Life Sciences Commons^™

Post Hoc Pattern Matching: Assigning Significance To Statistically Defined Expression Patterns In Single Channel Microarray Data, Randall Hulshizer, Eric M. Blalock

Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Researchers using RNA expression microarrays in experimental designs with more than two treatment groups often identify statistically significant genes with ANOVA approaches. However, the ANOVA test does not discriminate which of the multiple treatment groups differ from one another. Thus, post hoc tests, such as linear contrasts, template correlations, and pairwise comparisons are used. Linear contrasts and template correlations work extremely well, especially when the researcher has a priori information pointing to a particular pattern/template among the different treatment groups. Further, all pairwise comparisons can be used to identify particular, treatment group-dependent patterns of gene expression. However, these approaches …

The Role Of Macrophages In Olfactory Neurogenesis, Aaron S. Borders

Theses and Dissertations--Physiology

Olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) undergo continual degeneration and replacement throughout life, a cycle that can be synchronized experimentally by performing olfactory bulbectomy (OBX). OBX induces apoptosis of mature OSNs, which is followed by an increase in the proliferation of progenitor basal cells. Macrophages, functionally diverse immune effector cells, phagocytose the apoptotic OSNs and regulate the proliferation of basal cells. This provides an advantageous environment to study how macrophages regulate neuronal death, proliferation, and replacement.

The purpose of this dissertation was to identify the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which macrophages regulate the degeneration/proliferation cycle of OSNs. Macrophages were selectively depleted …