Emerging economies depict striking demographic patterns: during the past four decades, the sex ratio at birth (SRB), measured as the annual number of male births per 1000 female births, has followed an increasing trend, predominantly in China and India.
Results of SRB measurements were evaluated by χ test.
The full-width-at-half-maximal fluorescence intensity of fluorescent spots recorded for microspheres (diameter 0.1 4.0 μm; TetraSpeck; Invitrogen, Paisley, UK) was measured and plotted against their actual size [ 20] to estimate actual diameters of objects represented by the spots in the SRB measurements (i.e. granules undergoing exocytosis).
Accordingly, SRB also measures the redundant rebroadcasts but in terms of number of nodes.
SRB assay measures total biomass, namely number of cells, by staining cellular proteins with Sulforhodamine B, whereas dye reduction by mitochondrial reductants on cell surface is determined in XTT assay, actually measuring pyridine nucleotide redox status of live cells [ 14, 17].
Cell viability, as represented by the amount of cell protein-bound SRB, was measured as previously described [ 22].
SRB was measured through scoring of five items: sexual initiation, age of sexual debut, number of sexual partners, condom use, and sex with high-risk partners.
Cells were then fixed, stained with sulforhodamine B (SRB), and measured for optical intensities, which indicated cell numbers, as described in our previous publication [ 17].
Parental or clones of transfected cells were plated into 12-well plates at 3 × 104 cells/well, cultured for different times, fixed, stained with SRB and measured for cell numbers.
