Investigation of the relationship between obesity and Blastocystis infection in an adult population in Aydin, Turkey

Blastocystis is one of the most frequent protozoa in human faecal samples, however, little is known about its relation with obesity. The present study aimed to analyse Blastocystis infection and subtypes in three adult populations classified according to body mass index (BMI). Faecal samples from 346 individuals were classified according to BMI: control (124 cases), overweight (110 cases), and obese (112 cases). Nucleic acid extraction from the samples was followed by amplification of partial 18S ribosomal RNA (18S rRNA) gene of Blastocystis. The neighbourjoining method was used to construct a phylogenetic tree from evolutionary distance data. Clinical findings were compared between Blastocystis infected and non-infected cases. Blastocystis was detected in 52 (15%) of 346 individuals with PCR assay. Blastocystis was less frequent in obese group (8%) than both control group (18.2%) and overweight group (18.5%). Subtype distribution was as follows: ST3 (n=21; 43.8%), ST2 (n=15; 31.3%), ST1 (n=10; 20.8%) and ST7 (n=2; 4.2%). The overall nucleotide diversity of 18S ribosomal RNA gene was 0.049. None of the gastrointestinal symptoms and gender was not significantly related with the infection. Despite the cross sectional nature of the study including a specific population, it suggests a negative association between Blastocystis infection and obesity. In addition, the lack of significant relation further supports asymptomatic colonization of Blastocystis.

The role of insulin - like growth factor - 1 on steatohepatitis

PURPOSE

Recent studies have revealed that growth hormone and STAT5 were related to hepatosteatosis in mice. Loss of signal transducer and activator of transcription factor-5 leads to hepatosteatosis and impaired liver regeneration. We aimed to investigate the role of IGF-1 in steatosis with normal (SNLFT) and disturbed liver function tests (SDLFT) in humans.

METHODS

We included 272 NAFLD patients and 110 age, sex and body mass index (BMI)-matched healty controls. We measured routine blood biochemistry and complete blood count, IGF-1, insulin, c-peptide, ferritin, hsCRP, ESR and HOMA-IR. We subdivided NAFLD patients into SNLFT and SDLFT subgroups.

RESULTS

ge, sex and BMI were similar between NAFLD and controls. IGF-1 levels were significantly lower in NAFLD patients (120,6±48,2) than controls (148,9±53,8), (<0,0001). IGF-1 levels were also lower in SDLFT subgroup (93,4±27,8) than SNLFT subgroup (123,1±49,0), (p:0,032). Waist circumference, fasting blood glucose, HbA1c, uric acid, hsCRP, AST, ALT, GGT, WBC, hemoglobin, hematocrit, ferritin, insulin, c-peptid and HOMA-IR measurements were significantly higher in NAFLD patients than controls (for all values: p<0,0001).Cholesterol (p:0,026), triglycerides (p<0,0001), ESR (p:0,006) were significantly higher in NAFLD patients than controls. HDL-chelesterol levels were significantly lower (p:0,002) in NAFLD patients than controls.

CONCLUSION

This study supported previous findings of experi-mental studies in that, IGF-1 levels were lower in SNLFT and SDLFT. Growth hormone-IGF-1 system may be involved in the pathogenesis of NAFLD.

Formation, structure and conformational dynamics of highly substituted diphenylcarbonates

The symmetrical carbonates 5-8 were prepared from ethyl 4-hydroxybenzoates with aryl-, 4-(arylethynyl)-phenyl-, arylethynyl- or arylbutadiynyl-substituents in the 3- and 5-positions, by reaction with triphosgene. The choice of base (pyridine, DMAP, NaH) had a strong influence on the conversion: For the synthesis of the carbonates 5 and 6, it was sufficient to use pyridine as the base. However, for the synthesis of the carbonates 7 and 8, NaH had to be used instead. Single-crystal X-ray structure analysis of these carbonates revealed that the substituents point towards the corners of a distorted tetrahedron with the carbonate group sitting in the middle of the tetrahedron and the two angular phenolic building blocks intersecting with an angle of 51-71 degrees. In solution at room temperature, all four substituents are magnetically equivalent as a consequence of conformational flexibility. The two enantiomeric conformers of carbonate 5a interconvert rapidly, probably via a perfect trans conformation with the plane of the Aralpha perpendicular to the carbonate plane. In the case of carbonates 6-8 this process is inhibited by unfavourable interaction of the long substituents at the benzoate moiety. The dynamic process, which has an energy barrier of 8-10 kcalmol(-1), is described in a simplified manner as a continuous rotation of the angular building blocks around the carbonate unit with the C(aryl)-O bonds as the axes of rotation.