Association of maternal serum triglycerides at term and macrosomia in gestational diabetes mellitus

Background: Aim of the study was to determine association of maternal serum triglycerides (TG) at term and macrosomia in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology, RIMS, Manipur. The study was conducted for 2 years duration from September 2019 to August 2021 and 85 singleton term pregnant women with GDM were included. All the patients were subjected to check fasting serum TG, FBS, PPBS. Descriptive statistics like mean, standard deviation and Inferential statistics like Chi-square test was used for comparing study variables between large for gestational age (LGA) and non LGA group. T-test was used to compare the mean values of age, pre-pregnancy BMI, pregnancy weight gain, OGTT, FBS, PPBS, fasting serum TG between LGA and non LGA group. Results: The observed mean TG values in LGA and non LGA group in our study was 262.35±26.08 and 158.18±13.24 mg/dL respectively. The serum TG values in the LGA group mothers was significantly higher when compared to the non LGA group. The mean weight gain in pregnancy 15.17±1.82 and 9.60±1.47 in LGA and non LGA respectively. The mean BMI comparison among LGA and non LGA are 27.7±1.74 and 22.94±1.6 respectively. Conclusions: It is observed that maternal fasting serum TG may be a strong predictor of foetal size irrespective of the glycemic status. Our study clearly pointed out the usefulness of measuring serum TG in GDM pregnancy. In addition to maternal hypertriglyceridemia, pre-pregnancy BMI, excessive weight gain in pregnancy significantly associated with foetal macrosomia in GDM mothers

Transcriptome, Methylome and Genomic Variations Analysis of Ectopic Thyroid Glands

Congenital hypothyroidism from thyroid dysgenesis (CHTD) is predominantly a sporadic disease characterized by defects in the differentiation, migration or growth of thyroid tissue. Of these defects, incomplete migration resulting in ectopic thyroid tissue is the most common (up to 80%). Germinal mutations in the thyroid-related transcription factors NKX2.1, FOXE1, PAX-8, and NKX2.5 have been identified in only 3% of patients with sporadic CHTD. Moreover, a survey of monozygotic twins yielded a discordance rate of 92%, suggesting that somatic events, genetic or epigenetic, probably play an important role in the etiology of CHTD.Journal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tValidation StudiesSCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Towards improving the safety and diagnostic yield of stereotactic biopsy in a single centre

Background: Previously, we reported on our single centre results regarding the diagnostic yield of stereotactic needle biopsies of brain lesions. The yield then (1996-2006) was 89.4%. In the present study, we review and evaluate our experience with intraoperative frozen-section histopathologic diagnosis on-demand in order to improve the diagnostic yield. Methods:

Methylation and Loss of Secreted Frizzled-Related Protein 3 Enhances Melanoma Cell Migration and Invasion

Wnt signaling is important in development and can also contribute to the initiation and progression of cancer. The Secreted Frizzled Related Proteins (SFRPs) constitute a family of Wnt modulators, crucial for controlling Wnt signaling. Here we investigate the expression and role of SFRP3 in melanoma

Clinically Unapparent Infantile Thiamin Deficiency in Vientiane, Laos

Infantile beriberi, or clinical thiamin (vitamin B1) deficiency in infants, is a forgotten disease in Asia, where 100 years ago it was a major public health problem. Infants with this deficiency, commonly aged ∼ 2–3 months, present in cardiac failure but usually rapidly improve if given thiamin injections. It remains relatively common in Vientiane, Lao PDR (Laos), probably because of prolonged intra- and post-partum food avoidance behaviours. Clinical disease may be the tip of an iceberg with subclinical thiamin deficiency contributing to sickness in infants without overt clinical beriberi. We therefore recruited 778 sick infants admitted during one year at Mahosot Hospital, Vientiane, without clinical evidence of beriberi, and performed erythrocyte transketolase (ETK) assays. 13.4 % of infants had basal ETK<0.59 micromoles/min/gHb suggesting biochemical thiamin deficiency. Mortality was 5.5% but, among infants ≥2 months old, mortality was higher in those with basal ETK<0.59 micromoles/min/gHb (3/47, 6.4%) than in those with basal ETK≥0.59 micromoles/min/gHb (1/146, 0.7%) (P = 0.045, relative risk = 9.32 (95%CI 0.99 to 87.5)). We conclude that clinically unapparent thiamin deficiency is common among sick infants (≥2 months old) admitted to hospital in Vientiane. This may contribute to mortality and a low clinical threshold for providing thiamin to sick infants may be needed

Induction of interferon-stimulated genes on the IL-4 response axis by Epstein-Barr virus infected human b cells; relevance to cellular transformation.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is an oncogenic virus that is associated with the pathogenesis of several human lymphoid malignancies, including Hodgkin's lymphoma. Infection of normal resting B cells with EBV results in activation to lymphoblasts that are phenotypically similar to those generated by physiological stimulation with CD40L plus IL-4. One important difference is that infection leads to the establishment of permanently growing lymphoblastoid cell lines, whereas CD40L/IL-4 blasts have finite proliferation lifespans. To identify early events which might later determine why EBV infected blasts go on to establish transformed cell lines, we performed global transcriptome analyses on resting B cells and on EBV and CD40L/IL-4 blasts after 7 days culture. As anticipated there was considerable overlap in the transcriptomes of the two types of lymphoblasts when compared to the original resting B cells, reflecting common changes associated with lymphocyte activation and proliferation. Of interest to us was a subset of 255 genes that were differentially expressed between EBV and CD40L/IL-4 blasts. Genes which were more highly expressed in EBV blasts were substantially and significantly enriched for a set of interferon-stimulated genes which on further in silico analyses were found to be repressed by IL-4 in other cell contexts and to be up-regulated in micro-dissected malignant cells from Hodgkin's lymphoma biopsies when compared to their normal germinal center cell counterparts. We hypothesized that EBV and IL-4 were targeting and discordantly regulating a common set of genes. This was supported experimentally in our B cell model where IL-4 stimulation partially reversed transcriptional changes which follow EBV infection and it impaired the efficiency of EBV-induced B cell transformation. Taken together, these data suggest that the discordant regulation of interferon and IL-4 pathway genes by EBV that occurs early following infection of B cells has relevance to the development or maintenance of an EBV-associated malignancy

Erythrocyte Transketolase Activity, Markers of Cardiac Dysfunction and the Diagnosis of Infantile Beriberi

Infantile beriberi, or clinical thiamin (vitamin B1) deficiency in infants, is a forgotten disease in Asia, where ∼100 years ago it was a major public health problem. Children aged ∼2–3 months present in cardiac failure but usually rapidly improve if given thiamin injections. It remains relatively common in Vientiane, Lao PDR (Laos) probably because of prolonged intra- and post-partum maternal food avoidance behaviours. There has been very little recent research on the best diagnostic techniques. We conducted a case control study of 47 infants with beriberi and age-matched afebrile and febrile controls in Vientiane. The conventional measures of thiamin deficiency, basal and activated erythrocyte transketolase activities (ETK) and activation (α) coefficients, were assayed along with three markers of cardiac dysfunction - plasma brain natriuretic peptide, N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide, and troponin T. Basal ETK was a better biochemical marker of infantile beriberi than the activation coefficient. Raised plasma troponin T may be a useful indicator of infantile beriberi in babies at risk and in the absence of other evident causes

In vitro models of medulloblastoma: choosing the right tool for the job

The recently-defined four molecular subgroups of medulloblastoma have required updating of our understanding of in vitro models to include molecular classification and risk stratification features from clinical practice. This review seeks to build a more comprehensive picture of the in vitro systems available for modelling medulloblastoma. The subtype classification and molecular characterisation for over 40 medulloblastoma cell-lines has been compiled, making it possible to identify the strengths and weaknesses in current model systems. Less than half (18/44) of established medulloblastoma cell-lines have been subgrouped. The majority of the subgrouped cell-lines (11/18) are Group 3 with MYC-amplification. SHH cell-lines are the next most common (4/18), half of which exhibit TP53 mutation. WNT and Group 4 subgroups, accounting for 50% of patients, remain underrepresented with 1 and 2 cell-lines respectively. In vitro modelling relies not only on incorporating appropriate tumour cells, but also on using systems with the relevant tissue architecture and phenotype as well as normal tissues. Novel ways of improving the clinical relevance of in vitro models are reviewed, focusing on 3D cell culture, extracellular matrix, co-cultures with normal cells and organotypic slices. This paper champions the establishment of a collaborative online-database and linked cell-bank to catalyse preclinical medulloblastoma research