Serum biotinidase activity in children with chronic liver disease and its clinical significance

WOS: 000172873600014PubMed ID: 11753166Background: Biotinidase is the enzyme responsible for liberating the vitamin biotin from biocytin and dietary protein-bound vitamin. Individuals lacking biotinidase activity become biotin deficient. Because the liver is the major source of plasma biotinidase, chronic liver diseases can lead to decreased serum biotinidase activity and biotin deficiency. The aim of this study is to determine serum biotinidase activity values in children with chronic liver disease and to investigate the relation among enzyme activity, certain liver function tests, and degree of liver damage. Method: In this study, using a spectrophotometric method, biotinidase activity was determined in sera from 62 children with chronic liver diseases (median age, 9.73 years; range, 8 months to 18 years) and from 27 healthy controls. Diagnoses of the patient group were as follows: noncirrhotic chronic hepatitis B virus infection (n = 12), metabolic liver diseases (n = 16), autoimmune hepatitis (n = 6), intrahepatic and extrahepatic cholestasis (n = 14), fulminant hepatitis (n = 5), cryptogenic cirrhosis n = 5), prehepatic portal hypertension (n = 4). Meanwhile, serum albumin, total bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, alanine aminotransferase, and gamma -glutamyltransferase concentrations and prothrombine time were determined for each patient and the results were correlated with serum biotinidase activity. Results: There was significant difference between mean enzyme activity of the controls (7.6 +/- 1.2 nmol . min(-1) . mL(-1)) and of all patients with chronic liver disease (6.3 +/- 2.5 nmol min(-1) . mL(-1)) (P < 0.05). Serum biotinidase activity in patients with noncirrhotic chronic liver diseases (chronic viral hepatitis, prehepatic portal hypertension, glycogen storage disease, Gaucher disease) was within the normal ranges. However, serum biotinidase activity in patients with cirrhosis and Wilson disease was significantly less than that of the control group (P < 0.05). The lowest enzyme activities were detected in patients with fulminant hepatitis. Conclusion: In this study, serum biotinidase activity was significantly lower in patients with cirrhosis, particularly in the patients with decompensated cirrhosis and fulminant hepatitis who exhibited no clinical symptoms related to biotin deficiency. The decreased serum biotinidase activity in chronic liver diseases was associated with severe impairment of hepatocellular function

Histopathology of candidal hyperplastic lesions of the larynx

Candidiasis of the larynx is rare, and candidal involvement of the larynx mostly occurs after pulmonary, pharyngeal and esophageal candidiasis, or as part of disseminated disease. We here report our morphologic observations made in five cases of laryngeal candidiasis. These cases had the following morphologic features in common: 1. pronounced epithelial hyperplasia, which may show a verrucous pattern, 2. prominent ortho-parakeratosis, and 3. predominantly neutrophilic infiltration located in the upper layers of the mucosal epithelium. Our morphologic observations were similar to the morphologic changes encountered in chronic hyperplastic candidosis of the oral mucosa. As this type of candidal lesions contains fewer hyphae than the usual thrush, fungal infection may be easily overlooked. Pronounced epithelial hyperplasia and prominent ortho-parakeratosis may mimic squamous cell and verrucous carcinomas. In conclusion, we suggest performing special stains for fungi of laryngeal biopsies that have the morphologic features mentioned above. In that way, it is possible to detect a candidal infection, keeping in mind that the fungal organisms may be very few in number and morphologically distorted

Immunohistological comparison of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Ljubljana classifications on the grading of preneoplastic lesions of the larynx

There is still controversy about the classification of laryngeal preneoplastic lesions. In this study, we compared the World Health Organization (WHO) and Ljubljana histological classifications with regard to laryngeal epithelial hyperplastic-dysplastic lesions in a single series to determine their relation to statistically significant criteria when the mechanisms of neoplastic progression are considered, Emphasis was put on p53 expression, proliferative activity, and angiogenesis

Effect of monopotassium phosphate and oviduct cells on the in vitro fertilized mice embryos development

The study investigated the effects of three different KH2PO4 concentrations (0.59 mM; 1.19 mM; 2.38 mM) in Whitten's medium and co-culture on in vitro two-cell blocks and their development to the blastocyst stage of inbred BALB/C mice embryos following in vitro fertilization

A comparative study on the growth and survival characteristics of lambs produced by the transfer of in vitro produced (IVP) embryos

This study was carried out to determine the growth, survival rate and some body measurements until weaning of lambs produced by the in vitro production (IVP) method in comparison with those of lambs produced by artificial insemination. The lambs in the experimental group were produced by the transfer of IVP embryos developed to the blastocyst stage after the in vitro maturation and fertilisation of oocytes obtained from the ovaries of slaughtered ewes

Effects of different maturation periods on in vitro maturation of bovine oocytes

Primer oocytes (n=157) collected from ovaries of slaughtered cows were matured at 39 degrees C with 95-100% humidity and under a gas mixture of 5% O-2 5% CO2 and 90% N-2 for 22 (n=52), 24 (n=52) and 26 (n=53) hours. Modified Parker's Medium (MPM) supplemented with FSH and 20% ECS was used as maturation medium. At the end of these periods all oocytes were fixated in ethanol:acetic acid in the ratio of 3:1 for 2A hours and stained by %2 aceto-orcein to evaluate the maturational criteria

Synthesis and antioxidant activity studies of some 5-chloro-3-substituted 2(3H)-benzoxazolone derivatives

2(3H)-Benzoxazolone derivatives are versatile heterocyclic compounds since they display a wide range of pharmacological properties. On the other hand, anilide pharmacophore has been known in medicinal chemistry as an useful template in various pharmacological states. In this study, we synthesized eleven 5-chloro-2(3H)-benzoxazolone-3-alkananilide derivatives and evaluated their antioxidant activities. The structural confirmation of the title compounds was achieved by spectral and analytical data. The antioxidant capacity of the synthesized compounds was determined by the 2,2-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl hydrate (DPPH) and 2,2-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) radicals scavenging assays. The results indicated that the majority of the compounds were effective in both tests. The most active compound in the series was compound 6, bearing 4-methoxy substituent on the N-phenyl ring of the propionanilide skeleton. © 2014, Chemical Publishing Co. All rights reserved