Lls, and therefore can help understanding of underlying mechanisms. Real-time quantitative PCR is a routinely used technique to measure transcript abundance with great sensitivity, specificity and reproducibility. Nevertheless, exact normalization of gene expression levels is an absolute prerequisite for reliable results of qPCR quantification methods. This study demonstrates the use of three different Excel-based applets to identify the most stable HKGs in the studied population. Expression stability for a single sample or each HKG was investigated using BestKeeper first. All of the studied 28 samples had low InVar fold level. An InVar value of more than 3-fold indicates low consistency and reliability. The geNorm applet uses a Table 3. Pentagastrin housekeeping genes evaluated in the present study.pairwise comparison approach similar to BestKeeper to identify the best combination of two genes based on the geometric mean expression levels [15]. However, it uses the transformed expression levels instead of raw Ct data used in BestKeeper to control the profound influence made by any outliers. The NormFinder uses a model-based approach to provide a more precise measure of gene expression stability due to its direct estimation of expression variation and consideration of systematic differences between subgroups, rather than pairwise comparison approach [14]. In addition, the pairwise comparison approach is probably influenced by HKG co-regulation, and therefore the final ranks may not be optimal. PPIA encodes a member of the peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans Licochalcone A chemical information isomerase (PPIase) family, which are ubiquitous intracellular proteins that 1480666 play a role in cyclosporine A-mediated immunosuppression [17]. The role of PPIA in allergic asthma is inconsistent in the literature. On one hand, PPIA2/2 lockout mice developed allergic disease accompanied by elevated IgE and an increased number of mast cells and eosinophils in multiple tissues, which was caused by type 2 cytokines released from CD4+ T cells [18]. While on the other hand, increasing evidence has suggested that cyclophilins are potent chemoattractants for a variety of human and mouse leukocyte subsets [19,20]. Indeed, elevated protein 24272870 levels of cyclophilin have been observed both in acute allergic asthma [21] and chronic periods of the disease. Blocking the function of PPIA reduced the recruitment of leukocytes and acute episodes of the disease following allergen challenge [22]. In the present study, PPIA mRNA level was lower in asthmatics than in healthy controls. One explanation is that in the present study,Full name RNA, 28S ribosomal 1 Ribosomal protein, large, P0 Actin,beta Cyclophilin A Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase Phosphoglycerate kinase 1 Beta-2-microglobulin Glucuronidase, beta Ribosomal protein L13a doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0048367.tSymbol RN28S1 RPLP0 ACTB PPIA GAPDH PGK1 B2M GUSB RPL13AGene function Riboxomal units Structural component of the 60S subunit of ribosomes Cytoskeletal structural actin Accelerate the folding of proteins Enzyme in glycolysis and nuclear functions Glycolytic enzyme Component of the major histocompatibility complex class I molecules Hydrolase that degrades glycosaminoglycans Structural component of the 60S ribosomal subunitAccession no. ENST00000419932 NM_001002.3 NM_001101 NM_021130.3 NM_002046 NM_000291.3 NM_004048.2 NM_000181.3 NM_012423.Selection of Suitable Housekeeping GenesFigure 2. Correlation analysis of candidate housekeeping genes (HKGs) versus BestKeeper.Lls, and therefore can help understanding of underlying mechanisms. Real-time quantitative PCR is a routinely used technique to measure transcript abundance with great sensitivity, specificity and reproducibility. Nevertheless, exact normalization of gene expression levels is an absolute prerequisite for reliable results of qPCR quantification methods. This study demonstrates the use of three different Excel-based applets to identify the most stable HKGs in the studied population. Expression stability for a single sample or each HKG was investigated using BestKeeper first. All of the studied 28 samples had low InVar fold level. An InVar value of more than 3-fold indicates low consistency and reliability. The geNorm applet uses a Table 3. Housekeeping genes evaluated in the present study.pairwise comparison approach similar to BestKeeper to identify the best combination of two genes based on the geometric mean expression levels [15]. However, it uses the transformed expression levels instead of raw Ct data used in BestKeeper to control the profound influence made by any outliers. The NormFinder uses a model-based approach to provide a more precise measure of gene expression stability due to its direct estimation of expression variation and consideration of systematic differences between subgroups, rather than pairwise comparison approach [14]. In addition, the pairwise comparison approach is probably influenced by HKG co-regulation, and therefore the final ranks may not be optimal. PPIA encodes a member of the peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase (PPIase) family, which are ubiquitous intracellular proteins that 1480666 play a role in cyclosporine A-mediated immunosuppression [17]. The role of PPIA in allergic asthma is inconsistent in the literature. On one hand, PPIA2/2 lockout mice developed allergic disease accompanied by elevated IgE and an increased number of mast cells and eosinophils in multiple tissues, which was caused by type 2 cytokines released from CD4+ T cells [18]. While on the other hand, increasing evidence has suggested that cyclophilins are potent chemoattractants for a variety of human and mouse leukocyte subsets [19,20]. Indeed, elevated protein 24272870 levels of cyclophilin have been observed both in acute allergic asthma [21] and chronic periods of the disease. Blocking the function of PPIA reduced the recruitment of leukocytes and acute episodes of the disease following allergen challenge [22]. In the present study, PPIA mRNA level was lower in asthmatics than in healthy controls. One explanation is that in the present study,Full name RNA, 28S ribosomal 1 Ribosomal protein, large, P0 Actin,beta Cyclophilin A Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase Phosphoglycerate kinase 1 Beta-2-microglobulin Glucuronidase, beta Ribosomal protein L13a doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0048367.tSymbol RN28S1 RPLP0 ACTB PPIA GAPDH PGK1 B2M GUSB RPL13AGene function Riboxomal units Structural component of the 60S subunit of ribosomes Cytoskeletal structural actin Accelerate the folding of proteins Enzyme in glycolysis and nuclear functions Glycolytic enzyme Component of the major histocompatibility complex class I molecules Hydrolase that degrades glycosaminoglycans Structural component of the 60S ribosomal subunitAccession no. ENST00000419932 NM_001002.3 NM_001101 NM_021130.3 NM_002046 NM_000291.3 NM_004048.2 NM_000181.3 NM_012423.Selection of Suitable Housekeeping GenesFigure 2. Correlation analysis of candidate housekeeping genes (HKGs) versus BestKeeper.