STUDY OF ELECTROLYTES AND LIVER FUNCTION TESTS IN CHRONIC ALCOHOLISM

Objective: Alcohol abuse is considered one of the major health issue in India, which can impair the electrolyte balance in chronic patient of alcoholism. In the present study, investigation has been conducted to estimate the levels of calcium, magnesium, SGOT, SGPT, total protein and urea in the chronic alcoholic patients and their comparison was determined with normal healthy controls.Methods: A total of 50 male alcoholics consuming variable amount of alcohol from more than past 5 years in the age frame of 30–70 years were taken. Equal number of age-matched normal healthy individuals without the family history of any disease served as controls. Levels of magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), and other biochemicals, namely urea and total protein, transaminases, namely serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase and serum glutamate pyruvic transaminase were estimated colorimetrically in all the subjects consuming variable amount of alcohol.Results: Alcoholics were found to have lower magnesium, calcium, and total protein levels as compared to non-alcoholics, whereas transaminases were higher in alcoholics, predicting hepatocytes injury. Catalytic activity of alcohol dehydrogenase produced highly reactive acetaldehyde forming adducts with membrane proteins, leading to organ damage. Alcohol disturbed the electrolytes balance produced hypomagnesia and hypocalcemia and severely affected liver function tests.Conclusion: Magnesium levels and other related parameters could be considered as diagnostic predictors of alcohol-related toxicity. Age advances the alcohol-related health consequences, and this could be due to the cumulative effect of reduced intestinal absorption, dietary deficiencies, and alcohol toxicity

Clear-Cell Carcinoma of the Ovary with Bilateral Breast Metastases

Ovarian clear-cell carcinoma is an uncommon subtype of epithelial ovarian carcinoma. It carries a generally poor prognosis because of its resistance to standard treatment and metastatic spread to vital organs. Metastasis to the breast is rare and bilateral breast metastasis is unreported. A 61-year-old white female with a 5-year status poststandard therapy for stage IC clear-cell ovarian carcinoma presented with widespread metastasis. Tissue analysis revealed ovarian cancer metastasis to the breasts bilaterally. Clinical awareness of this metastatic potential is important when staging and developing a treatment plan for patients with ovarian clear-cell cancer

Identification of stably expressed Internal Control Genes (ICGs) for normalization of expression data in liver of C57BL/6 mice injected with beta casomorphins.

In recent years, beta-casomorphin peptides (BCM7/BCM9) derived from the digestion of cow milk have drawn a lot of attention world over because of their proposed impact on human health. In order to evaluate the transcriptional modulation of target genes through RT-qPCR in response to these peptides, availability of appropriate reference or internal control genes (ICGs) will be the key. The present study was planned to identify a panel of stable ICGs in the liver tissue of C57BL/6 mice injected with BCM7/BCM9 cow milk peptides for 3 weeks. A total of ten candidate genes were evaluated as potential ICGs by assessing their expression stability using software suites; geNorm, NormFinder and BestKeeper. The suitability of the identified ICGs was validated by assessing the relative expression levels of target genes, HP and Cu/Zn SOD. Based on geNorm, PPIA and SDHA gene pair was identified to be most stably expressed in liver tissue during the animal trials. Similarly, NormFinder analysis also identified PPIA as the most stable gene. BestKeeper analysis showed crossing point SD value for all the genes in the acceptable range that is closer to 1. Overall, the study identified a panel of stable ICGs for reliable normalization of target genes expression data in mice liver tissues during BCM7/9 peptides trial