2000). Female C57BL6 galectin-3 knock-out mice (Gal-3−/−; Hsu et al. 2000) were bred with nonlittermate transgenic C57BL6 SOD1G93A males to yield homozygous C57BL6 SOD1G93A/Gal-3−/− mice at the F2 generation. Transgenic offspring were genotyped by PCR amplification from tail tissue DNA. Briefly, tail clips were digested (12 h, 55°C) in lysis buffer (1 Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical m Tris, pH8.8, 0.5 m EDTA, 10% Tween 20, 200 μg/mL Proteinase K), boiled (5 min) to inactivate Proteinase K, and centrifuged at 16,500 × g (2 min). PCR lysis buffer was combined directly with PCR reaction buffer (1X Flexi Buffer, 25 mm MgCl2, 10 mm of PCR nucleotide mix),

primers, GoTaq DNA polymerase, and nuclease free water in a 50 μL reaction mixture. RT-PCR was used to Selleckchem AZD8055 amplify mutated SOD1 and disrupted galectin-3, and results visualized on 2% ethidium bromide agarose gels. Primers used to identify the human mSOD1G93A gene were Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical 5′-CATCAGCCCTAATCCATCTGA-3′ (forward) and 5′-CGCGACTAACAATCAAAGTGA-3′ (reverse). GaI-3−/− Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical mice were originally produced by interrupting the region coding for the CRD in exon 5, by inserting a neomycin resistant gene in a short intro 4-exon 5 segment (0.5

kb) (Hsu et al. 2000). Primers to identify galectin-3 deficient mice were 5′GTAGGTGAGAGTCACAAGCTGGAGGCC-3′ (binding upstream of intron) and 5′GTAGGTGAGAGTCACAAGCTGGAGGCC-3′ (binding upstream of the Neo cassette) and 5′CACTCTCAAAGGGGAAGGCTGACTGTC-3′ (binding common downstream sequence of exon). These primers amplify a 450-bp fragment

in gal-3+/+ mice, a 300-bp fragment in gal-3−/− mice, and both 450- and 300-bp fragments in gal-3+/− heterozygotes. Human postmortem Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical spinal cord tissue Spinal cords from patients with sporadic ALS (n = 5) or from those who died from other causes (n = 4) were obtained from a postmortem tissue bank (Johns Hopkins University). Human samples were evaluated in accordance with HIPPA regulations and supported by Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical approved IRB protocols at Johns Hopkins and Children’s National Medical Center. RNA preparation and microarray Olopatadine Lumbar spinal cords from male B6SJL/J SOD1G93A transgenic and wild-type mice were isolated at 28, 42, 56, 70, 98, 112, and 126 days of age (n = 3 per group), extracted in Trizol (Life Technologies, Grand Island, NY), cleaned with RNeasy mini-columns (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA), quantified with a spectrophotometer, and assessed for quality by gel electrophoresis. RNA was considered to be of suitable quality when intact 28S and 18S ribosomal bands were visualizable upon ethidium bromide staining of samples resolved on a 1% agarose gel. Total RNA was amplified and synthesized as biotin-conjugated cRNA, fragmented, and hybridized to Mouse 430 2.0 Affymetrix arrays using reagents and methods supplied by the manufacturer (Affymetrix, Santa Clara, CA).