Modalities of empowerment and strengthening of ex-servicemen

Background: Older people including ex-servicemen (ESM) in India are left to fend for themselves due to nuclear family system. Most children are not staying with them due to reasons such as acquiring of education or employment at distant places. These factors, coupled with deteriorating health with advancing age, change in value system and attitude amongst children who give more importance to materialism, it was felt necessary to find modalities to empower and strengthen ESM by available methods of including progressive weight training, yoga and meditation.     

Multilevel analysis of geographic variation among correlates of child undernutrition in India

Prior research has identified a number of risk factors ranging from inadequate household sanitation to maternal characteristics as important determinants of child malnutrition and health in India. What is less known is the extent to which these individual‐level risk factors are geographically distributed. Assessing the geographic distribution, especially at multiple levels, matters as it can inform where, and at what level, interventions should be targeted. The three levels of significance in the Indian context are villages, districts, and states. Thus, the purpose of this paper was to (a) examine what proportion of the variation in 21 risk factors is attributable to villages, districts, and states in India and (b) elucidate the specific states where these risk factors are clustered within India. Using the fourth National Family Health Survey dataset, from 2015 to 2016, we found that the proportion of variation attributable to villages ranged from 14% to 63%, 10% to 29% for districts and 17% to 62% for states. Furthermore, we found that Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh were in the highest risk quintile for more than 10 of the risk factors included in our study. This is an indication of geographic clustering of risk factors. The risk factors that are clustered in states such as Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh underscore the need for policies and interventions that address a broader set of child malnutrition determinants beyond those that are nutrition specific.     

O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase activity in human buccal mucosal tissue and cell cultures. Complex mixtures related to habitual use of tobacco and betel quid inhibit the activity in vitro

Extracts prepared from tissue specimens of normal, non-tumourous human buccal mucosa, and cultured buccal epithelial cells and fibroblasts, exhibited O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) activity by catalysing the repair of the premutagenic O6-methylguanine lesion in isolated DNA with rates of 0.2 to 0.3 pmol/mg protein. An SV40 T antigen-immortalized buccal epithelial cell line termed SVpgC2a and a buccal squamous carcinoma line termed SqCC/Y1, both of which lack normal tumour suppressor gene p53 function, exhibited about 50 and 10% of the MGMT activity of normal cells, respectively. The normal, experimentally transformed and tumourous buccal cell types showed MGMT mRNA levels which correlated with their respective levels of MGMT activity. Exposure of buccal cell cultures to various organic or water- based extracts of products related to the use of tobacco and betel quid, decreased both cell survival (measured by reduction of tetrazolium dye) and MGMT activity (measured subsequently to the exposures in cellular extracts). Organic extracts of bidi smoke condensate and betel leaf showed higher potency than those of tobacco and snuff. An aqueous snuff extract also decreased both parameters, whereas an aqueous areca nut extract was without effect. The well- established sulph-hydryl-reactive agent Hg2+, a corrosion product of dental amalgam, served as a positive control and decreased MGMT activity following treatment of cells within a range of 1-10 microM. Taken together, significant MGMT activities were demonstrated in buccal tissue specimens and in the major buccal mucosal cell types in vitro. Lower than normal MGMT activity in two transformed buccal epithelial cell lines correlated with decreased MGMT mRNA and lack of functional p53. Finally, in vitro experiments suggested the potential inhibition of buccal mucosal MGMT activity by complex mixtures present in the saliva of tobacco and betel nut chewers.      

Risk factors and pathogenetic mechanisms of left ventricular hypertrophy in progressive chronic kidney disease and after transplantation of the kidney

AIM: To specify the trend in the incidence of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) at a predialysis stage of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the course of its progression from stage III to stage V and after transplantation of the kidney (TK); to study correlations between homeostatic disorders caused by CKD progression and myocardial remodeling; to define the role of some hemodynamic and nonhemodynamic factors in formation of LVH. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study enrolled 128 patients (58 males and 70 females, age 18-55 years, mean age 42 +/- 11 years) at a predialysis stage of CKD (group 1) and 225 recipients of renal allotransplant--RRA (group 2, 140 males and 85 females, age 18-69 years, mean age 43 +/- 12 years). General clinical examination, biochemical and immunological blood tests, echocardiography were made. RESULTS: At a predialysis stage of CKD, LVH was diagnosed in 56% patients. Incidence of LVH was directly related with age of the patients (p = 0.001), blood pressure (p < 0.001), duration of arterial hypertension (p = 0.004), severity of anemia (p = 0.017), the level of C-reactive protein (p = 0.003), blood phosphorus concentration and inversely correlated with glomerular filtration rate--GFR (p = < 0.001), albumin level (p = 0.023) and blood Ca (p < 0.001). LVH was followed up for 12 months in 35 patients with predialysis CKD. Factors of LVH progression and factors hindering its regression were systolic blood pressure, Hb and Ca in the blood. In group 2 of RRA incidence of LVH was 53%. Significant factors of LVH risk after transplantation were age (p = 0.002), hypertension (p = 0.005) and anemia (p = 0.04). Moreover, LVH closely correlated with proteinuria (p < 0.03), transplant dysfunction (p = 0.002) and posttransplantation ischemic heart disease (p < 0.037). Changes in LVH were analysed in 30 RRA. Frequency of LVH decreased for 2 years after transplantation (from 56 to 32%) but 36-60 and more months after transplantation it increased (46 and 64%, respectively). Transplant dysfunction was the leading factor hindering LVH regression after transplantation. CONCLUSION: The same mechanisms are involved in LVH pathogenesis after transplantation and at a predialysis stage of CKD. The significance of initial renal lesion signs--minimal proteinuria and hypercreatininemia--was higher after renal transplantation than in patients with CKD.     

Behavioral and genetic evidence for a novel animal model of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Predominantly Inattentive Subtype

Background  

According to DSM-IV there are three subtypes of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, namely: ADHD predominantly inattentive type (ADHD-PI), ADHD predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type (ADHD-HI), and ADHD combined type (ADHD-C). These subtypes may represent distinct neurobehavioral disorders of childhood onset with separate etiologies. The diagnosis of ADHD is behaviorally based; therefore, investigations into its possible etiologies should be based in behavior. Animal models of ADHD demonstrate construct validity when they accurately reproduce elements of the etiology, biochemistry, symptoms, and treatment of the disorder. Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) fulfill many of the validation criteria and compare well with clinical cases of ADHD-C. The present study describes a novel rat model of the predominantly inattentive subtype (ADHD-PI).     

Glutamate acting at NMDA receptors stimulates embryonic cortical neuronal migration

During cortical development, embryonic neurons migrate from germinal zones near the ventricle into the cortical plate, where they organize into layers. Mechanisms that direct neuronal migration may include molecules that act as chemoattractants. In rats, GABA, which localizes near the target destination for migrating cortical neurons, stimulates embryonic neuronal migration in vitro. In mice, glutamate is highly localized near the target destinations for migrating cortical neurons. Glutamate-induced migration of murine embryonic cortical cells was evaluated in cell dissociates and cortical slice cultures. In dissociates, the chemotropic effects of glutamate were 10-fold greater than the effects of GABA, demonstrating that for murine cortical cells, glutamate is a more potent chemoattractant than GABA. Thus, cortical chemoattractants appear to differ between species. Micromolar glutamate stimulated neuronal chemotaxis that was mimicked by microM NMDA but not by other ionotropic glutamate receptor agonists (AMPA, kainate, quisqualate). Responding cells were primarily derived from immature cortical regions [ventricular zone (vz)/subventricular zone (svz)]. Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) pulse labeling of cortical slices cultured in NMDA antagonists (microM MK801 or APV) revealed that antagonist exposure blocked the migration of BrdU-positive cells from the vz/svz into the cortical plate. PCR confirmed the presence of NMDA receptor expression in vz/svz cells, whereas electrophysiology and Ca2+ imaging demonstrated that vz/svz cells exhibited physiological responses to NMDA. These studies indicate that, in mice, glutamate may serve as a chemoattractant for neurons in the developing cortex, signaling cells to migrate into the cortical plate via NMDA receptor activation.