Histological changes in placental Syncytiotrophoblasts of poorly controlled gestational diabetic patients

Corresponding Author: Dr. Majed S. Alokail Department of Biochemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451 Tel. ++9661-467-5943, Fax. ++9661-467-5931 Email: [email protected] seems reasonable to expect that biochemical changes occurring in the pregnant woman with diabetes should be reflected in the placenta structure. However, it has not been possible to correlate placental morphology with glycemic control in a comparison between those with long life diabetes and poorly controlled gestational diabetes. In the present study we have histologically studied the syncytiotrophoblast of human placentae from overt diabetic and poorly controlled gestational diabetic patients. Using specific staining techniques and direct light microscopy we qualitatively studied these placentae and compared them with the normal placentae. We found fibrin thrombi, villous oedema, hyperplasia and thickening of basement membrane in the placentae of poorly controlled gestational diabetic mothers. Direct microscopy revealed that these various changes in syncytiotrophoblast structure were marked in the poorly controlled gestational placenta compared with overt diabetics, and could have been due to the presence of histochemical compounds e.g. general carbohydrates and lipids. These studies may indicate that poor control of diabetes during the gestation as indicated by high level HbAlc may result in the accummulation of carbohydrate compounds and fat droplets in the placental basement membrane, leading to structural changes in the placental cells

Single nucleotide polymorphisms in CXCR1 gene and its association with hepatitis B infected patients in Saudi Arabia

Background/Aim. This study aims to investigate whether the SNPs of CXCR1 gene, could predict the likelihood of viral persistence and/or disease progression.Material and methods. We investigated the association of two different SNPs (rs2234671, and rs142978743) in 598 normal healthy controls and 662 HBV patients from a Saudi ethnic population. The HBV patients were categorized into inactive carriers (n = 428), active carriers (n = 162), cirrhosis (n = 54) and Cirrhosis-HCC (n = 18) sub-groups. Genetic variants in CXCR1 were determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based DNA direct sequencing.Results. The frequency of the risk allele ‘C’ for the SNP, rs2234671 was found to be insignificant when the patient group was compared to the uninfected control group, however, a significant distribution of the allele ‘C’ of rs2234671 was observed among active HBV carriers + cirrhosis + cirrhosis - HCC vs. inactive HBV carriers with an OR = 1.631 (95% C.I. 1.016-2.616) and p = 0.032. However, no significant association was observed for rs142978743 when the distribution of risk allele was analyzed among the different patient groups (i.e. inactive carriers, active carriers, cirrhosis and HCC). Furthermore, the most common haplotype, Haplo-1 (AG), was found to have an insignificant frequency distribution between HBV cases and controls, while the same haplotype was found to be significantly distributed when active carriers + cirrhosis + cirrhosis - HCC patients were compared to inactive HBV carriers with a frequency of 0.938 and p = 0.0315. Haplo-2 (AC) was also found to be significantly associated with a frequency of 0.058 and p = 0.0163.Conclusion. The CXCR1 polymorphism, rs2234671 was found to be associated with chronic HBV infection and may play a role in disease activity