Production of Monoclonal Antibodies to Cells Isolated from the Developing Rodent Cerebellum and Grown in Culture

Conditions previously established for the growth in culture of cells isolated from early postnatal rat cerebella, have been adapted for the growth of similarly isolated cells from mice cerebella, in the belief that such cultures may provide a useful model for studying a number of aspects of neural development. These cultures have been shown to be reproducible, both in terms of plating efficiency and cell-type composition, and survive and develop for at least three weeks in vitro. In an effort to identify cell-type specific antigens, some of which have been implicated in the process of neural recognition, techniques have been developed for the production and detection of monoclonal antibodies to cerebellar cells in culture. The successful production of such antibodies may provide both new cell type specific markers and new experimental tools. Preliminary efforts to characterise one antibody, produced by the methods described, indicate that it recognises an antigen present on filaments in both astrocytes and fibroblastic cells present in cultures of rat cerebellar cells

The Use of Meta-Analytic Statistical Significance Testing

Meta-analysis multiplicity, the concept of conducting multiple tests of statistical significance within one study, is an underdeveloped literature (Tendal, Nüesch, Higgins, Jüni, & Gøtzsche, 2011). We address this issue by considering how Type I errors can impact meta-analytic results, suggest how statistical power may be affected through the use of multiplicity corrections, and propose how meta-analysts should analyze multiple tests of statistical significance. The context for this study is a meta-review of meta-analyses published in two leading review journals in education and psychology. Our review of 130 meta-analyses revealed a strong reliance on statistical significance testing without considering of Type I errors or the use of multiplicity corrections. In order to provide valid conclusions, meta-analysts must consider these issues prior to conducting the study

ICAM-1 expression on chondrocytes in rheumatoid arthritis: induction by synovial cytokines

The intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) was found by immunostaining chondrocytes in cartilage from three patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Expression of ICAM-1 was restricted to chondrocytes in areas of erodedcartilage adjacent to the invading synovial tissue. Toluidine blue staining of these areas demonstrated severe depletion of the cartilage extracellular matrix. In areas of undamaged cartilage there was no ICAM-1 expression. Since ICAM-1 is not constitutively expressed on normal human articular cartilage, but could be induced in vitro by exogenous IL-1α, TNFα and IFNγ or by co-culturing cartilage with inflammatory rheumatoid synovium, we conclude that the induction of ICAM-1 on rheumatoid chondrocytes results from the synergistic action of a variety of cytokines produced by the inflammatory cells of the invading pannus

Intraoperative Radiotherapy in the Treatment of Breast Cancer: A Review of the Evidence

The surgical treatment of early breast cancer has evolved from the removal of the entire breast and surrounding tissues (mastectomy) to the removal of the tumour together with a margin of healthy tissue (lumpectomy). Adjuvant radiotherapy, however, is still mainly given to the whole breast. Furthermore, external beam radiotherapy is often given several months after initial surgery and requires the patient to attend the radiotherapy centre daily for several weeks. A single fraction of radiotherapy given during surgery directly to the tumour bed (intraoperative radiotherapy) avoids these problems. The rationale and level-1 evidence for the safety and efficacy of the technique are reviewed