Prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus and its relationship with various risk factors in a tertiary care hospital in West Bengal with special reference to tribal population, India

Background: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is the most common medical complication and metabolic disorder of pregnancy. The aim and objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of GDM and its relationship with various risk factors with special reference to tribal population.Methods: The study was done in 200 patients between 24 and 28 weeks of gestation, attending antenatal outdoor in a tertiary care hospital of West Bengal.  These patients were given 75gm oral glucose irrespective of the last meal and their plasma glucose was estimated at 2hours. Patients with plasma glucose values ≥140 mg/dl were labelled as GDM. Patients who were diabetic before pregnancy or whose pre pregnancy body mass index was not known or was in labour or had chronic disease, were not included in the study.Results: Prevalence of GDM was 11% in whole population while it was 14.63% and 10.06% in tribal and non-tribal population respectively.  Prevalence of GDM and its correlation with most of risk factors in previous pregnancies was found to be significant in both non-tribal and tribal population. Family history of diabetes mellitus was the most prevalent risk factor in both non-tribal (9.4%) and tribal population (14.63%). There was no single most common risk factor among GDM patients found as there were multiple risk factors present with same frequency in both tribal and non-tribal population.Conclusions: The prevalence of GDM is 14.63% in the tribal population and 10.06% in non-tribal population which is not statically significant (P<0.407). The relation between the prevalence of GDM and risk factors was found to be significant for most of the risk factors

Appraisal of salinity and fluoride in a semi-arid region of India using statistical and multivariate techniques

“The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com”. Copyright Springer. DOI: 10.1007/s10653-008-9222-5Various physico-chemical parameters, including fluoride (F−), were analyzed to understand the hydro-geochemistry of an aquifer in a semi-arid region of India. Furthermore, the quality of the shallow and deep aquifer (using tube well and hand pumps) was also investigated for their best ecological use including drinking, domestic, agricultural and other activities. Different multivariate techniques were applied to understand the groundwater chemistry of the aquifer. Findings of the correlation matrix were strengthened by the factor analysis, and this shows that salinity is mainly caused by magnesium salts as compared to calcium salts in the aquifer. The problem of salinization seems mainly compounded by the contamination of the shallow aquifers by the recharging water. High factor loading of total alkalinity and bicarbonates indicates that total alkalinity was mainly due to carbonates and bicarbonates of sodium. The concentration of F− was found more in the deep aquifer than the shallow aquifer. Further, only a few groundwater samples lie below the permissible limit of F−, and this indicates a risk of dental caries in the populace of the study area. The present study indicates that regular monitoring of groundwater is an important step to avoid human health risks and to assess its quality for various ecological purposes.Peer reviewe

Semen parameters and fertility potency of a cloned water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) bull produced from a semen-derived epithelial cell.

Semen contains epithelial cells that can be cultured in vitro. For somatic cell nuclear transfer applications, it is essential to know whether clone(s) produced from semen-derived epithelial cells (SedECs) are healthy and reproductively competent. In this study, the semen and fertility profile of a cloned bull (C1) that was produced from a SedEC were compared with its donor (D1) and with two cloned bulls (C2, C3) that were produced from commonly used skin-derived fibroblast cells (SkdFCs). We observed variations in some fresh semen parameters (ejaculated volume and mass motility), frozen-thawed sperm parameters (plasma membrane integrity, and computer-assisted semen analysis (CASA) indices), but values are within the normal expected range. There was no difference in sperm concentration of ejaculated semen and frozen-thawed semen parameters which include sperm motility, percentage of live and normal morphology sperm, and distance traveled through oestrus mucus. Following in vitro fertilization (IVF) experiments, zygotes from C1 had higher (P < 0.05) cleavage rates (81%) than C2, C3, and D1 (71%, 67%, and 75%, respectively); however, blastocyst development per cleaved embryo and quality of produced blastocysts did not differ. The conception rate of C1 was 46% (7/15) and C2 was 50% (8/15) following artificial insemination with frozen-thawed semen. Established pregnancies resulted in births of 7 and 6 progenies sired by C1 and C2, respectively, and all calves show no signs of phenotypical abnormalities. These results showed that semen from a cloned bull derived from SedECs is equivalent to semen from its donor bull and bulls cloned from SkdFCs

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Not AvailableSomatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) technology provides an opportunity to multiply superior animals that could speed up dissemination of favorable genes into the population. In the present study, we attempted to reproduce a superior breeding bull of Murrah buffalo, the best dairy breed of buffalo, using donor cells that were established from tail-skin biopsy and seminal plasma. We studied several parameters such as cell cycle stages, histone modifcations (H3K9ac and H3K27me3) and expression of developmental genes in donor cells to determine their SCNT reprogramming potentials. We successfully produced the cloned bull from an embryo that was produced from the skin-derived cell. Growth, blood hematology, plasma biochemistries, and reproductive organs of the produced cloned bull were found normal. Subsequently, the bull was employed for semen production. Semen parameters such as CASA (Computer Assisted Semen Analysis) variables and in vitro fertilizing ability of sperms of the cloned bull were found similar to non-cloned bulls, including the donor bull. At present, we have 12 live healthy progenies that were produced using artificial insemination of frozen semen of the cloned bull, which indicate that the cloned bull is fertile and can be utilized in the buffalo breeding schemes. Taken together, we demonstrate that SCNT can be used to reproduce superior buffalo bulls.Not Availabl