HYPOMETHYLATION OF DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID IN TESTICULAR TISSUE DUE TO ARSENIC EXPOSURE IN MICE

ABSTRACTObjective: Among various environmental carcinogens, arsenic is highly sensitive and possesses potential to cause several diseases including cancer.Nevertheless, arsenic has not been observed to induce mutation directly but is involved in epigenetic changes. Hypomethylation of oncogenes andhypermethylation of tumor suppressor genes are reported to be associated with accumulation of arsenic. The present investigation demonstrates adirect correlation arsenic and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) methylation.Methods: Swiss albino mice were grouped as control and arsenic treated for 12 weeks. Arsenic concentration in blood and testes was analyzed byatomic absorption spectrometer. Furthermore, DNA was extracted from the testes of mice by DNA purification kit and used for determining globalmethylation in mice genome with the help of MethylFlash Methylated DNA Quantification Kit.Results: Arsenic concentration in arsenic-treated mice was significantly higher than the control group in both blood and testes. Interestingly, arsenicconcentration in blood was recorded to be higher than testes in the arsenic-treated group with significance (p<0.0001). Moreover, a lower percentageof cytosine of mice genome was found to be methylated in arsenic-treated mice group than control group (p<0.0001).Conclusion: Greater concentration of arsenic in mice leads to hypomethylation of mice genome globally. Arsenic fosters deregulation of geneexpression by modifying methylation of CpG island of the promoter region. Epigenetic study is of prime importance in the field of oncology. Drugdevelopment for repressing alteration of DNA methylation is imperative for cancer treatment.Keywords: Arsenic, Cancer, Deoxyribonucleic acid, Methylation, Carcinogen

Public awareness lectures at hospital complex of AIIMS Bhubaneswar: Bridging the gap between people and healthcare professionals

Health communication forms an important link in a doctor patient relationship. Public health awareness lectures are organised across the world to disseminate key messages related to health and to improve the doctor patient interaction. With a plethora of information in this age of social media, which are many a time incomplete and erroneous, it is all the more important that people get the right information based on scientific evidence. In this article we intend to describe our experience of public awareness lectures held at AIIMS Bhubaneswar over the last one year

DELIBERATE SELF-POISONING IN SOUTH ODISHA: STUDY OF ITS CLINICAL PROFILE AND OUTCOME

Objective: Deliberate self-poisoning is a serious global issue that contributes to significant morbidity and mortality all over the world. The present study was conducted with an objective to identify the common agents used for self-poisoning prevalent in South Odisha and to determine the common clinical features and outcome of such cases. Methods: This cross-sectional observational study was conducted on 200 patients with deliberate self-poisoning belonging to the age group of 15–70 years over a period of 2 years from August 2017 to September 2019 in Maharaja Krishna Chandra Gajapati Medical College and Hospital, Berhampur, Odisha, India. All the above-mentioned patients admitted to the hospital, were treated with specific antidotes according to the poison ingested. Results were analyzed using appropriate standard statistical methods such as mean, standard deviation, and percentage. Results: Out of 200 patients, majority were female (65%, n=130) and 35% (n=70) were male; mean age was 38.9 (±16.8) years. Organophosphates, aluminum phosphide, glyphosate, organochlorines, and carbamates were the most common pesticides used as poisoning agents (74.5%, n=149) followed by plant poisons (7%, n=14) which included yellow oleander seed. Overall mortality in our study was 12.5%. Conclusion: Pesticides and plant poisons were the common agents used in our study for deliberate self-poisoning. Young persons, illiterates, and housewives were commonly involved in suicide attempts. Organophosphate caused majority of deaths

Study of cutting force and tool wear during turning of aluminium with WC, PCD and HFCVD coated MCD tools

Enormous developmental work has been made in synthesis of metastable diamond by hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) method. In this paper, micro-crystalline diamond (MCD) was deposited on WC–6 wt.% Co cutting tool inserts by HFCVD technique. The MCD coated tool was characterized by the scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and micro Raman spectroscopy (μ-RS). A comparison was made among the MCD tool, uncoated tungsten carbide (WC) tool and polycrystalline diamond (PCD) tool during the dry turning of rolled aluminum. The various major tests were conducted such as surface roughness, cutting force and tool wear, which were taken into consideration to establish a proper comparison among the advanced cutting tools. Surface roughness was measured during machining by Talysurf. The tool wear was studied by SEM after machining. The cutting forces were measured by Kistler 3D-dynamometer during the machining process. The test results indicate that, the CVD coated MCD tool and PCD tool produced almost similar results. But, the price of PCD tools are five times costlier than MCD tools. So, MCD tool would be a better alternative for machining of aluminium