Association between AgNORs and Immunohistochemical Expression of ER, PR, HER2/neu, and p53 in Breast Carcinoma

Settings. Despite the limited diagnostic utility of AgNORs (argyrophilic nucleolar organiser region-associated proteins) for individual breast lesions, AgNOR analysis bears a significant potential for characterizing cell proliferative activity of breast lesions. Methodology. The present study investigated the relationship between mean AgNORs count and immunohistochemical expression of ER, PR, HER2/neu, and p53 in breast carcinoma in serial paraffin sections from 137 breast carcinomas. Twenty control cases of benign breast lesions were included. Results. Mean AgNOR counts correlated significantly inversely with hormone estrogen receptors (ER), Progesterone receptors (PR), and p53 immunohistochemical expression, denoting P values of 0.05, 0.01, and 0.001, respectively. No significant correlation was found between mean AgNOR counts and HER2/neu, P = 0.9. Mean AgNOR count was significantly higher in grade II tumor cells. We conclude that mean AgNOR counts correlate with ER, PR, and P53 tumor markers in breast carcinomas. Conclusion. We recommend the use of mean AgNOR count for accurate reporting of breast carcinomas, as well as prediction of ER, PR, and P53 in routine paraffin sections

MOESM1 of Progesterone ameliorates diabetic nephropathy in streptozotocin-induced diabetic Rats

Additional file 2: Figure S1. Body weight changes in the control and the diabetic rats. After 10 weeks of diabetes, all diabetic groups showed a significant decrease in body weight as compared with the ND group. Data represent the mean Âą SEM.*P < 0.05 compared to the ND group

MOESM2 of Progesterone ameliorates diabetic nephropathy in streptozotocin-induced diabetic Rats

Additional file 1: Table S1.S equences of primers used for quantitative real time RT-PCR

Prevalence of Obesity in Hail Region, KSA: In a Comprehensive Survey

Background. Obesity contributes significantly to morbidity and mortality rates worldwide. We, therefore, aimed to provide epidemiological data on the prevalence of obesity in Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Methodology. Data were collected during cross-sectional survey which included 5000 Saudi selected from 30 primary health care centers (PHCs) in Hail Region. Results. The overall prevalence of obesity in Hail was 63.6%. Moreover, the prevalence of males was 56.2% and the prevalence of females was 71%. Conclusion. Obesity is prevalent in the Hail Region which necessitates urgent interventions including health education

An Approach for Systems-Level Understanding of Prostate Cancer from High-Throughput Data Integration to Pathway Modeling and Simulation

To understand complex diseases, high-throughput data are generated at large and multiple levels. However, extracting meaningful information from large datasets for comprehensive understanding of cell phenotypes and disease pathophysiology remains a major challenge. Despite tremendous advances in understanding molecular mechanisms of cancer and its progression, current knowledge appears discrete and fragmented. In order to render this wealth of data more integrated and thus informative, we have developed a GECIP toolbox to investigate the crosstalk and the responsible genes’/proteins’ connectivity of enriched pathways from gene expression data. To implement this toolbox, we used mainly gene expression datasets of prostate cancer, and the three datasets were GSE17951, GSE8218, and GSE1431. The raw samples were processed for normalization, prediction of differentially expressed genes, and the prediction of enriched pathways for the differentially expressed genes. The enriched pathways have been processed for crosstalk degree calculations for which number connections per gene, the frequency of genes in the pathways, sharing frequency, and the connectivity have been used. For network prediction, protein–protein interaction network database FunCoup2.0 was used, and cytoscape software was used for the network visualization. In our results, we found that there were enriched pathways 27, 45, and 22 for GSE17951, GSE8218, and GSE1431, respectively, and 11 pathways in common between all of them. From the crosstalk results, we observe that focal adhesion and PI3K pathways, both experimentally proven central for cellular output upon perturbation of numerous individual/distinct signaling pathways, displayed highest crosstalk degree. Moreover, we also observe that there were more critical pathways which appear to be highly significant, and these pathways are HIF1a, hippo, AMPK, and Ras. In terms of the pathways’ components, GSK3B, YWHAE, HIF1A, ATP1A3, and PRKCA are shared between the aforementioned pathways and have higher connectivity with the pathways and the other pathway components. Finally, we conclude that the focal adhesion and PI3K pathways are the most critical pathways, and since for many other pathways, high-rank enrichment did not translate to high crosstalk degree, the global impact of one pathway on others appears distinct from enrichment

STUDIU PRIVITOR LA FACTORII DE RISC POTENȚIALI PENTRU SUSCEPTIBILITATEA DE INSUFICIENȚĂ RENALĂ CRONICĂ, ÎN REGIUNEA HAIL, REGATUL ARABIEI SAUDITE

BACKGROUND: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide health alarm that is rising for the most part of the world as the result of increasing incidences of diabetes, hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, the aim of this pilot study was to provide data about risk factors for CKD in Hail region, KSA to plan for a comprehensive survey in the area.METHODS: A survey was performed, employing household visits, covered 300 individuals, selected from two areas in Hail region to fulfill the planned sample for this pilot setting. A questionnaire was used to obtained information about CKD risk factors. Results: High percentages of risk factors were indicated in a family history (FH) of DM representing 72%, followed by family history of hypertension, recurrent urinary tract infection, DM, family history of renal disease, hypertension, and analgesic abuse, constituting 65%, 59%, 26%,26%, 25%, and 22%, respectively. Conclusion: This study shows increased risk factors for CKD in Hail area. There is an urgent need for more detailed measurement for these risk factors through a comprehensive survey to evaluate individuals with risk factors, to enable earlier detection, and risk factor reduction through rising of awareness. CONTEXT: Insuficiența renală cronică (IRC) constituie&nbsp; o alarmă de sănătate la nivel mondial, care este &icirc;n creștere, &icirc;n cea mai mare parte a lumii, ca rezultat al incidenţei crescute a cazurilor de diabet zaharat, hipertensiune arterială și alte boli cardiovasculare. Prin urmare, scopul acestui studiu pilot a fost de a furniza date cu privire la factorii de risc pentru IRC din regiunea Hail, Regatul Arabiei Saudite, pentru&nbsp; planificarea unui studiu cuprinzător &icirc;n zona.METODE: Studiul a fost efectuat folosind vizitele &icirc;n gospodării, acoperind 300 de persoane selectate din două zone din regiunea Hail, pentru a completa eşantionul planificat pentru această testare pilot. A fost utilizat un chestionar pentru obținerea de informații cu privire la factorii de risc ai IRC.REZULTATE: Un procent ridicat de factori de risc au fost identificaţi &icirc;ntr-un istoric familial (IF) de DZ, reprezent&acirc;nd 72%, urmat de antecedente familiale de hipertensiune arterială, infecții recurente ale tractului urinar, DZ, antecedente familiale de boli renale, hipertensiune arterială, și abuz de analgezice, constituind 65 %,&nbsp; 59%,&nbsp; 26%, 2 6%,&nbsp; 25%, și respectiv 22%.CONCLUZIE: Acest studiu identifică factorii de risc crescut pentru IRC &icirc;n zona Hail. Este o nevoie urgentă de măsurare mai detaliată a acestor factori de risc printr-un studiu cuprinzător pentru a evalua persoanele cu factori de risc, pentru a permite depistarea din timp, și reducerea factorilor de risc, prin creșterea gradului de conștientizare.&nbsp;Cuvinte cheie: boala cronică de rinichi, hipertensiune arterială, diabet zaharat, Hail

Reticulocyte Hemoglobin-Equivalent Potentially Detects, Diagnoses and Discriminates between Stages of Iron Deficiency with High Sensitivity and Specificity

Background: Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is a global health problem affecting the quality of life of more than 2 billion individuals. The current practice guidelines diagnose and monitor IDA via conventional hematological and iron biomarkers, which take several months before they are corrected under an iron-treatment plan. Reticulocyte hemoglobin equivalent (Ret-He) is used as a marker in most new hematology analyzers to assess iron incorporation into erythrocyte hemoglobin directly. This study aims to examine the efficacy of Ret-He as a marker for iron deficiency (ID) and IDA and investigate whether Ret-He is sensitive to iron therapy. Methods: Two blood samples were drawn from 182 participants for CBC and iron profile measurements. Follow-up samples were drawn from participants with a confirmed diagnosis of ID and/or IDA. Results: Ret-He levels were lower in the ID and IDA groups compared to the control (p &lt; 0.0001), and lower in the IDA group compared to the ID group (p &lt; 0.0001). Ret-He was correlated with ferritin at ID level (&lt;30.0 mg/mL; r = 0.39) and severe IDA (&lt;13.0 ng/mL; p-value &lt; 0.01, r = 0.57). Cut-off values of &lt;28.25 pg for ID and &lt;21.55 pg for IDA showed a higher specificity and sensitivity (ID; AUC: 0.99, sensitivity: 92.73%, specificity: 97.87%) and (IDA; AUC: 0.94, sensitivity: 90.63%, specificity: 92.31%). Finally, Ret-He successfully reflected the iron therapy (p &lt; 0.001) when compared to hemoglobin (Hb) (p = 0.1). Conclusions: Ret-He is a potential marker for detecting and diagnosing different stages of ID with high validity and is very sensitive in reflecting the iron incorporation in a short time

Rho-GTPase activating-protein 18: a biomarker associated with good prognosis in invasive breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: The prognostic value of lymphovascular invasion (LVI) in breast cancer (BC) has been demonstrated in several independent studies. However, identification of driver molecules for LVI remains a challenging task. Large-scale transcriptomic profiling of histologically validated LVI can potentially identify genes that regulate LVI. METHODS: Integrative bio-informatics analyses of the METABRIC study were performed utilising a subset of strictly defined LVI using histological and immunohistochemical (IHC) criteria. ARHGAP18 was among the top differentially expressed genes between LVI+ and LVI- BC with a 1.8-fold change. The prognostic impact of ARHGAP18 gene expression was assessed in the METABRIC data set (n=1980) and externally validated using the online BC gene expression data sets utilising bc-GenExMiner v4.0 (n=2016). Subsequently, ARHGAP18 protein expression was assessed on a large cohort of invasive BC (n=959) with long-term follow-up using IHC. RESULTS: Pooled analysis of ARHGAP18 mRNA expression showed that overexpression was associated with better outcome (P<0.001, hazard ratio (HR)=0.82, 95% CI 0.75-0.90). ARHGAP18 protein was expressed in the cytoplasm and nuclei of the tumour cells and its expression was positively associated with good prognostic variables. Lack of cytoplasmic expression showed associations with LVI (P=0.006), epithelial-mesenchymal transition and the HER+ subtype (P=0.01). Loss of nuclear expression was associated with higher grade, HER2+ and high Ki67LI (P=0.001). Cytoplasmic and nuclear expression showed a positive association with improved survival independent of other variables (P=0.01, HR=0.74, 95% CI 0.60-87). CONCLUSIONS: ARHGAP18 expression at transcriptomic and protein levels is associated with improved patients' outcomes whose deregulation may play a role in tumour progression and the development of LVI in BC. Further assessment of its potential therapeutic value in BC is warranted