Ultrastructure of Spermatozoa from Infertility Patients

Standard examination of human semen currently remains a main test for examination of male fertility disorders. Although parameters of sperm quality in fertile men are generally higher than in sterile ones, there is a substantial overlap between the two populations, indicating that other important factors affect fertility, but are not assessed in conventional assay. Currently, tests determining the functional properties of sperm have been intensively developed. This review considers an electron microscopic examination of sperm, which assesses the structure and function of the sperm nuclear, penetration and motor apparatus. The detection of sperm chromatin structure can help to understand the causes of early embryonic malformation. Genetically caused and functional disorders of the structure and function of spermatozoa are discussed. Indications for electron microscopic examination of spermatozoa in fertility disorders are given

Valuable and professional orientations as a social and psychological resource of development of a modern worker

The relevance of the researched problem is caused by the fact that at present there is the sharpest shortage of highly skilled personnel at the Russian enterprises and, therefore, studying of features of valuable and professional orientations of representatives of working professions is of special interest. The purpose of the article consists in the reasons for valuable and professional orientations as predictors of psychological recourses development of social professional qualification, and also development of effective means of its forming among modern workers. The leading method of the research of this problem is the testing method that makes possible to reveal psychological features of valuable and professional orientations of workers of iron and steel enterprises. The resource model of self-control of activities of the worker is provided in the article; and also it is proved that there is the need for development of the program of forming and development of valuable and professional orientations of workers as highly skilled personnel. Materials of the article can be useful to psychological practice in case of professional consultation, individual consultation, and also during the work on forming of metaprofessional qualities of specialists of working professions. © 2016 Zeer and Bragina

Laser-induced generation of singlet oxygen and its role in the cerebrovascular physiology

For over 55 years, laser technology has expanded from laboratory research to widespread fields, for example telecommunication and data storage amongst others. Recently application of lasers in biology and medicine presents itself as one of the emerging areas. In this review, we will outline the recent advances in using lasers for the generation of singlet oxygen, traditionally used to kill tumour cells or induce thrombotic stroke model due to damage vascular effects. Over the last two decade, completely new results on cerebrovascular effects of singlet oxygen generated during photodynamic therapy (PDT) have been shown alongside promising applications for delivery of drugs and nanoparticles into the brain for therapy of brain cancer. Furthermore, a "gold key” has been found to overcome the limitations of PDT, such as low light penetration and high toxicity of photosensitizers, by direct generation of singlet oxygen using quantum-dot laser diodes emitting in the near infrared (NIR) spectral range. It is our motivation to highlight these pioneering results in this review, to improve understanding of the biological role of singlet oxygen and to provide new perspectives for improving clinical application of laser based therapy in further research

Expression studies of tuberculosis susceptibility genes

The activating research interest in the problem of tuberculosis development is due to the increase in cases of drug resistance, coinfection with HIV and hepatitis, and the lack of an effective vaccine. However, the pathogenesis of tuberculosis remains insufficiently studied at present. A significant role is assigned to hereditary factors, as the majority of those infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis remain resistant to tuberculosis, and only in 5—15% of cases does infection lead to the development of the disease. Despite a long history of research of genetic factors of susceptibility to tuberculosis infection — from the search for monogenic forms of immune dysfunction, associations of individual tuberculosis susceptibility genes, to the analysis of genome-wide associative studies and the assessment of the characteristics of the transcriptional profiles of patients, — the problem of obtaining clinically significant results for the identification and monitoring of risk groups remains particularly acute. The search of differentially expressed genes in groups with different status of the disease (non-infected, latent tuberculosis infection, presymptomatic state, active tuberculosis, recovery from tuberculosis, non-tuberculosis infection) led to identification of a large number of data which is not overlapped in different compared groups, different ethnic groups, in the studies of the whole blood and cellular models. Merging this wealth of data followed by its reanalysis helps to verify and update results. However, there still is a large number of questions concerning our understanding of the functioning of the human organism under the influence of M. tuberculosis. In recent years, new approaches have been used to develop test systems for the diagnosis of various forms of the disease. The review considers up to date results of expression studies of susceptibility to tuberculosis, namely, objects and approaches of research changing over time, forms of the host response to the mycobacteria infection studied, the influence of different factors on the results

Chronic kidney disease as a multidisciplinary problem of contemporary medicine

A review deals with the problem of chronic kidney disease (CKD) from the position of a physician and cardiologist. The epidemiology of the disease was discussed both abroad and in Russia, including the most up-to-date data. In Russia CKD markers were detected in 49.4% of hypertensives. Authors describe risk factors and mechanisms of CKD at the most important pathogenetic conditions: hypertension, diabetes and obesity. The current classification and methods for calculating the glomerular filtration rate are given. The review disclose a paradigm of the renal continuum and its relation to cardiovascular diseases. It is well known fact that the final causes of the death of patients with CKD, as a rule, are cardiovascular complications. Based on the literature data, the necessity and expediency of screening for renal dysfunction is justified. In the example of use of an angiotensin receptor blocker II - irbesartan nephroprotective demonstrated possibilities of intervention in patients with renal dysfunction of varying severity

Genetic outline of the hermeneutics of the diseases connection phenomenon in human

The structure of diseases in humans is heterogeneous, which is manifested by various combinations of diseases, including comorbidities associated with a common pathogenetic mechanism, as well as diseases that rarely manifest together. Recently, there has been a growing interest in studying the patterns of development of not individual diseases, but entire families associated with common pathogenetic mechanisms and common genes involved in their development. Studies of this problem make it possible to isolate an essential genetic component that controls the formation of disease conglomerates in a complex way through functionally interacting modules of individual genes in gene networks. An analytical review of studies on the problems of various aspects of the combination of diseases is the purpose of this study. The review uses the metaphor of a hermeneutic circle to understand the structure of regular relationships between diseases, and provides a conceptual framework related to the study of multiple diseases in an individual. The existing terminology is considered in relation to them, including multimorbidity, polypathies, comorbidity, conglomerates, families, “second diseases”, syntropy and others. Here we summarize the key results that are extremely useful, primarily for describing the genetic architecture of diseases of a multifactorial nature. Summaries of the research problem of the disease connection phenomenon allow us to approach the systematization and natural classification of diseases. From practical healthcare perspective, the description of the disease connection phenomenon is crucial for expanding the clinician’s interpretive horizon and moving beyond narrow, disease-specific therapeutic decisions

Progress in plant genome sequencing: research directions

Since the first plant genome of Arabidopsis thaliana has been sequenced and published, genome sequencing technologies have undergone significant changes. New algorithms, sequencing technologies and bioinformatic approaches were adopted to obtain genome, transcriptome and exome sequences for model and crop species, which have permitted deep inferences into plant biology. As a result of an improved genome assembly and analysis methods, genome sequencing costs plummeted and the number of high-quality plant genome sequences is constantly growing. Consequently, more than 300 plant genome sequences have been published over the past twenty years. Although many of the published genomes are considered incomplete, they proved to be a valuable tool for identifying genes involved in the formation of economically valuable plant traits, for marker-assisted and genomic selection and for comparative analysis of plant genomes in order to determine the basic patterns of origin of various plant species. Since a high coverage and resolution of a genome sequence is not enough to detect all changes in complex samples, targeted sequencing, which consists in the isolation and sequencing of a specific region of the genome, has begun to develop. Targeted sequencing has a higher detection power (the ability to identify new differences/variants) and resolution (up to one basis). In addition, exome sequencing (the method of sequencing only protein-coding genes regions) is actively developed, which allows for the sequencing of non-expressed alleles and genes that cannot be found with RNA-seq. In this review, an analysis of sequencing technologies development and the construction of “reference” genomes of plants is performed. A comparison of the methods of targeted sequencing based on the use of the reference DNA sequence is accomplished

Genetics of «atopic march» syntropy

The study of the phenomenon of a combination of several diseases at the same time in an individual, actualized in the second half of the 19th century, is being actively analyzed 150 years later using genetic approaches. We present an overview of the results of such studies in relation to allergic diseases, in particular, a special variant, the so-called «atopic march», the sequential development of eczema, allergic rhinitis and asthma («atopic march» syntropy). The data of genetic and epidemiological studies were summarized, the analysis of genome-wide associative studies was carried out, and the role of mutations in the filaggrin gene (FLG) in the development of the «atopic march» syntropy was considered

Nuclear Medicine in Breast Cancer Diagnostics: Primary Tumor and Lymphatic Metastasis

The purpose of the study: to assess the possibility of using nuclear medicine techniques at the stages of diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Materials and Methods: The study included 290 patients with breast cancer and 70 patients with benign breast tumors. The study was used as a radiopharmaceutical 99mTc-MIBI, 199Tl for imaging tumors and colloid 99mTc-Aloteh for visualization sentinel lymph nodes (SLN), colloid was injected peritumoral in four points to 80 MBq one day prior to the planned operation. Results: The sensitivity of SPECT using both 99mTc-MIBI and 199Tl for breast cancer detection was shown to be rather high, being 98.5% and 98%, respectively. It should be noted that the sensitivity of SPECT in detection of small tumors (less than 1 cm in diameter) and multicentric tumors was not high irrespective of the radioisotope used (60% and 65% with 99mTc-MIBI and 65% and 59% with 199Tl, respectively). The difference in the sensitivity was found between 99mTc-MIBI and 199T for the detection of regional lymph node metastasis (91% vs 70%). SLN were detected in 31 patients. The most commonly SLN were defined in the axillary region of 96.7%. In 22 (70.9%) patients there was no metastasis SLN. The sensitivity of the method was 91.2%, specificity of 100%. Conclusion: The specificity of SPECT with 199Tl was higher than that with 99mTc-MIBI. The data obtained show that SPECT with 199Tl can be recommended for its use as an additional breast cancer detection method in cases when other imaging techniques and histological findings are not accurate enough. The clinical study of 99mTc-Aloteh, a new radiopharmaceutical agent, has shown that the studied colloid has high uptake level in SLN and can be successfully used for visualization of SLN in patients with breast cancer