Ovarian antral follicle number and the amount of gonadotropin used in ovarian stimulation in polycystic ovarian patients.

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome is the most common cause of anovulation, and the number of antral follicles is of great importance in determining ovarian reserve, so identification of patients with diminished ovarian reserve help in choosing individualized and well managed ovulation induction protocol. The aim of the study is to find out if the number of ovarian antral follicles could affect the amount of gonadotropins used in ovarian stimulation in polycystic ovarian patients. Patients and methods: Ninty four infertile polycystic ovaries women, attending the infertility clinic at Baghdad teaching hospital, during the period of November 2005 to October 2006, were compared to 62 control group women who have unexplained infertility. After exact history and examination, ultrasound was done to both groups at cycle day 3 for antral follicle counting. Then ovarian stimulation was started with gonadotropins, and another ultrasound was done on cycle day 13 for mature follicles confirmation. Results: Antral follicle number was found to be significantly higher in patients than control groups (9.98 ± 2.09 vs 5.40±2.02). Age was found to be negatively correlated with antral follicle size and number in patient and control groups. After measuring the number of mature follicles at cycle day 13 it was observed that the antral follicle number was correlating positively and significantly with the number of follicles at cycle day 13, but negatively with the amount of gonadotropin used for ovarian stimulation in patients and control groups. Conclusion: Antral follicles number is significantly higher in polycystic ovary patients and they correlate negatively with age. Antral follicle number is a good predictor of the number of gonadotropin ampouls used for ovarian stimulation

The Effect of Thyroxine Treatment in Infertile Subclinical Hypothyroid Patients

Background: Sub-clinical hypothyroidism (SCTD) is most commonly an early stage of hypothyroidism. Although the condition may resolve or remain unchanged, within a few years in some patients, overt hypothyroidism may develop, with low free T4 levels as well as a raised thyroid stimulating hormone(TSH) level. In general thyroid dysfunction is a condition known to reduce the likelihood of pregnancy and to adversely affect pregnancy outcome. As screening for thyroid disease becomes more common, SCTD is being diagnosed more frequently in clinical practice. The aim of the study is to find out the effect of treating SCTD with thyroxin on the fertility status of the female patient. Patients and methods: Forty three infertile patients attending the infertility clinic at Baghdad teaching hospital were compared to 32 control un explained infertility women. After exact history and examination, hormonal analysis (T3 and T4, TSH, Prolactin and Progesterone) and ultrasound were done for patients and control, then the patients were randomly divided into 2 groups one group was given thyroxine treatment, the other group was given parlodel, and after 3 months the hormonal analysis and ultrasound were repeated and compared to the previous results. Results: Comparing the patient group to the control showed a significant increase in the TSH and prolactin level in patients group but the progesterone concentration was not significantly different between the groups. After giving thyroxine the group who received it showed significant reduction in prolactin and improvement in the dominant follicle size and progesterone level while the group who was given parlodel showed only significant reduction in prolactin with no significant increase in the other 2 parameters. Conclusion: TSH in subclinical hypothyroidisim is correlated positively with age and with the prolactin concentration. Treatment with thyroxine induces a significant improvement in the fertility statues including the significant decrease in prolacttin concentration and increase in the dominant follicle size and increase in the progesterone level compared to those given parlodel only. This makes it obvious that treating patients with SCTD have a significant reflection on their fertility and ability for future pregnancy

The effect of blood lead level on packed cell volume in a sample of Iraqi population.

Background: Low hemoglobin levels and lead exposure remain significant health issues in many parts of the world, often occurring together, however most of the researches concentrate on the effect of high levels of lead .This study aimed to demonstrate the effect of blood lead level on hemoglobin and packed cell volume (PCV). Patients and Methods: Fifty eight adult volunteers were enrolled in this study with age range between 23 and 55 years, working in the different departments in medical college of Baghdad University. Whole blood was withdrawn in EDTA tubes. Hemoglobin and PCV were measured and blood lead level was estimated using blood lead testing system including lead care kit and lead care analyzer. Results: After measuring blood lead level and correlate it to PCV in all volunteers results revealed a significant negative correlation between them which is obvious in both smokers and non-smokers groups. Age was found to correlate positively and significantly with blood lead level in non smokers group. Comparing the blood levels of lead and PCV in both smokers and non-smokers shows non-significant difference between them although blood lead level was higher in smokers group. Conclusion: Blood lead levels is increased with age. There is a significant decrease in PCV with the increase in blood lead level which is noticed in both smokers and non smokers. There is a significant increase of blood lead levels in smokers group

The effect of mineral levels in the mother’s circulation on the outcome of pregnancy

Background: Dietary intakes are critical during pregnancy, because inadequate amounts of key nutrients may compromise fetal development or maternal health. In addition to that maternal diet could be one of the methods to select the gender of the baby. The aim of the study is to correlate the level of the minerals in the mother’s blood with the gender and wellbeing of the baby after delivery. Patients and Methods: Fifty women were involved in this study with a mean age (23.92 ± 4.75), collected from the labor room during labor in the period between December 2013 and May 2014, in Baghdad teaching hospital. After taking a full history from the women, 10 ml of blood was withdrawn from them, 2ml in EDTA tubes for lead estimation and 8 ml in plain tubes, centrifuged and the serum was used for magnesium, copper, calcium and zinc estimation. The estimation was done by spectrophotometer method. Results: Birth weight of the delivered babies was correlated negatively but not significantly to the age of the delivered women. The level of the minerals in the maternal blood was not different between those who delivered male or female babies except for the zinc level which was higher in those women who give birth to male babies. The correlation between the birth weight of the babies and the level of maternal minerals shows a not significant positive correlation between them except for zinc which was significant and the lead level was correlated negatively but not significantly with birth weight. Conclusions: Age seems to have no significant effect on birth weight. There is no significant effect of the minerals level on the selection of the baby’s gender except for zinc which is higher in women with male babies, in addition to its significant effect on the birth weight being higher in women with higher birth weight babies

Effect of thyroid dysfunction on hemoglobin A1c in polycystic ovary patients during ovulation induction trials.

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most common female endocrine disorders leading to infertility. Majority of women with PCOS have insulin resistance and elevated hemoglobin A1c.The presence of thyroid dysfunction may affect the levels of HbA1c and the results of ovulation induction programs.                                                                                                            Objectives: To evaluate the level of serum hemoglobin A1c according to the type of thyroid dysfunction in polycystic ovary patients during ovarian stimulation trials.                   Patients and Methods: Eighty three polycystic ovary patients were enrolled in this study, attending the infertility clinic in Al-Yarmouk Teaching Hospital, in the period between November 2012 and May 2013. After thorough history and examination blood samples were withdrawn for the estimation of LH, FSH, testosterone, prolactin, TSH, T3, T4 and A1C in day 2 or 3 of the menstrual cycle, Progesterone was determined in day 21 of the cycle. Ultrasound was done also at cycle day 3 for antral follicles measurements. After diagnosing PCOS the patients were divided into 3 groups, euthyroid group (control), hypothyroid and hyperthyroid groups. Ovulation induction treatment was given and ultrasound was done at the day of hCG injection.                                           Results: There was no significant difference between control and patients groups regarding age (26.31 ± 5.04 Vs 27.17 ± 5.76) and BMI (31.7 ± 5.69Vs 29.25 ± 6.28).HbA1c level was significantly different between the control and patients group with a significant positive correlation between HbA1c and TSH. In clomiphene citrate treated groups, Hb A1c level, the number of antral follicles and the size of follicles at day of hCG injection were not significantly different between the patients and control groups.                                                                                                                                 Conclusions: HbA1c level is significantly affected by thyroid dysfunction in PCOS patients as it is higher in the Hypothyroid group and lower in the Hyperthyroid group. Using Clomiphene citrate in PCOS does not significantly increase the mean size of follicles after ovarian stimulation in patients with thyroid dysfunction from that in Euthyroid ones

Mining microbial genomes for new natural products and biosynthetic pathways

Analyses of microbial genome sequences have revealed numerous examples of ‘cryptic’ or ‘orphan’ biosynthetic gene clusters, with the potential to direct the production of novel, structurally complex natural products. This article summarizes the various methods that have been developed for discovering the products of cryptic biosynthetic gene clusters in microbes and gives an account of my group's discovery of the products of two such gene clusters in the model actinomycete Streptomyces coelicolor M145. These discoveries hint at new mechanisms, roles and specificities for natural product biosynthetic enzymes. Our efforts to elucidate these are described. The identification of new secondary metabolites of S. coelicolor raises the question: what is their biological function? Progress towards answering this question is also summarized

SkyPy: A package for modelling the Universe

SkyPy is an open-source Python package for simulating the astrophysical sky. It comprises a library of physical and empirical models across a range of observables and a command line script to run end-to-end simulations. The library provides functions that sample realisations of sources and their associated properties from probability distributions. Simulation pipelines are constructed from these models using a YAML-based configuration syntax, while task scheduling and data dependencies are handled internally and the modular design allows users to interface with external software. SkyPy is developed and maintained by a diverse community of domain experts with a focus on software sustainability and interoperability. By fostering co-development, it provides a framework for correlated simulations of a range of cosmological probes including galaxy populations, large scale structure, the cosmic microwave background, supernovae and gravitational waves. Version 0.4 implements functions that model various properties of galaxies including luminosity functions, redshift distributions and optical photometry from spectral energy distribution templates. Future releases will provide additional modules, for example to simulate populations of dark matter halos and model the galaxy-halo connection, making use of existing software packages from the astrophysics community where appropriate

Cyanobacterial distributions along a physico-chemical gradient in the Northeastern Pacific Ocean

The cyanobacteria Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus are important marine primary producers. We explored their distributions and covariance along a physico-chemical gradient from coastal to open ocean waters in the Northeastern Pacific Ocean. An inter-annual pattern was delineated in the dynamic transition zone where upwelled and eastern boundary current waters mix, and two new Synechococcus clades, Eastern Pacific Clade (EPC) 1 and EPC2, were identified. By applying state-of-the-art phylogenetic analysis tools to bar-coded 16S amplicon datasets, we observed higher abundance of Prochlorococcus high-light I (HLI) and low-light I (LLI) in years when more oligotrophic water intruded farther inshore, while under stronger upwelling Synechococcus I and IV dominated. However, contributions of some cyanobacterial clades were proportionally relatively constant, e.g. Synechococcus EPC2. In addition to supporting observations that Prochlorococcus LLI thrive at higher irradiances than other LL taxa, the results suggest LLI tolerate lower temperatures than previously reported. The phylogenetic precision of our 16S rRNA gene analytical approach and depth of bar-coded sequencing also facilitated detection of clades at low abundance in unexpected places. These include Prochlorococcus at the coast and Cyanobium-related sequences offshore, although it remains unclear whether these came from resident or potentially advected cells. Our study enhances understanding of cyanobacterial distributions in an ecologically important eastern boundary system. © 2014 The Authors. Environmental Microbiology published by Society for Applied Microbiology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Globally important haptophyte algae use exogenous pyrimidine compounds more efficiently than thiamin

Vitamin B1 (thiamin) is a cofactor for critical enzymatic processes and is scarce in surface oceans. Several eukaryotic marine algal species thought to rely on exogenous thiamin are now known to grow equally well on the precursor 4-amino-5-hydroxymethyl-2-methylpyrimidine (HMP), including the haptophyte Emiliania huxleyi. Because the thiamin biosynthetic capacities of the diverse and ecologically important haptophyte lineage are otherwise unknown, we investigated the pathway in transcriptomes and two genomes from 30 species representing six taxonomic orders. HMP synthase is missing in data from all studied taxa, but the pathway is otherwise complete, with some enzymatic variations. Experiments on axenic species from three orders demonstrated that equivalent growth rates were supported by 1 μM HMP or thiamin amendment. Cellular thiamin quotas were quantified in the oceanic phytoplankter E. huxleyi using the thiochrome assay. E. huxleyi exhibited luxury storage in standard algal medium (1.16 ± 0.18) ☓ 10-6 pmol thiamin cell-1, whereas quotas in cultures grown under more environmentally relevant thiamin and HMP supplies (2.22 ± 0.07) ☓ 10-7 or (1.58 ± 0.14) ☓ 10-7 pmol thiamin cell-1, respectively were significantly lower than luxury values and prior estimates. HMP and its salvage-related analog 4-amino-5-aminomethyl-2-methylpyrimidine (AmMP) supported higher growth than thiamin under environmentally relevant supply levels. These compounds also sustained growth of the stramenopile alga Pelago-monas calceolata. Together with identification of a salvage protein subfamily (TENA_E) in multiple phytoplankton, the results indicate that salvaged AmMP and exogenously acquired HMP are used by several groups for thiamin production. Our studies highlight the potential importance of thiamin pathway intermediates and their analogs in shaping phytoplankton community structure. IMPORTANCE The concept that vitamin B1 (thiamin) availability in seawater controls the productivity and structure of eukaryotic phytoplankton communities has been discussed for half a century. We examined B1 biosynthesis and salvage pathways in diverse phytoplankton species. These comparative genomic analyses as well as experiments show that phytoplankton thought to require exogenous B1 not only utilize intermediate compounds to meet this need but also exhibit stronger growth on these compounds than on thiamin. Furthermore, oceanic phytoplankton have lower cellular thiamin quotas than previously reported, and salvage of intermediate compounds is likely a key mechanism for meeting B1 requirements under environmentally relevant scenarios. Thus, several lines of evidence now suggest that availability of specific precursor molecules could be more important in structuring phytoplankton communities than the vitamin itself. This understanding of preferential compound utilization and thiamin quotas will improve biogeochemical model pa-rameterization and highlights interaction networks among ocean microbes. © 2017 Gutowska et al

Transcriptional responses of the marine green alga Micromonas pusilla and an infecting prasinovirus under different phosphate conditions

Prasinophytes are widespread marine algae for which responses to nutrient limitation and viral infection are not well understood. We studied the picoprasinophyte, Micromonas pusilla, grown under phosphate‐replete (0.65 ± 0.07 d−1) and 10‐fold lower (low)‐phosphate (0.11 ± 0.04 d−1) conditions, and infected by the phycodnavirus MpV‐SP1. Expression of 17% of Micromonas genes in uninfected cells differed by >1.5‐fold (q < 0.01) between nutrient conditions, with genes for P‐metabolism and the uniquely‐enriched Sel1‐like repeat (SLR) family having higher relative transcript abundances, while phospholipid‐synthesis genes were lower in low‐P than P‐replete. Approximately 70% (P‐replete) and 30% (low‐P) of cells were lysed 24 h post‐infection, and expression of ≤5.8% of host genes changed relative to uninfected treatments. Host genes for CAZymes and glycolysis were activated by infection, supporting importance in viral production, which was significantly lower in slower growing (low‐P) hosts. All MpV‐SP1 genes were expressed, and our analyses suggest responses to differing host‐phosphate backgrounds involve few viral genes, while the temporal program of infection involves many more, and is largely independent of host‐phosphate background. Our study (i) identifies genes previously unassociated with nutrient acclimation or viral infection, (ii) provides insights into the temporal program of prasinovirus gene expression by hosts and (iii) establishes cell biological aspects of an ecologically important host‐prasinovirus system that differ from other marine algal‐virus systems