Semiquantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction to evaluate the expression patterns of genes involved in the oestrogen pathway

The increasing number of factors to be taken into account in the oestrogen transcriptional process has created a need to develop a rapid screening method to evaluate their role in physiology and pathology. Molecular biologytechniques enable gene expression studies at the mRNA level with small amounts of tissues. We therefore developed a semiquantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) technique using fluorescent oligonucleotides to analyse simultaneously a large panel of interrelated genes involved in the oestrogen transcriptional pathway using a moderately expressed housekeeping gene, the hypoxanthine