Hematology all time.

The World Down Syndrome Day (WDSD) is celebrated on March 21 every year. The day is celebrated to raise awareness about Down syndrome. The day was first officially observed by the United Nations in 2012.   Do you know why March 21 is chosen?  Just think.. Any guess!!! I think most of you must have got the answer by now before you scroll down.. March 21 (third month, 21  st  day) signifies the uniqueness of the triplication (trisomy) of the 21st chromosome which causes Down syndrome. What is the significance of this day and how is it celebrated? On this day, people across the world organise   events and campaigns to create awareness about down syndrome. One of the most popular campaigns of this day is #LotsOfSocks.  #LotsOfSocks.. Again, sounds interesting, what is it? Its nothing but wearing mismatched socks. It is because people may notice it and when they ask the reason, you may have the opportunity to tell them about Down syndrome and create awareness. Cant say, sometimes it might b

Hi friends,  Today, 11 March 2021 is celebrated as ‘World Kidney Day’. And the motto for this year is ‘ Living well with Kidney disease’ . I thought of writing a post related to Kidney and hematology and that’s why todays’ topic is about erythropoietin.  What is erythropoietin? ¨       Erythropoietin abbreviated as Epo, is a glycoprotein hormone that controls erythropoiesis ¨       It has a molecular weight of 30.4 kDa ¨       Epo circulates in plasma with a plasma half-life of  ∼ 7–8 hours ¨       It is produced by interstitial fibroblasts in the kidney ¨       It is also produced in perisinusoidal cells in the liver ¨       Liver production predominates in the fetal and perinatal period, while renal production during adulthood ¨       Other than erythropoiesis, erythropoietin has an important role in the brain's response to neuronal injury (Siren et al., 2001) ¨       It is also involved in the wound healing process (Haron et al., 2003) Do you know what, it was interesting to kno

Hi friends,   I could not post regularly due to some minor health issues. Hope I will be regularly able to post from now on.  Thank you everyone for your constant support and suggestions.  In this post, I will take you through the history of in situ hybridization (ISH). What is ISH? In situ hybridization (ISH) is a cytogenetic technique which allows high-resolution detection, quantification and localization of nucleic acid targets inside cells or tissues. The method is based on the hybridization of sequence specific complementary probes (typically DNA sequences) to their target inside the cell. Binding of complementary probes to the target of interest enables its detection and visualization.    Picture taken from D.Huber et al. Micro and nano engineering (1) 2018 15-24 Historical overview on ISH   Immunofluorescence based protein detection methods were first used by Coons et al in 1941.   Ø    Melting and re-hybridization of DNA and complementary RNA-DNA binding were first described in