Trends in hepatitis B virus infection among blood donors in Kelantan, Malaysia: a retrospective study

The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and trends in hepatitis B infection among blood donors attending the Transfusion Medicine Unit at the Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kelantan, Malaysia. A retrospective study was carried out by reviewing the results of HBsAg among blood donors for the years 2000 to 2004. During this period, 44,658 blood donors were studied. We noted that there was a significant difference in the prevalence of hepatitis B infection between regular and first time donors. There was also a decreasing trend noticed in both study groups. The mean prevalence was significantly different between first time (1.83%) and regular donors (0.45%) (p < 0.005). There is a need to improve public awareness programs to lower the incidence of hepatitis B infection in the general population and consequently first time blood donors. Future studies are also required to determine the trends and outcomes of these programs.     

Association of cyclin D1 gene polymorphisms with risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in Kashmir Valley: a high risk area

Investigation of potential association of SNPs (G870A, rs9344; G1722C, rs678653) of cyclin D1 gene (CCND1) with susceptibility to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in Kashmir valley (India). The study included 302 subjects comprising 151 ESCC cases and 151 controls. PCR‐RFLP and direct sequencing were employed for genotyping. The G870A polymorphism, the individuals carrying GA + AA genotype was having 2.80‐fold increased risk for development of ESCC (OR 2.8, 95% CI = 1.77–4.4; P = 0.0001) compared to GG genotype. Further a significantly higher risk was observed in individuals who consume >3 cups per day of salted tea (OR = 5.1; 95% CI = 1.6–16.7; P = 0.0016) and had smoking habits (OR = 6.3; 95% CI = 2.9–13.9; P = 0.0005). We also demonstrate for the first time in CCND1 1722 locus, the CC genotype was strongly associated with increased risk of developing ESCC (OR = 2.58; 95% CI = 1.61–4.15; P = 0.0001). In addition, the frequency of polymorphic C allele was also found to be higher in cases (OR = 1.92; 95% CI = 1.37–2.69; P = 0.0002). There appears to be an influence of CCND1 G870A/G1772C genotypes on genetic susceptibility to ESCC. Mol. Carcinog. ©2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Oral administration of live Bifidobacterium substrains isolated from healthy centenarians enhanced immune function in BALB/c mice

Generally, there is an age-related decline in the human gut titer of Bifidobacterium species, but the titer in healthy centenarians was previously reported to be comparable to that found in much younger people. We addressed whether elevated Bifidobacterium titers relate positively to immune function. This study evaluated the immunoactivities of 2 Bifidobacterium strains (B adolescentis BBMN23 and B longum BBMN68) isolated from healthy centenarians in China. Different dosages (2 × 10¹¹, 2 × 10⁹, or 2 × 10⁷ colony-forming units [CFU]/kg body weight) of live bifidobacteria were orally administered once per day to healthy BALB/c mice, and the control group was given sterile skim milk every day. After 4 weeks, the immune parameters including cellular immunity (delayed-type hypersensitivity [DTH], and splenic lymphocyte proliferation), humoral immunity (serum hemolytic activity in immunized animals), and nonspecific immunity (peritoneal macrophages phagocytsis natural killer [NK] cell activity) were measured. We report that both Bifidobacterium strains independently increased the DTH response. Macrophage phagocytosis was also enhanced, while activities of the NK cells and levels of the serum hemolysin also were significantly higher than in the control group. There was a significant increase in splenic lymphocyte proliferation in bifidobacteria treatment animals compared to controls. In conclusion, ingestion of B. adolescentis BBMN23 and B. longum BBMN68 can enhance both innate and acquired immunity in healthy specific pathogen-free (SPF) mice and strains of bifidobacteria from healthy centenarians in Bama longevity villages in China may possess potentially valuable immunomodulatory properties.