PREVALENCE AND SEVERITY OF HAMSTRING TIGHTNESS AMONG COLLEGE STUDENT: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

Background: Flexibility is important for normal biomechanical function. Muscle tightness is caused by a decrease in the ability of the muscle to deform. Hamstring tightness leads to high risk of recurrent injury, decreases the performance in athletes, lead to post-exercise soreness and decreases coordination among athletes. Hence, the objectives of this study was to find out the prevalence and severity of the hamstring tightness among college going student. Method: In this cross sectional study 50 participants with hamstring tightness were included using purposive sampling. The tightness was measured by AKE test. Three measurement were taken and average of their reading was noted. Result: Analysis showed higher prevalence of hamstring tightness among college students. More students were affected with AKE angle between 30o-45o. Conclusion: Prevalence of hamstring tightness is very high in college going student of age group 18-25 years. Keywords: Prevalence; Active knee extension test; Hamstring Tightness severity

PREVALENCE AND SEVERITY OF HAMSTRING TIGHTNESS AMONG COLLEGE STUDENT: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

Background: Flexibility is important for normal biomechanical function. Muscle tightness is caused by a decrease in the ability of the muscle to deform. Hamstring tightness leads to high risk of recurrent injury, decreases the performance in athletes, lead to post-exercise soreness and decreases coordination among athletes. Hence, the objectives of this study was to find out the prevalence and severity of the hamstring tightness among college going student. Method: In this cross sectional study 50 participants with hamstring tightness were included using purposive sampling. The tightness was measured by AKE test. Three measurement were taken and average of their reading was noted. Result: Analysis showed higher prevalence of hamstring tightness among college students. More students were affected with AKE angle between 30o-45o. Conclusion: Prevalence of hamstring tightness is very high in college going student of age group 18-25 years. Keywords: Prevalence; Active knee extension test; Hamstring Tightness severity

Intrauterine insemination: a retrospective review on determinants of success

Background: To determine the prognostic factors such as female patient’s characteristics and of semen parameters on the pregnancy rate following intrauterine inseminationMethods: This study was done at Assisted Reproduction Centre, KLE’s Hospital and Medical Research Centre, Belgaum, India between June 2011 to May 2012. A total of 264 IUI cycles in which clomiphene citrate with or without human menopausal gonadotropin was used for ovarian stimulation were analysed retrospectively to identify prognostic factors regarding treatment outcome.Results: In this study the pregnancy rate was 17.25%. The logistic regression analysis of variables showed that number of follicles and total IUI cycles were significantly associated with success rate but age of the couple, duration of infertility, endometrial thickness, size of the follicles, sperm count and sperm motility did not show significant differences between pregnant and non pregnant women.Conclusions: The findings of this study showed that age of the couple, duration of infertility, endometrial thickness, size of the follicles, sperm count and sperm motility did not correlate with pregnancy occurrence in an IUI cycle but number of follicles and total IUI cycles correlated with the occurrence of pregnancy.

Nonlinear Maxwell modelling of inverse relaxation in yarns and fabrics

An attempt has been made to fit the derived equation on the experimental inverse relaxation curves by employing Levenberg-Marquardt’s method for nonlinear regression and calculation of the constant values involved in the equation. The relaxation curves can be classified into ordinary relaxation, mixed relaxation and inverse relaxation curves. There seems to be good concurrence between the experimental and the fitted inverse relaxation curves

Structural elements of an NRPS cyclization domain and its intermodule docking domain

Epothilones are thiazole-containing natural products with anticancer activity that are biosynthesized by polyketide synthase (PKS)-nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) enzymes EpoA–F. A cyclization domain of EpoB (Cy) assembles the thiazole functionality from an acetyl group and L-cysteine via condensation, cyclization, and dehydration. The PKS carrier protein of EpoA contributes the acetyl moiety, guided by a docking domain, whereas an NRPS EpoB carrier protein contributes L-cysteine. To visualize the structure of a cyclization domain with an accompanying docking domain, we solved a 2.03-Å resolution structure of this bidomain EpoB unit, comprising residues M1-Q497 (62 kDa) of the 160-kDa EpoB protein. We find that the N-terminal docking domain is connected to the V-shaped Cy domain by a 20-residue linker but otherwise makes no contacts to Cy. Molecular dynamic simulations and additional crystal structures reveal a high degree of flexibility for this docking domain, emphasizing the modular nature of the components of PKS-NRPS hybrid systems. These structures further reveal two 20-Å-long channels that run from distant sites on the Cy domain to the active site at the core of the enzyme, allowing two carrier proteins to dock with Cy and deliver their substrates simultaneously. Through mutagenesis and activity assays, catalytic residues N335 and D449 have been identified. Surprisingly, these residues do not map to the location of the conserved HHxxxDG motif in the structurally homologous NRPS condensation (C) domain. Thus, although both C and Cy domains have the same basic fold, their active sites appear distinct

Structural elements of an NRPS cyclization domain and its intermodule docking domain

Epothilones are thiazole-containing natural products with anticancer activity that are biosynthesized by polyketide synthase (PKS)-nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) enzymes EpoA-F. A cyclization domain of EpoB (Cy) assembles the thiazole functionality from an acetyl group and l-cysteine via condensation, cyclization, and dehydration. The PKS carrier protein of EpoA contributes the acetyl moiety, guided by a docking domain, whereas an NRPS EpoB carrier protein contributes l-cysteine. To visualize the structure of a cyclization domain with an accompanying docking domain, we solved a 2.03-A resolution structure of this bidomain EpoB unit, comprising residues M1-Q497 (62 kDa) of the 160-kDa EpoB protein. We find that the N-terminal docking domain is connected to the V-shaped Cy domain by a 20-residue linker but otherwise makes no contacts to Cy. Molecular dynamic simulations and additional crystal structures reveal a high degree of flexibility for this docking domain, emphasizing the modular nature of the components of PKS-NRPS hybrid systems. These structures further reveal two 20-A-long channels that run from distant sites on the Cy domain to the active site at the core of the enzyme, allowing two carrier proteins to dock with Cy and deliver their substrates simultaneously. Through mutagenesis and activity assays, catalytic residues N335 and D449 have been identified. Surprisingly, these residues do not map to the location of the conserved HHxxxDG motif in the structurally homologous NRPS condensation (C) domain. Thus, although both C and Cy domains have the same basic fold, their active sites appear distinct

Disruption of LTBP-4 function reduces TGF-β activation and enhances BMP-4 signaling in the lung

Disruption of latent TGF-β binding protein (LTBP)–4 expression in the mouse leads to abnormal lung development and colorectal cancer. Lung fibroblasts from these mice produced decreased amounts of active TGF-β, whereas secretion of latent TGF-β was significantly increased. Expression and secretion of TGF-β2 and -β3 increased considerably. These results suggested that TGF-β activation but not secretion would be severely impaired in LTBP-4 −/− fibroblasts. Microarrays revealed increased expression of bone morphogenic protein (BMP)–4 and decreased expression of its inhibitor gremlin. This finding was accompanied by enhanced expression of BMP-4 target genes, inhibitors of differentiation 1 and 2, and increased deposition of fibronectin-rich extracellular matrix. Accordingly, increased expression of BMP-4 and decreased expression of gremlin were observed in mouse lung. Transfection of LTBP-4 rescued the −/− fibroblast phenotype, while LTBP-1 was inefficient. Treatment with active TGF-β1 rescued BMP-4 and gremlin expression to wild-type levels. Our results indicate that the lack of LTBP-4–mediated targeting and activation of TGF-β1 leads to enhanced BMP-4 signaling in mouse lung

GLIS1 regulates trabecular meshwork function and intraocular pressure and is associated with glaucoma in humans.

Chronically elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) is the major risk factor of primary open-angle glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness. Dysfunction of the trabecular meshwork (TM), which controls the outflow of aqueous humor (AqH) from the anterior chamber, is the major cause of elevated IOP. Here, we demonstrate that mice deficient in the Krüppel-like zinc finger transcriptional factor GLI-similar-1 (GLIS1) develop chronically elevated IOP. Magnetic resonance imaging and histopathological analysis reveal that deficiency in GLIS1 expression induces progressive degeneration of the TM, leading to inefficient AqH drainage from the anterior chamber and elevated IOP. Transcriptome and cistrome analyses identified several glaucoma- and extracellular matrix-associated genes as direct transcriptional targets of GLIS1. We also identified a significant association between GLIS1 variant rs941125 and glaucoma in humans (P = 4.73 × 1

Gremlin-1 Induces BMP-Independent Tumor Cell Proliferation, Migration, and Invasion

Gremlin-1, a bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) antagonist, is overexpressed in various cancerous tissues but its role in carcinogenesis has not been established. Here, we report that gremlin-1 binds various cancer cell lines and this interaction is inhibited by our newly developed gremlin-1 antibody, GRE1. Gremlin-1 binding to cancer cells was unaffected by the presence of BMP-2, BMP-4, and BMP-7. In addition, the binding was independent of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR2) expression on the cell surface. Addition of gremlin-1 to A549 cells induced a fibroblast-like morphology and decreased E-cadherin expression. In a scratch wound healing assay, A549 cells incubated with gremlin-1 or transfected with gremlin-1 showed increased migration, which was inhibited in the presence of the GRE1 antibody. Gremlin-1 transfected A549 cells also exhibited increased invasiveness as well as an increased growth rate. These effects were also inhibited by the addition of the GRE1 antibody. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that gremlin-1 directly interacts with cancer cells in a BMP- and VEGFR2-independent manner and can induce cell migration, invasion, and proliferation