In short, 100 ng of total RNA was transcribed into cDNA using T7-(N)6 primers. Anti-sense RNA is generated by in vitro transcription of the cDNA, which is used as a template to generate 2′-deoxyuridine, 5′-triphosphate (dUTP)-containing sense cDNA fragments. Following the removal of RNA fragments, the sense cDNA fragments were terminal-labelled with biotin. The labelled samples were hybridized to the Human Gene 1·0 gene ST array (Affymetrix). The arrays were washed and stained with phycoerythrin-conjugated streptavidin (SAPE) using

the Affymetrix Fluidics Station® 450, and the arrays were scanned in the Affymetrix GeneArray® 3000 scanner to generate fluorescent images, as described in the Affymetrix GeneChip® protocol. Group sensitization rates were compared using a χ2 test and logistic regression analyses. The challenge outcome, Cisplatin supplier whether positive or negative, was used as

the dependent variable and skin status, sex and age as the independent variables. Results were expressed as odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). The strength of reactions in the three groups was analysed with both the visual scores and ultrasound Selleck EPZ-6438 data. The Mann–Whitney two-sample rank sum test was used to compare the sum clinical scores in the groups. Using the ultrasound data, linear regression analyses of the elicitation responses were calculated for each individual and the means of the slopes and the intercepts, used as parameters for strength of the elicitation reaction, were compared

for each group using a Mann–Whitney U-test, as recommended for serial measurements. P-value < 0·05 was considered to be statistically significant. All data analysis was performed using spss version 12 (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). The degree of infiltration of positively stained cells was scored semi-quantitatively using a five-point scale: 0 = none, 1 = few positive, 2 = some positive, 3 = many positive and 4 = highly positive. To detect significant differences between the group mean values, the Mann–Whitney U-test was applied. Significance was determined with a P-value < 0·05. All data analysis was performed using spss version 12 (SPSS, Inc.). Analysis Celecoxib the of microarray data followed the overall strategy described previously [12]. Briefly, a single log2 scale expression measure for each probe set was attained from the low-level data files (CEL files), using the robust multi-array analysis procedure with quantile normalization [13] implemented in the Affymetrix library for the r statistical environment. Principle component analysis (PCA) was carried out with the prcomp r function. The 2·5% of the probe sets with the most extreme positive or negative loading values for the first two principal components were extracted and used for analysis of over-represented GO terms using Fisher’s exact test for proportions with Bonferroni’s correction for multiple testing.