1. A method for marking regions of a kidney comprising:
inserting an internal viewing device via a ureter into a first calyx of the kidney;
inspecting the first calyx using the internal viewing device to detect the presence of one or more objects to be removed;
marking the first calyx, based on the inspection, with a marking material to provide a visual indication regarding the results of the inspection; and
moving the internal viewing device from the first calyx to a second calyx of the kidney for subsequent inspecting and marking thereof, wherein the marking of the first calyx and the second calyx comprises marking with a first marking material when the inspection indicates the presence of objects to be removed and marking with a second marking material different from the first marking material when the inspection indicates no presence of objects to be removed.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the internal viewing device comprises an endoscope or ureteroscope.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein marking the first calyx comprises depositing the marking material in the first calyx.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein depositing the marking material in the first calyx comprises filling the entire first calyx.
5. The method of claim 3, wherein depositing the marking material in the first calyx comprises filling only an entrance to the first calyx.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein the marking material used to fill the entrance of the first calyx prevents objects from other calyces from entering the first calyx.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the marking material comprises a contrast agent.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the marking material is colored.
9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of marking other calyces of the kidney with either the first type of marking material or the second type of marking material depending on the presence of one or more objects to be removed therefrom.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first calyx contains more than one object to be removed, and wherein the marking step provides a visual indication of the presence of more than one object.
11. The method of claim 1, further comprising marking each calyx of the kidney with a marking material based on the respective inspection thereof.
12. The method of claim 11, further comprising removing one or more objects from each calyx of the kidney that contains one or more objects to be removed.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. An isolated human Urb-ctf polynucleotide which codes without interruption for an amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO 2, or a complement thereto.
2. An isolated human Urb-ctf polynucleotide of claim 1, having the polynucleotide sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO 1, or a complement thereto.
3. An isolated human Urb-ctf polynucleotide comprising,
polynucleotide sequence having 97% or more nucleotide sequence identity to the polynucleotide sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO 1, which codes without interruption for Urb-ctf, and which has transcriptional regulatory activity.
4. An isolated polynucleotide of claim 3 having 99% or more sequence identity to the polynucleotide sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO 1.
5. An isolated polynucleotide which is specific for human Urb-ctf and which codes for a polypeptide, said polypeptide comprising.
amino acid 38 of SEQ ID NO 2,
amino acid 68 of SEQ ID NO 2,
amino acids 76-77 of SEQ ID NO 2,
amino acid 119 of SEQ ID NO 2,
amino acid 143-144 of SEQ ID NO 2,
amino acid 161 of SEQ ID NO 2,
amino acid 583 of SEQ ID NO 2,
amino acid 606 of SEQ ID NO 2, or
complements thereof.
6. An isolated polynucleotide of claim 5, comprising a polynucleotide coding for amino acids 1-263 of SEQ ID NO 2 or 459-614 of SEQ ID NO 2, or a complement thereof.
7. An isolated polynucleotide of claim 5, wherein said polynucleotide is effective in a polymerase chain reaction.
8. An isolated polynucleotide of claim 5, which codes for a polypeptide comprising at least eight amino acids in length.
9. An isolated human Urb-ctf polypeptide of claim 1 comprising,
the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO 2.
10. An isolated human Urb-ctf polypeptide of claim 3 comprising,
an amino acid sequence having 99% or more sequence identity to the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO 2.
11. An isolated human Urb-ctf polypeptide of claim 10, which has transcriptional regulatory activity.
12. An isolated human polypeptide which is specific for Urb-ctf of claim 8, said polypeptide comprising:
amino acid 38 of SEQ ID NO 2,
amino acid 68 of SEQ ID NO 2,
amino acids 76-77 of SEQ ID NO 2,
amino acid 119 of SEQ ID NO 2,
amino acid 143-144 of SEQ ID NO 2,
amino acid 161 of SEQ ID NO 2,
amino acid 583 of SEQ ID NO 2, or
amino acid 606 of SEQ ID NO 2.
13. An isolated polypeptide of claim 12, comprising,
a polypeptide coding for amino acids 1-263 of SEQ ID NO 2 or 459-614 of SEQ ID NO 2.
14. A method of treating breast cancer showing altered expression of human Urb-ctf of claim 1, comprising:
administering to a subject in need thereof a therapeutic agent which is effective for regulating expression of said Urb-ctf gene or polypeptide.
15. A method of claim 14, wherein said agent is an antisense which is effective to inhibit translation of the gene coding for human Urb-ctf.
16. A method of diagnosing human breast cancer disease associated with abnormal Urb-ctf expression, or determining a subject’s susceptibility to such disease, comprising:
assessing the expression of human Urb-ctf of claim 1 in a tissue sample comprising breast cancer cells.
17. A method of claim 16, wherein assessing is:
measuring expression levels of said gene, determining the genomic structure of said gene, determining the mRNA structure of transcripts from said gene, or measuring the expression levels of polypeptide coded for by said gene.
18. A method of claim 16, wherein said assessing detecting is performed by:
Northern blot analysis, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), reverse transcriptase PCR, RACE PCR, or in situ hybridization, and
using a polynucleotide probe having a sequence selected from SEQ ID NO 1, a polynucleotide having 99% sequence identity or more to a sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO 1, or complements thereto.
19. A method of assessing a therapeutic or preventative intervention in a human subject having breast cancer, comprising,
determining the expression levels of human Urb-ctf of claim 1 in a tissue sample comprising breast cancer cells, or cells derived from breast cancer.
20. A method for identifying an agent that modulates the expression of human Urb-ctf of claim 1 in cells, comprising,
contacting a cell population with a test agent under conditions effective for said test agent to modulate the expression of the gene coding for human Urb-ctf in cells, and
determining whether said test agent modulates said gene.
21. A method of claim 20, wherein said agent is an antisense polynucleotide to a target polynucleotide sequence selected from SEQ ID NO 1 and which is effective to inhibit translation of said gene.
22. A method for identifying an agent that modulates the biological activity of human Urb-ctf of claim 8, comprising,
contacting human Urb-ctf polypeptide of claim 8 with a test agent under conditions effective for said test agent to modulate the biological activity of said polypeptide, and
determining whether said test agent modulates said polypeptide.
23. A non-human, transgenic mammal whose genome comprises a recombinant polynucleotide coding for a human Urb-ctf of claim 1 operatively linked to an expression control sequence effective to express said gene in breast tissue.
24. A non-human transgenic mammal of claim 22, wherein said expression control sequence is an inducible promoter.
25. An antibody which is specific for human Urb-ctf of claim 1, which antibody is specific for an epitope comprising:
amino acid 38 of SEQ ID NO 2,
amino acid 68 of SEQ ID NO 2,
amino acids 76-77 of SEQ ID NO 2,
amino acid 119 of SEQ ID NO 2,
amino acid 143-144 of SEQ ID NO 2,
amino acid 161 of SEQ ID NO 2,
amino acid 583 of SEQ ID NO 2, or
amino acid 606 of SEQ ID NO 2.
26. A method of advertising human Urb-ctf of claim 1 for sale, commercial use, or licensing, comprising,
displaying in a computer-readable medium a polynucleotide sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO 1, or complements thereto, or a polypeptide sequence set forth in sequence in SEQ ID NO 2.
27. A method of selecting a breast cancer marker from a database comprising polynucleotide sequences, comprising
displaying, in a computer-readable medium, a polynucleotide sequence or polypeptide sequence for human Urb-ctf of claim 1, or complements to the polynucleotides sequence,
wherein said displayed sequences have been retrieved from said database upon selection by a user.