alpha-1 antitrypsin phenotypes by isoelectric focusing in a metropolitan southern Chinese population

AIMS/BACKGROUND: alpha-1 antitrypsin (alpha1AT) is an abundant protease inhibitor in human plasma. Its phenotypic variability has been reported to be associated with pulmonary emphysema and chronic liver diseases. However, alpha1AT deficiency is an uncommon condition in the Chinese population. The aim of this study was to describe the phenotypic distribution of alpha1AT in a southern Chinese population. METHODS: A total of 1085 healthy blood donors underwent alpha1AT phenotyping by isoelectric focusing. RESULTS: Two thirds (66.1%) were homozygous for either M1 or M2, whereas 32.6% were heterozygous for two different M phenotypes. The frequency of allelic variants was only 0.007, and deficiency variants were absent. Compared with earlier studies on southern Chinese populations, this study found a lower frequency of M2, and a higher number of allelic variants, including E, L, N, P, and S. This phenomenon can be attributed to population migration and mixing. CONCLUSIONS: An understanding of the alpha1AT pattern is important for evaluating the predisposition of the population to selected clinical diseases.     

Performance characteristics of a microMOSFET as an in vivo dosimeter in radiation therapy

The commercially available microMOSFET dosimeter was characterized for its dosimetric properties in radiotherapy treatments. The MOSFET exhibited excellent correlation with the dose and was linear in the range of 5-500 cGy. No measurable effect in response was observed in the temperature range of 20-40 degrees C. No significant change in response was observed by changing the dose rate between 100 and 600 monitor units (MU) min(-1) or change in the dose per pulse. A 3% post-irradiation fading was observed within the first 5 h of exposure and thereafter it remained stable up to 60 h. A uniform energy response was observed in the therapy range between 4 MV and 18 MV. However, below 0.6 MeV (Cs-132), the MOSFET response increased with the decrease in energy. The MOSFET also had a uniform dose response in 6-20 MeV electron beams. The directional dependence of MOSFET was within +/-2% for all the energies studied. The inherent build-up of the MOSFET was evaluated dosimetrically and found to have varying water equivalent thickness, depending on the energy and the side of the beam entry. At depth, a single calibration factor obtained by averaging the MOSFET response over different field sizes, energies, orientation and depths reproduced the ion chamber measured dose to within 5%. The stereotactic and the penumbral measurements demonstrated that the MOSFET could be used in a high gradient field such as IMRT. The study showed that the microMOSFET dosimeter could be used as an in vivo dosimeter to verify the dose delivery to the patient to within +/-5%.     

Sex-Dependent Effects of 7,8-Dihydroxyflavone on Metabolic Health Are Associated with Alterations in the Host Gut Microbiome

7,8-Dihydroxyflavone (DHF) is a naturally occurring flavonoid that has been reported to protect against a variety of pathologies. Chronic administration of DHF prevents high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity in female, but not male, mice. However, the mechanisms underlying this sexual dimorphism have not been elucidated. We have discovered that oral DHF supplementation significantly attenuates fat mass, hepatic lipid accumulation, and adipose tissue inflammation in female mice. In contrast, male mice were not protected from adiposity, and had a paradoxical worsening of hepatic lipid accumulation and adipose tissue inflammation upon DHF supplementation. Consistent with these sexually dimorphic effects on body weight and metabolic health, 7,8-DHF induced early and stable remodeling of the female intestinal microbiome. DHF supplementation significantly increased gut microbial diversity, and suppressed potentially detrimental bacteria, particularly Desulfovibrionaceae, which are pro-inflammatory and positively associated with obesity and inflammation. Changes in the female gut microbiome preceded alterations in body weights, and in silico analyses indicated that these early microbial changes were highly predictive of subsequent weight gain in female mice. While some alterations in the intestinal microbiome were also observed in male DHF-supplemented mice, these changes were distinct from those in females and, importantly, were not predictive of subsequent body weight changes in male animals. The temporality of microbial changes preceding alterations in body weight in female mice suggests a role for the gut microbiome in mediating the sexually dimorphic effects of DHF on body weight. Given the significant clinical interest in this flavonoid across a wide range of pathologies, further elucidation of these sexually dimorphic effects will aid the development of effective clinical therapies.     

Chronic Intake of Energy Drinks and Their Sugar Free Substitution Similarly Promotes Metabolic Syndrome

Energy drinks containing significant quantities of caffeine, taurine and sugar are increasingly consumed, particularly by adolescents and young adults. The putative effects of chronic ingestion of either standard energy drink, Mother^TM (ED), or its sugar-free formulation (sfED) on metabolic syndrome were determined in wild-type C57BL/6J mice, in comparison to a soft drink, Coca-Cola (SD), a Western-styled diet enriched in saturated fatty acids (SFA), and a combination of SFA + ED. Following 13 weeks of intervention, mice treated with ED were hyperglycaemic and hypertriglyceridaemic, indicating higher triglyceride glucose index, which was similar to the mice maintained on SD. Surprisingly, the mice maintained on sfED also showed signs of insulin resistance with hyperglycaemia, hypertriglyceridaemia, and greater triglyceride glucose index, comparable to the ED group mice. In addition, the ED mice had greater adiposity primarily due to the increase in white adipose tissue, although the body weight was comparable to the control mice receiving only water. The mice maintained on SFA diet exhibited significantly greater weight gain, body fat, cholesterol and insulin, whilst blood glucose and triglyceride concentrations remained comparable to the control mice. Collectively, these data suggest that the consumption of both standard and sugar-free forms of energy drinks induces metabolic syndrome, particularly insulin resistance.     

Retirement,social support and mental well-being: a couple-level analysis

The European Journal of Health Economics - Social support is increasingly acknowledged as an important resource for promoting well-being. We test whether social support changes around retirement....     

Tioman virus, a novel paramyxovirus isolated from fruit bats in Malaysia

A search for the natural host of Nipah virus has led to the isolation of a previously unknown member of the family Paramyxoviridae. Tioman virus (TiV) was isolated from the urine of fruit bats (Pteropus hypomelanus) found on the island of the same name off the eastern coast of peninsular Malaysia. An electron microscopic study of TiV-infected cells revealed spherical and pleomorphic-enveloped viral particles (100--500 nm in size) with a single fringe of embedded peplomers. Virus morphogenesis occurred at the plasma membrane of infected cells and morphological features of negative-stained ribonucleoprotein complexes were compatible with that of viruses in the family Paramyxoviridae. Serological studies revealed no cross-reactivity with antibodies against a number of known Paramyxoviridae members except for the newly described Menangle virus (MenV), isolated in Australia in 1997. Failure of PCR amplification using MenV-specific primers suggested that this new virus is related to but different from MenV. For molecular characterization of the virus, a cDNA subtraction strategy was employed to isolate virus-specific cDNA from virus-infected cells. Complete gene sequences for the nucleocapsid protein (N) and phosphoprotein (P/V) have been determined and recombinant N and V proteins produced in baculovirus. The recombinant N and V proteins reacted with porcine anti-MenV sera in Western blot, confirming the serological cross-reactivity observed during initial virus characterization. The lack of a C protein-coding region in the P/V gene, the creation of P mRNA by insertion of 2-G residues, and the results of phylogenetic analyses all indicated that TiV is a novel member of the genus Rubulavirus.     

Clinical and genetic features of variegate porphyria in a Chinese patient

Acute porphyria is rare in orientals. We describe a Chinese woman with recurrent generalised tonic-clonic seizures and abdominal pain. Genomic DNA studies identified a heterozygous base substitution from guanine to adenine at nucleotide position 503, resulting in substitution of arginine by histidine at position 168 of the protein (R168H). This genetic abnormality is similar to the mutation reported in Caucasians with variegate porphyria. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report in the English literature a Chinese patient with variegate porphyria with an identifiable mutation. A brief review of porphyria is presented.     

Mutational analysis of the PTEN/MMAC1 gene in primary oesophageal squamous cell carcinomas.

AIM: To investigate whether PTEN/MMAC1 mutations play a role in the carcinogenesis of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma. METHODS: A panel of 33 primary oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma tumour samples and 20 corresponding morphologically normal tissues was examined for mutations in all nine exons of the PTEN/MMAC1 gene by means of polymerase chain reaction single strand conformational polymorphism analysis (PCR-SSCP) and direct DNA sequencing methods. RESULTS: Only one of 33 oesophageal squamous cell carcinomas showed an aberrant SSCP band. Further sequencing analysis of this sample revealed an 802 -29 T-->C substitution in intron 7. PTEN/MMAC1 mutations were not found in the mutational "hot spot" in exon 5, even after direct sequencing of six oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma samples and three normal tissues. However, a deletion of one nucleotide T at position 492 +8 in intron 5 was seen in all samples. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that PTEN/MMAC1 mutations do not play a major role in the carcinogenesis of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma.