Does elevated cutaneous Smad activation associate with enhanced skin tumor susceptibility in organ transplant recipients?
Observation of elevated P-Smad2 levels in transplant recipients is consistent with the notion that elevated TGF-beta signaling may contribute to malignancy in organ transplant recipients. Disparate P-Smad1/5/8 expression levels between keratoacanthoma from the two patient groups might reflect the distinct BMP-responsive cell of origin for this hair follicle-derived lesion.
Detection of two-fold differences by real-time PCR is essential if this procedure is to be used for the characterization of transgenic plants. However, given the high variability between replicates, a detection of two-fold differences is in many cases not possible; in such cases Southern analysis is the more reliable procedure.