STATUS OF SERUM MAGNESIUM, ZINC & COPPER IN PATIENTS SUFFERING FROM TYPE -2 DIABETES MELLITUS

Alterations in serum concentrations of several trace elements including copper, zinc, manganese, and the macroelement magnesium have been reported to occur in type-2 diabetes mellitus. This study is done to evaluate copper, zinc and magnesium status in diabetic and nondiabetic human subjects. In this comparative analysis, the serum concentration of copper, zinc and magnesium was estimated in 60 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus without complication and 40 healthy non-diabetic subjects.  The data was analyzed by students’t’ test and Pearson’s correlation coefficient test.Mean serum concentration of copper was significantly elevated in diabetic patients compared to control subjects.  Serum zinc levels were significantly low (p < 0.001) in diabetic subjects compared to controls . There were no significant differences in serum magnesium between groups. Fasting plasma glucose level has significant positive correlation with serum level of copper (r = 0.567; p < 0.001), while zinc has negative correlation (r = -0.311; p < 0.047), but there is no significant correlation of plasma glucose level with serum magnesium level. Diabetic patients have signiï¬cantly lower mean serum zinc levels and significantly higher serum copper concentration compared with healthy controls respectively. Along with antidiabetic therapy, supplementation of zinc and magnesium and chelation of copper can red

ISSN 2347-954X (Print) Study of Liver Enzymes Especially Lactate Dehydrogenase to Predict Foetal Outcome in Pregnancy Induced Hypertension

Abstract: The activity of liver enzymes, namely ALT, AST and LDH was evaluated in 68 cases of Pregnancy induced hypertension along with 56 normal primiparous subjects. The activity of all 3 enzymes were found to be elevated significantly in subjects with Pregnancy induced hypertension with respect to control subjects. Fetal birth weight was found to be significantly decreased in former condition and correlated significantly with the change in liver enzyme activity. The correlation was most in case of LDH activity (Pearson Correlation Coefficient = -0.74, p <.0001). Conditions like APGAR score below 7 at 1 and 5 minute after birth, fetal asphyxia, Intrauterine death were considered as bad fetal outcome. The accuracy of maternal liver enzyme to predict the bad foetal outcome was done by Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. In this case also, LDH activity gave better result (Area under curve: 0.89) than other 2 enzymes (Area under curve 0.80 & 0.74 for ALT & AST respectively). The cut off value for LDH to predict bad fetal outcome was found to be 550 IU/L. Keywords: Pregnancy induced hypertension, bad foetal outcome, Lactate Dehydrogenase INTRODUCTION Pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH) is a global problem with a 5-15% incidence rate in India and complicating 10-17 % of all pregnancie

The early diversification of influenza A/H1N1pdm

Background Since its initial detection in April 2009, the A/H1N1pdm influenza virus has spread rapidly in humans, with over 5,700 human deaths. However, little is known about the evolutionary dynamics of H1N1pdm and its geographic and temporal diversification

Steady expression of high oleic acid in peanut bred by marker-assisted backcrossing for fatty acid desaturase mutant alleles and its effect on seed germination along with other seedling traits.

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important nutrient-rich food legume and valued for its good quality cooking oil. The fatty acid content is the major determinant of the quality of the edible oil. The oils containing higher monounsaturated fatty acid are preferred for improved shelf life and potential health benefits. Therefore, a high oleic/linoleic fatty acid ratio is the target trait in an advanced breeding program. The two mutant alleles, ahFAD2A (on linkage group a09) and ahFAD2B (on linkage group b09) control fatty acid composition for higher oleic/linoleic ratio in peanut. In the present study, marker-assisted backcrossing was employed for the introgression of two FAD2 mutant alleles from SunOleic95R into the chromosome of ICGV06100, a high oil content peanut breeding line. In the marker-assisted backcrossing-introgression lines, a 97% increase in oleic acid, and a 92% reduction in linoleic acid content was observed in comparison to the recurrent parent. Besides, the oleic/linoleic ratio was increased to 25 with respect to the recurrent parent, which was only 1.2. The most significant outcome was the stable expression of oil-content, oleic acid, linoleic acid, and palmitic acid in the marker-assisted backcrossing-introgression lines over the locations. No significant difference was observed between high oleic and normal oleic in peanuts for seedling traits except germination percentage. In addition, marker-assisted backcrossing-introgression lines exhibited higher yield and resistance to foliar fungal diseases, i.e., late leaf spot and rust