EFFECT OF AT ORVASTATIN ON THE TIME COURSE OF CHANGESIN INFLAMMATORY MARKERS IN SYSTEMIC SCLERODERMA

Objective: to study the time course of changes in serological inflammatory markers in patients with systemic scleroderma (SSD) on long-term statin treatment. Subjects and methods. The study covered 40 patients with SSD who were divided into a study group (n = 22) and a control one (n = 18). In the study group, in addition to the therapy performed atorvastatin was given in a dose of 10 mg/day in the first 6 months, 40 mg/day in 12 patients and in the former dose in 10 patients in the following 6 months. Enzyme immunoassay was used to measure the serum level of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and interleukin (IL) 6 in the study group at baseline and after 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of a follow-up and in the control group at baseline and after 12 months. Results. In the study group, the content of hs-CRP was 5.54±4.41 ng/l and increased in 13 (59%) patients. After 3, 6, 9, and 12 months, the level of hs-CRP was 3.93±3.13, 2.95±2.27, 3.15±3.01, and 2.86±2.27 mg/l, respectively, and was significantly lower than the base-line value (p = 0.002). In the same periods, the concentration of hs-CRP decreased by 25, 37, 35, and 35% of the baseline level and remained higher in 10 (45%), 10 (45%), 9 (41%), and 6 (27%) patients, respectively. The level of IL-6 was elevated in 10 of the 14 patients and exceeded in healthy donors. Following 12 months, it decreased from 6.61±6.37 to 1.89±2.71 pg/ml (p = 0.038), and the rate of its increment reduced from 71 to 14% (p = 0.007). In the control group, the levels of hs-CRP and IL-6 as the rate of their increment after 12 months, did not differ from the baseline values. In this group, the changes in the content of hs-CRP and IL-6 in that period were -0.42±2.32 mg/l and 0.14±4.15 ng/ml, respectively, and significantly less marked than those in the study group (p = 0.036 and p = 0.03, respectively). Conclusion. When long used, atorvastatin shows a stable anti-inflammatory effect in most patients with SSD

Molecular-Genetic and Epidemiologic Examination of Personnel Subjected to Occupational Irradiation

It is given an evaluation of the genetic polymorphisms (Hp, Tf, Gc; 6-PGD, EsD, ACP, PGM1, microsatellite loci CSF1PO и F13AO1, detoxicating genes GSTT1, GSTM1 and GSTP1), individual radiosensitivity (by the criterion of ribosome gene fragments) and DNA-damage rate (Comet-assay) in two cohorts comprised by VNIIEF personnel subjected chronically to gamma-neutron ionizing radiation and to β-radiation of Tritium in comparison with the effects in non-irradiated cohort. There are discussed data on the influence of the occupational irradiation, age and genotype on the rate of structural genome damage, as well as on the activity of the human repair system activity and health status