Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference

Gemcitabine-cisplatin induced acute pancreatitis: A case report

Background: Many drugs can cause acute pancreatitis, also this phenomenon rarely with chemotherapeutic compounds. Several reports of pancreatitis following the use of chemotherapy drugs but pancreatitis has not been reported with gemcitabine and cisplatin Case: A 68-year-old female diagnosed bone metastatic lung cancer. She was started on chemotherapy with a regimen of gemcitabine and cisplatin (GC). On second day of the 1st dose of GC, patient was admitted to the hospital and subsequent workup revealed acute pancreatitis. Conclusions: This is the first case report of acute pancreatitis caused by gemcitabine-cisplatin regimen. When a patient experience prolonged nausea and vomiting follwed to the chemothreapy regimen, acute pancreatitis come to mind to prevent fatal complications

Comparison of serum maternal adiponectin concentrations in women with isolated intrauterine growth retardation and intrauterine growth retardation concomitant with pre-eclampsia

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare serum maternal adiponectin concentrations in pregnant women with isolated intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) and in pregnant women with IUGR concomitant with pre-eclampsia (IUGRcwPE).Material and Methods: Thirty patients with isolated IUGR (group 1), 20 patients with IUGRcwPE (group 2), and 30 healthy controls (group 3) between age 18-40 were included into the study. Venous blood samples of those patients were obtained in the starving state. Adiponectin concentrations were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in serum obtained after centrifugation. To find the differences between the groups, student t-test and one-way ANOVA statistical methods were used.Results: There were no differences between the groups in terms of age, body mass index, gestational age, and parity (p>0.05). The values of amniotic fluid index (p0.05).Conclusion: We found that IUGR increased maternal serum adiponectin concentrations; however, this rise does not occur in pregnant women with IUGRcwPE. © 2014 by the Turkish-German Gynecological Education and Research Foundation