bowel preparation (defined by Ottawa score<6). Secondary outcomes: polyp detection rate, non-compliance rate to instruction, willingness to repeat bowel preparation, et al. Statistical analysis: SPSS 19.0 was used. A 2-tailed p<0.05 was considered significant. A total of 605 patients were randomized buy Veliparib with 305 in re-education group and 300 in control group (Figure 1). The baseline characteristics between the two groups were well balanced. In an intention-to-treat analyses of the primary outcome (the rate of adequate bowel preparation) and colonoscopic findings (Table 1), an adequate preparation was Dinaciclib supplier found in 81.6% vs. 70.3 % of re-education and control patients, respectively (p<0.001). Polyp detection rate was 38.0% vs. 24.7% in re-education and control

group respectively (p<0.001). Among patients with successful colonoscopy, the Ottawa scores were 3.0±2.3 in re-education group and 4.9±3.2 in control group (p<0.001). Fewer patients with non-compliance to instruction were found in re-education group (9.4% vs. 32.8%, p<0.001). No significant differences were observed between the two groups regarding the willingness to have a repeat bowel preparation (p=0.613). Both univariate and multivariate analysis revealed that constipation, regular instruction without telephone re-education, improper beginning time of bowel preparation and improper diet restriction were factors significantly associated with inadequate

bowel preparation (defined by Ottawa score>=6) for colonoscopy (all p<0.05). Limitations: Single MTMR9 center. This prospective RCT, to our knowledge, is the first to show that telephone re-education about the details of bowel preparation on the day before colonoscopy improved the quality of bowel preparation and polyp detection rate. Table 1. Effect of telephone re-education on the outcome of bowel preparation and colonoscopy “
“The success of a colonoscopy is largely based on the quality of bowel preparation achieved by the patient. Patients are given medications and instructions on taking the medications, and when to change their diet prior to the colonoscopy. The quality of the endoscopic exam is directly related to the quality of the bowel preparation completed by the patient. A sub-optimal bowel preparation can lead to compromised exams with missed polyps, an increase in procedure time, more frequent surveillance, and aborted exams. To increase the quality of bowel preps, a smart phone application was created. A patient would download this free app on to their smart phone.

3-fold higher at the 1:9 ratio of M6:NM1. These results indicated that NM1 enhanced the transcriptional expression of the genes involved in methane oxidation when NM1 was more abundant than M6, consistent with the population and methane oxidation rate results. Relative expression of FADH was about 2-fold lower than the expression levels of the pMMO and MDH genes. We speculate that some of the formaldehyde produced was used for biosynthesis because formaldehyde has

a central role as an intermediate in catabolism and anabolism [9]. Increased transcriptional expression of these genes was likely responsible for the increased oxidation rate measured at the 1:9 ratio of M6:NM1. Similarly, [11] reported that the amount of mRNA copies was correlated with the activity in the reactor. PLX3397 mw We demonstrated that NM1 concurrently enhanced the population growth of M6 and the expression of the methane-oxidation genes in a density-dependent manner. The two types of bacterial cells were mixed on the basis of cell number. Because the mass of NM1 cells is 5.7-fold less than that of M6, the mass-ratio of NM1 to M6 was estimated

selleck inhibitor to be 0.02, 0.19, and 1.68 at the 9:1, 1:1, and 1:9 ratios of M6:NM1. NM1 only had significant effects on the activity and growth of M6 at the 1:9 ratio of M6:NM1, indicating that NM1 had a significant effect on M6 only when it was present at higher mass than M6. Previous studies have shown that a few vitamins and organic acids can enhance methanotrophic growth [31]. For instance, [13] reported that cobalamin (vitamin B12) produced by Rhizobium stimulated the growth and activity of several methanotrophs, including Methylomonas and Methylovulum. Xing et al. [31] reported that riboflavin and organic acids (maleate, succinate, malate, and citrate) induced the population growth of Methylosinus. Thus, we hypothesize that extracellular substances from NM1 enhanced the population growth of M6 as well as the expression of the methane-oxidation enzymes in M6. Further investigations of the metabolic interactions between these two organisms are warranted. Our results also imply

that methane oxidizers may Tolmetin commonly interact with other organisms in natural environments. This is the first study to report that the non-methanotrophic bacterium Sphingopyxis enhances the activity of the type II methanotroph Methylocystis. We demonstrated that NM1 enhanced the population growth of M6 as well as the expression of the genes involved in the methane oxidation pathway in a density-dependent manner. These results can be used to develop and guide management and enhancement strategies for methanotrophic biotechnological processes. For instance, this stimulation can be used for accelerating start-up in methanotrophic systems. This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science (2012R1A2A2A03046724) and by the Ministry of Education (2013R1A1A2061015).

Subsequent mutation analyses of genes encoding for iron-transport and iron-regulatory proteins known to be associated with Parkinsonism led to the discovery of specific mutations in the ferritin-H, the iron-regulatory protein 2, and the hemochromatosis gene, respectively, in single PD patients with SN hyperechogenicity [64], [65] and [66]. The most striking association was found in the check details ceruloplasmin gene: of five exonic missense mutations,

the I63T mutation was only found in one PD patient, the D544E and R793H mutations in far more PD patients than in ethnically matched controls [67]. The ceruloplasmin gene mutations were clearly associated to the TCS finding of SN hyperechogenicity Stem Cell Compound Library cell line in PD patients and healthy control subjects [67]. The question of whether the TCS finding of SN hyperechogenicity, present in 90% of PD patients but also in 9% of healthy adults, really indicates an increased risk of later developing PD is currently being studied in

large longitudinal studies. First clues were reported by Becker et al. [47] who observed that one of the healthy subjects in whom marked SN hyperechogenicity was detected in an early TCS study, two years later developed PD [22]. Meanwhile, there is growing evidence supporting the idea that SN hyperechogenicity indeed is an indicator for an increased risk of PD. FDOPA-PET studies in young healthy adults as well as in young asymptomatic parkin mutation carriers RVX-208 revealed that SN hyperechogenicity is associated with a subclinical malfunction of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system [22] and [68]. In psychiatric patients the degree of SN hyperechogenicity was clearly correlated with the severity of Parkinsonian symptoms induced by neuroleptic therapy [69]. SN hyperechogenicity was related to subtle motor asymmetry in non-depressive and, even more frequently, in depressive subjects

[70] and [71]. TCS studies in populations known to have an increased risk of PD showed 2- to 4-fold increased frequencies of SN hyperechogenicity in first-degree relatives of PD patients [63], in individuals with idiopathic hyposmia [72], in patients with unipolar depressive disorders [73], individuals with essential tremor [24], and individuals with idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder [74] and [75]. In these groups, the subjects with SN hyperechogenicity were more liable to show subtle Parkinsonian motor signs and reduced striatal radiotracer uptake on FP-CIT SPECT or F-DOPA PET studies than subjects with normal SN echogenicity [63], [71], [72], [73], [74] and [75]. Recently, the first follow-up data came out of an ongoing longitudinal study since 2004, conducted at the Universities of Tübingen (Germany), Innsbruck (Austria) and Homburg (Germany) [76] and [77].

Site selection was based on the results of sediment pore-water salinity survey (Figure 1). The survey included salinity measurements (at two depths: 5 cm and 25 cm GSI-IX in the sediment) along parallel transects, spaced 10 m from each other, that extended seawards from the beach for some 50 m. Seawater depths ranged from 0.5 to 2 m in accordance with distance from the shore. The sediment pore water salinity surveys of the study area were performed before each of the sampling campaigns to confirm the sampling point locations. Seepage meters and groundwater

lances were installed at the selected points. Seepage rates were measured by means of seepage meters applying the end member approach (Szymczycha

et al. 2012). In short, seepage water flowing through the sediment displaces water trapped in the chamber forcing it up through the port into the PTE bag. The change in volume of water in the bag, over a measured time interval, provides the seepage water flux. The measured salinity of the samples varied from 3.7 to 6.5 (Szymczycha et al. 2012). The groundwater fraction in the samples was calculated using the end-member method (Burnett et al. 2006, Szczepańska et al. 2012), and finally the groundwater flux was calculated as the ratio of the collected groundwater volume to the device’s surface area and to time. Groundwater lances, described by Beck et al. (2007), selleck compound were used to collect pore water samples for salinity and carbon analysis. 24 h after the device had been inserted into the sediment, 35 mL of pore water were collected from several depths (0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 30 cm) below the sediment-water interface (Szymczycha et al. 2012). Two groundwater lances (groundwater lance I – GLI and groundwater lance II – GLII) were used to collect samples at two groundwater seepage locations simultaneously. For comparison, a groundwater lance (groundwater lance G′) and a seepage meter were additionally deployed in an area without apparent

impact of groundwater seepage. The properties of the groundwater samples, including salinity, pH and temperature, were measured with a multimeter (WTW Multi 3400i Multi-Parameter Field Meters) with accuracies of 0.02 PSU and 0.1 °C. Several types of water samples were Sulfite dehydrogenase collected at the sampling points. These included seawater (above the seafloor; salinity ≥ 7.0) and sediment pore water (interstitial water; salinity 0.1–6.9). Sediment pore water samples of salinity ≤ 0.5 were assumed to represent groundwater, while pore water samples with salinities from 0.6 to 6.9 were assumed to be mixtures of seawater and groundwater. Since the salinities of the collected sediment pore water samples were characterised by salinity larger than these typical of groundwater, the groundwater contribution to the collected samples was calculated using the end member approach (Szymczycha et al. 2012).

By combining pharmacological inhibition and gene silencing approach, we demonstrate that a biphasic time-dependent modulation of mTOR, involving early AMPK-dependent inhibition and late AMPK/Akt-mediated activation, is necessary for the optimal differentiation of hDP-MSC to osteoblasts. While our data suggest that mTOR inhibition contributes to osteoblast differentiation by inducing autophagy, it remains to be explored if, accordingly, the late mTOR activation relies on autophagy suppression for its www.selleckchem.com/products/NVP-AUY922.html osteogenic effects. Interestingly, the data on the mTOR involvement

in osteoblast differentiation are rather conflicting, including stimulation in rodent osteoblastic cell lines and bone marrow stromal cells [44], [45] and [46], as opposed to inhibition in human embryonic and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells [47] and [48]. While the apparent discrepancies could stem from the interspecies, cell-type or various methodological differences, including use of pharmacological inhibitors vs. genetic knockdown of mTOR, their explanation is outside the scope of the present study. Nevertheless, in addition to

introducing the time kinetics of mTOR activation as an important determinant of its involvement in osteoblast differentiation, our data point to a potential role of mTOR-dependent autophagic response in this process. In conclusion, Tofacitinib mw the results of the present study indicate the potential importance of timely coordinated AMPK-dependent autophagy and Akt/mTOR activation in osteoblastic differentiation of human MSC. Since proper regulation of osteoblast differentiation is crucial for the maintenance of bone mass, further pursuing of its regulatory mechanisms, including those controlled by AMPK/Akt/mTOR signaling and autophagy, might provide novel therapeutic approaches for increasing bone regeneration. The study was supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia (grants 41025, 173053 and 175062 to VT, LHT and DB) and the UNESCO L’OREAL National Scholarship Program “For Women in the Science” (LHT, contract number 403F). “
“In the author

line the name of Jeffrey R. Curtis was listed incorrectly as Jeffery R. Curtis. The correct author line appears above. “
“Figure options Download full-size image Download high-quality image (134 K) Download as PowerPoint slide Zdzislaw Feliks (George) Jaworski, FRCP (C), FACP, died peacefully in Ottawa aged 90 on 15th February, 2012. George will be remembered not only as a top authority on bone physiology with valuable knowledge, precious wisdom which temper them, as well as a wonderful friend and mentor and colleague to all who knew him. George was born on June 14, 1921 in Tsingtao, China, son of Feliks Jaworski and Kazimiera Lewandowska, he grew up with his brother Adam in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Early in life he decided to become a physician of a kind, now called a clinical investigator.

They must be obtained from experiments – the instructions for undertaking these titrations are given in Appendix A. Seawater samples

were taken from the River Thames and Brighton Marina. The 100 ml samples of river/seawater were acidified with 4 ml of 1 mol/l nitric acid (HNO3) resulting in pH = 3.27 for Thames water and pH = 3.45 for Brighton Marina. For low dilution factors, the dependence of pH SB431542 chemical structure on dilution is similar for both samples (see Fig. 5a and b) because the molarity of the acid is much stronger than the alkalinity; in this instance the initial pH increase is largely due to dilution with the pH recovering by slightly more than 1 unit when D=10D=10. From ISRIB solubility dmso these curves we can determine the total dilution required to bring the discharge to a pH = 6.5. In this example, Brighton seawater has an alkalinity of 770 μmol/l and River Thames

water has an alkalinity of 480 μmol/l. The former is typical for the low alkalinity waters in the Baltic seas (see Fig. 2b). These titration experiments were done over a period of 15 min, with less than a minute for each step; much faster than a number of published studies (Behrends et al., 2005). This is to mimic more closely the processes that occur within the jet – the travel time of the acidic jet fluid from the nozzle to a distance of 4 m is typically <10 s. We examine the engineering constraints on DjetDjet and chemistry constraints on DTDT to achieve the necessary pH recovery. The design of the port discharge hole may be optimised to ensure pH = 6.5 at 4 m, for a single circular discharge port. An example discharge of pH = 3.5 is used, which was obtained from mixing seawater and a monoprotic acid with molarity 0.0385 mol/l. Extension to other values of discharge pH and

seawaters is straightforward. To enable large volumes to be discharged multiple ports may be required and the number can be estimated to be equation(23) N=QsDT24πu0α2×2.From (11), the jet nozzle radius that ensures a dilution DTDT, is equation(24) b0=2αxDT.Fig. 6 shows how the number and size of the discharge ports is selected. We consider the examples of 5, 10 and 15 MW ships (where Qs=45t/hr per MW of power) which are Oxymatrine in waters with a low alkalinity of 1500 μmol l−1. This alkalinity is typical for the main shipping routes in the Baltic Sea (Fig. 2b). The alkalinity determines the total dilution required which is DT=19.25DT=19.25 (obtained from Fig. 6a from the solid red line) and this sizes the discharge port radius which is 0.033 m from (24). We have chosen u0=2m/s which is a conservative estimate of the discharge speed. The number of ports is shown in Fig. 6c. The result is that for the 5, 10 and 15 MW ships 9, 18 and 27 outlet nozzles are required. Fig.

The damage index thus ranged from 0 (completely undamaged: 100 cells × 0) to 400 (with maximum damage: 100 cells × 4). The vehicle was used as a negative selleck chemical control, and doxorubicin (0.5 μM) was used as a positive control. Electrochemical experiments, including cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), were performed using an Autolab (Echo-Chemie, Utrecht, Netherlands) PGSTAT 20 or PGSTAT-30. The working electrode was a BAS (Bioanalytical Systems, West. Lafayette, IN, USA) 3-mm diameter GC electrode, the counter electrode was a platinum

coil, and the reference electrode was AgAgCl, Cl− (0.1 M); all of the electrodes contained in a single-compartment electrochemical cell with a 10-mL capacity. In CV experiments, a scan rate of 0.100 V s−1 was chosen for comparison and for figures. It was only necessary to degas the cell with a nitrogen flux for reduction studies. CV experiments were performed with QPhNO2 and nor-beta in aprotic media (DMF + 0.1 M TBABF4) on a glassy carbon electrode in the absence and presence of oxygen to investigate their electrochemical reduction mechanisms and possible oxygen interaction with

the electrochemically generated radical anions, at EpIc (from QPhNO2 and nor-beta). The parameters analyzed were the observed anodic shift in the potential of the first reduction wave (EpIc) and the current increase on the same peak (IpIc). Each compound was added to the supporting electrolyte, and the solution was degassed with N2, with a subsequent CV run. Oxygen was selleck products then bubbled into the cell, and its concentration was monitored with an oxymeter (DM-4 Digimed). Cyclic voltammograms were recorded at different oxygen concentrations. For reduction and oxidation studies in protic media, the CV and DPV of 0.1 and 1 mM solutions of QPhNO2 and nor-beta (previously dissolved in 1 mL ethanol) tuclazepam in acetate buffer (0.1 M, pH 4.5) were performed using a bare GC electrode. For the DPV measurements, the optimized differential

pulse voltammetry parameters were as follows: pulse amplitude (ΔEsw) of 50 mV, pulse width of 70 ms and scan rate of 5 mV s−1 [using a step potential (ΔEs) of 0.002 V]. This supporting electrolyte was used for all of the experiments involving DNA. All experiments were performed at room temperature (25 ± 1 °C). The electrochemical procedure for the investigation of the QPhNO2-dsDNA interaction involved three steps: preparation of the electrode surface, immobilization of dsDNA gel and voltammetric transduction, as previously described (de Abreu et al., 2008 and Diculescu et al., 2005). For each series of experiments, an identical dsDNA-GC electrode was prepared as a reference blank to serve as a control. This electrode was not treated with substrate but received the same pre- and post-treatments as the test electrode. The procedure produced a thick-layer dsDNA-modified electrode.