EVALUATION OF LIVER FUNCTION MARKERS AMONG WORKERS IN JEWELLERY UNITS

Objectives: Jewellery making unit workers are exposed to potent toxic chemicals and heavy metals during the manufacturing process. Various alloys are used during the manufacturing process of gold in which silver is used in higher concentration. The induction of metallothioneins (MTs) might occur due to the occupational exposure to heavy metals. Hence, the relationship of silver or MTs with liver function markers were investigated. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in the jewellery making units located in Coimbatore, Tamilnadu. A total of 211 participants [exposed (n = 158) and control (n = 53)] were included for the study and their liver function markers namely alanine amino transferase (ALT), aspartate amino transferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total protein, albumin, total/direct bilirubin and total cholesterol were estimated. Levels of serum silver and MTs were also assessed. Results: There were significant (p<0.05) increases of serum silver, MTs, ALT, AST, total cholesterol, total/direct bilirubin and significant (p<0.05) decrease of ALP, total protein and albumin in exposed groups compared to control group. Levels of MTs were positively correlated with ALT, AST, total cholesterol, total/direct bilirubin and were negatively correlated with albumin, total protein and ALP. Conclusion: The significant changes of liver function enzymes were observed due to the prolonged period of exposure to silver. However releases of these markers were in the normal range which might be due to the induction of MTs. The elevated levels of MT in the serum compared to control group pointed out that it might provide a cellular defense strategy against silver

STATUS OF ENZYMATIC ANTIOXIDANTS IN EYE LENS EXTRACTED FROM CATARACTOUS SUBJECTS

Objectives: Cataract is a common kind of blindness prevailing in India. Eye lens is normally exposed to toxic elements of the surroundings, leading to the formation of free radicals. In normal conditions, the presence of antioxidants may help to counteract the progression of free radical formation in an eye lens. Hence, it was requisite to assess the activities of enzymatic antioxidants in the eye lens extracted from cataractous subjects.Methods: The cataractous lens samples of 120 subjects were collected from the ophthalmic centres in and around Coimbatore. The subjects were categorised into apparently normal cataract men (ACM), apparently normal cataract women (ACW), diabetic cataract men (DCM), diabetic cataract women (DCW), hypertensive cataract men (HCM) and hypertensive cataract women (HCW) with each group consisting of 20 samples. Activities of enzymatic antioxidants namely superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase (GR), glutathione-S-transferase (GST) were assessed in the cataractous lens samples from the selected subjects. Data was interpreted using SPSS 16.0 software package.Results: The activities of SOD and CAT were found to be significantly decreased (p<0.05) in all the five groups when compared to apparently normal cataract men. Enzymes of glutathione system exhibited a significant variation (p<0.05) in their activity in the cataractous eye lens extracted from diabetic and hypertensive cataract women in comparison to apparently normal cataract men. A significant decrease (p<0.05) in the activities of GR and GST was also observed in the cataractous eye lens extracted from diabetic and hypertensive cataract men when compared to the subjects of ACM group. Conclusion: The outcome of the study suggested that cataractous subjects with clinical complications were much disposed to the reactive oxygen species and more affected than the apparently normal cataractous subjects. Â

Free Radical Scavenging Activity of Metallothioneins from Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes of Gold Jewellery Karigars

Abstract Metallothioneins (MT

Controlled Release of Octreotide and Assessment of Peptide Acylation from Poly(D,L-lactide-co-hydroxymethyl glycolide) Compared to PLGA Microspheres

# The Author(s) 2011. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Purpose To investigate the in vitro release of octreotide acetate, a somatostatin agonist, from microspheres based on a hydrophilic polyester, poly(D,L-lactide-co-hydroxymethyl glycolide) (PLHMGA). Methods Spherical and non-porous octreotide-loaded PLHMGA microspheres (12 to 16 μm) and loading efficiency of 60–70% were prepared by a solvent evaporation. Octreotide release profiles were compared with commercial PLGA formulation (Sandostatin LAR ®); possible peptide modification with lactic, glycolic and hydroxymethyl glycolic acid units was monitored. Results PLHMGA microspheres showed burst release (~20%) followed by sustained release for 20–60 days, depending on the hydrophilicity of the polymer. Percentage of released loaded peptide was high (70–90%);>60 % of released peptide was native octreotide. PLGA microspheres did not show peptide release for the first 10 days, after which it was released in a sustained manner over the next 90 days;>75 % of released peptides were acylated adducts. Conclusions PLHMGA microspheres are promising controlled systems for peptides with excellent control over release kinetics. Moreover, substantially less peptide modification occurred in PLHMGA than in PLGA microspheres. KEY WORDS acylation. aliphatic polyester. controlle

P A RESULTS ON DOMINATION NUMBER AND BONDAGE NUMBER FOR SOME FAMILIES OF GRAPHS

Abstract: Let G = (V, E) be a simple graph on the vertex set V . In a graph G, A set S ⊆ V is a dominating set of G if every vertex in V S is adjacent to some vertex in S. The domination number of a graph Gγ(G)] is the minimum size of a dominating set of vertices in G. The bondage number of a graph G[Bdγ(G)] is the cardinality of a smallest set of edges whose removal results in a graph with domination number larger than that of G. In this paper we establish domination number and the bondage number for some families of graphs

Biochemical profile of gin women laborers in Tirupur

Ginning factories discharge large amounts of cotton dusts that lead to decreased pulmonary function in the exposed subjects. An attempt was made to study the biochemical profile of women laborers employed in ginning factory located in Tirupur, a textile based city in Coimbatore district of Tamilnadu, India. The blood parameters that were analyzed were hemoglobin, total and differential count of leucocytes, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), total proteins, immunoglobulins, total and isozymic content of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and histamine. Student's ‘t’ test was carried out to compare the results with the control women. Correlation analysis was done between/within the biochemical parameters and also between the pulmonary function parameters results reported earlier by Jannet and Jeyanthi. Significant changes in the levels of hemoglobin, ESR, immunoglobins and histamine were reported in this study. Correlation studies between the pulmonary function parameters and biochemical parameters revealed significant negative correlation of FVC, FEV1 and PEF with ESR (P <0.05). There was also positive correlation between immunoglobin G and histamine. A significant negative correlation was observed between LDH1 and LDH3 and between albumin and γ globulin. The study suggested that the ginning factory women laborers exhibited significant changes in the levels of certain biochemical parameters apart from the pulmonary functional changes

Coincidence and common fixed point of F-contractions via CLRSTCLR_{ST} property

The aim of this paper is to establish the existence of coincidence and common fixed point of F-contractions via CLRST property. Our results generalize, extend and improve the results of Wardowski [D. Wardowski, Fixed points of a new type of contractive mappings in complete metric spaces, Fixed Point Theory and Applications (2012) 2012:94, 6 pages, doi: 10.1186/1687-1812-2012-94], Batra et al. [Coincidence Point Theorem for a New Type of Contraction on Metric Spaces, Int. Journal of Math. Analysis, Vol. 8(27) 2014, 1315-1320] and others existing in literature. Examples are also given in support of our results

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