The association of lectin-like oxidized LDL receptor 1 (LOX-1) K167N and 3'UTR188CT polymorphisms with maternal plasma soluble LOX-1 levels and preeclampsia risk in Turkish population

PURPOSE

To investigate the main effect of polymorphisms in genes involved in endothelial pathophysiological mechanisms, LOX-1 K167N and 3'UTR188CT single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in relation to preeclampsia (PE) risk and possible interactions between the gene polymorphisms and plasma oxLDL and soluble LOX-1 (sLOX-1) levels on PE in Turkish population.

METHODS

LOX-1 K167N and 3'UTR188CT polymorphisms were studied in 113 pregnant women with preeclampsia and 96 healthy pregnant women by the PCR-RFLP techniques. sLOX-1 and oxLDL levels were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in all study subjects.

RESULTS

Patients having LOX-1 3'UTR188CT (OR 3.55, 95% CI 1.89-6.67, P = 0.001) or 3'UTR188CC (OR 3.04, 95% CI 1.25-7.38, P = 0.012) genotype had a significantly higher risk of PE than those with 3'UTR188TT genotype. Also, patients having K167N KK (OR 2.73, 95% CI 1.33-5.61, P = 0.005) genotype had a significantly higher risk of PE than those with K167N NN genotype. LOX-1 3'UTR188TT and LOX-1 K167N NN genotype carriers were associated with significantly increased serum sLOX-1 level (P = 0.001). We further investigated the potential combined effect of these polymorphic variants on risk of PE development. According to the combined genotype analysis of LOX-1 3'UTR188TT and K167N NN polymorphisms, sLOX-1 and oxLDL levels also showed significant differences between PE patients and controls with or without combined TT/NN genotype carriers.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings indicate that higher plasma sLOX-1 and oxLDL concentrations, and the LOX-1 3'UTR188C>T and LOX-1 K167N gene polymorphisms were significantly associated with risk of developing preeclampsia. Plasma sLOX-1 may be a potential therapeutic target in the treatment of preeclampsia.

Paraoxonase, oxidized low density lipoprotein, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 and adhesion molecules are associated with macrovascular complications in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

AIM

The aim of this paper was to evaluate the association between blood glucose, oxidative stress, inflammation, endothelial dysfunction and paraoxonase activity as contributors to the accelerated atherosclerosis seen in type 2 diabetic patients.

METHODS

Plasma malondialdehyde (MDA), oxidized LDL (oxLDL), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), and vascular cellular adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) levels and paraoxonase-1 (PON1) activity were measured in sixty type 2 diabetic patients, 30 of whom had macrovascular complications, and 30 controls.

RESULTS

Diabetics with macrovascular complications had higher levels of MDA, oxLDL, MCP-1, ICAM-1, VCAM-1 than those without, and the difference was significant for all molecules except for ICAM-1. PON1 activity and ApoA1 levels of the controls were significantly higher than that of the patients, while PON1 activity and ApoA1 levels in the patients with macrovascular complications were significantly lower than that in patients without. Ambient plasma glucose concentration showed a significant positive association with plasma MDA, oxLDL, MCP-1, and VCAM, and a significant inverse association with PON1 and ApoA1 in diabetic patients. A significant positive correlation between oxLDL and MDA, a negative correlation between oxLDL and PON1; a significant inverse association between MDA and PON1; a positive correlation between MDA and MCP-1 and VCAM while a negative correlation between PON1 and MCP-1 and VCAM were detected in patients.

CONCLUSION

Hyperglycemia might play a significant role in generating increased oxidative stress, and decreased PON1 activity, resulting in elevated oxLDL, MCP-1 and VCAM levels. This might be one of the causal pathogenic factors initiating accelerated atherosclerosis in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The implication of these findings are unclear and therefore further studies are required.

The effects on oxidative DNA damage of laparoscopic gastric band applications in morbidly obese patients

BACKGROUND

Obesity may induce oxidative stress, causing oxidative damage of DNA. We examined associations between decreasing serum and urinary 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) levels and weight loss in morbidly obese patients before and 6 months after laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB).

METHODS

We compared patients who had surgery for morbid obesity with healthy, nonobese controls. Urine and fasting blood samples were collected once from the controls and from the morbidly obese patients before and 6 months after the LAGB. The serum and urinary 8-OHdG levels were evaluated in these groups using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit.

RESULTS

We included 20 patients who had surgery for morbid obesity (8 men, 12 women, mean body mass index [BMI] 46.82 ± 4.47) and 20 healthy, nonobese people (10 men, 10 women, mean BMI 22.52 ± 2.08) in our study. There was no significant difference in serum 8-OHdG levels between the groups, whereas urinary 8- OHdG levels were significantly higher in morbidly obese patients than in controls. Weight, BMI and serum and urinary 8-OHdG levels were significantly decreased in morbidly obese patients 6 months after LAGB.

CONCLUSION

The LAGB provides efficient weight loss in patients with morbid obesity. The systemic oxidative DNA damage was increased by the morbid obesity, but this increase was not related to weight gain, and it was more evident in serum than urine samples. After LAGB for morbid obesity, the oxidative DNA damage declined both in serum and urine.

Serum thymidine kinase 1 activity in solid tumor (breast and colorectal cancer) patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to evaluate the changing of TK1 (where TK is thymidine kinase) activity before and after adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with breast and colorectal cancer.

METHODS

The study included 16 breast cancer, 25 colorectal cancer, and 38 healthy volunteers as the control group. Blood samples were taken twice from each patient; first at the beginning of the chemotherapy and second after six cycles of chemotherapy. TK1 activity was measured enzyme immunoassay method.

RESULTS

The mean TK1 activity in the breast and colorectal cancer was significantly higher than the controls. TK1 activity in the colorectal cancer was higher than the breast cancer but this difference was not significant. TK1 activity after six doses of chemotherapy was lower than baseline TK1 activity before the start of chemotherapy in breast and colorectal cancer. TK1 activity was positively correlated with CA15-3, before and after chemotherapy in patients with breast cancer. TK1 activity in the colorectal cancer was also positively correlated with CA19-9, before and after chemotherapy. The values for the cutoff point, sensitivity, specificity, and the area under curve were determined for TK1 as >44.36 Du/L, 68.29%, 100% and 0.819, respectively in all subjects.

CONCLUSION

Our results showed that serum TK1 activity in patients with breast and colorectal cancer was significantly higher than that of the healthy controls. Moreover, after the completion of chemotherapy the values were lower than baseline. Pretreatment TK1 activity should be considered as a useful marker for assessment tumor cell proliferation in breast and colorectal cancer. Further work is needed to understand TK1 activity better in large populations of patients with solid tumor.

Evaluation of serum paraoxonase and arylesterase activities in subjects with asthma and chronic obstructive lung disease

BACKGROUND

Asthma and chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) are characterised by airway inflammation. Paraoxonasel (PON1) and arylesterase (AE) enzymes have the ability to protect HDL from oxidation and may have antiatherogenic, antioxidant, and antiinflammatory features. We carried out a study to assess if there is a difference between PON1 and AE activities and biochemical values between asthmatics and COPD patients and if there is a difference between comorbid or pure COPD patients.

METHODS

40 asthmatics, 20 pure COPD, 20 comorbid COPD patients, and 20 healthy controls were included. We excluded patients with hypertension, metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus, thyroid, renal, hepatic, rheumatic, cardiac, cerebrovascular, malignant, and infectious diseases to establish the asthma and pure COPD groups. Patients using drugs which could affect PON1 and AE were excluded in these groups. There were 11 hypertensive, 5 diabetic, and 4 cardiac patients in the comorbid COPD group. PON1 and AE activities were measured spectrophotometrically.

RESULTS

Mean age was higher and male gender was more prevalant in COPD than other groups. Fasting blood glucose, LDL-cholesterol, triglyceride, leucocyte counts, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and hs-CRP levels were higher in COPD patients. Although PON1 and AE were lower in patients than controls, no difference was found between the asthma and COPD groups, nor between pure and comorbid COPD patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Although asthma and COPD are two different conditions PON1 and AE activities cannot be markers of differantial diagnosis as they overlap. Comorbid COPD patients may have similar enzyme levels because of the drugs such as statins and aspirin.

The relationship between ischemia modified albumin and oxidative stress parameters in patients with cardiac syndrome X

BACKGROUND

The objective of this study was to evaluate the serum levels of ischemia modified albumin and oxidative stress parameters in patients with cardiac syndrome X.

METHODS

A total of 61 patients, composed of 32 consecutive patients (24 female, 8 male, average age: 47.63 +/- 9.49 years) diagnosed with cardiac syndrome X by coronary angiography (initially performed following the identification of ischemia by exercise stress test or myocardial perfusion scintigraphy) and a control group of 29 consecutive patients (15 female, 14 male, average age: 49.59 +/- 11.68 years) with similar features without cardiac syndrome X were included in the study. The levels of the ischemia modified albumin (IMA), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), prooxidant-antioxidant balance (PAB), and advanced protein oxidation products (AOPP) were determined by colorimetric methods.

RESULTS

Patients have significantly higher PAB, AOPP, and IMA levels in the patient group than in the control group (p < 0.01, p < 0.001, and p < 0.02, respectively). Also, serum triglyceride (p < 0.005) and hs-CRP (p < 0.0001) levels were significantly higher in the patient group (p < 0.01, p < 0.001, and p < 0.02, respectively). We found that there was a significant correlation between hs-CRP, plasma PAB (r: 0.258; p < 0.05), AOPP (r: 0.459; p < 0.001), and triglyceride levels (r: 0.404; p < 0.01). Plasma AOPP levels were also significantly positive correlated with triglyceride levels (r: 0.463; p < 0.001). In addition, during the correlation analysis performed on the patient group, a positive correlation was observed between the levels of IMA with the levels of plasma PAB and plasma AOPP (r: 0,994; p < 0.01 and r: 0.857; p < 0.05, respectively) In a multiple linear regression analysis, AOPP levels were significantly related with hs-CRP and triglyceride (R2: 0.380, p < 0.0001 and p < 0.05). Simple linear regression analysis was performed between plasma PAB (as dependent variable) and hs-CRP levels. Plasma PAB levels were related with hs-CRP (R2: 0.258, p < 0.05). Using the receiver-operator characteristic (ROC) curve, the best cut-off values for predicting cardiac syndrome X of PAD, AOPP, IMA, and hs-CRP levels were 88.1 arbitrary units, 68.5 kloramin T micromol/L, 7.17 U/mL, and 1.09 mg/dL, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the results of our study, the increase in oxidative stress during cardiac syndrome X appears to be related to elevated levels of IMA. Treatment modalities that decrease oxidative stress might be beneficial for the treatment of cardiac syndrome X.

The role of pentraxin 3 as diagnostic value in classification of patients with heart failure

OBJECTIVE

Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is a new inflammatory marker that is the prototype of the long pentraxin group, while C-reactive protein (CRP) is the short pentraxin group. The aim of the present study was to investigate the clinical significance of plasma PTX3 and CRP levels in heart failure (HF).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study included 22 male and 37 female patients with HF, and 23 healthy volunteers as the control group. Patients were divided into 4 groups (class I, II, III and IV) according to New York Heart Association functional class.

RESULTS

Plasma PTX3 and CRP levels were significantly elevated in HF patients compared to healthy controls. Comparing PTX3 levels in patient groups, statistically significant difference was found between class-I and class-II, class-III and class-IV patients (p=0.009, p=0.001, p<0.001, respectively). There was a positive correlation between PTX3 and CRP levels (r=0.369, p=0.004). In receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves, area under the curve (AUC) values for PTX3 and CRP were 0.928 (p=0.001) and 0.834 (p=0.001), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Plasma PTX3 levels are elevated in HF and might be used as diagnostic value in classification of patients with HF. It is still debated whether inflammation may be just a cause or a consequence of the disease. Therefore further work is needed to better understand in large populations of patients with HF.

The role of feed regulating peptides on weight loss in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis

PURPOSE

Malnutrition is a prominent feature of tuberculosis (TB). The aim of our study was to explore the function of plasma regulatory proteins in pulmonary TB and to investigate the relationship between these parameters and loss of body weight.

METHODS

Plasma levels of fasting insulin, leptin, ghrelin, adiponectin and orexin-A were measured in 23 pulmonary TB patients, 39 patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis, 22 patients with different diffuse interstitial lung diseases and 21 healthy patients serving as controls.

RESULT

Plasma leptin (p<0.001) and orexin-A (p<0.01) levels were significantly decreased in TB patients compared with those of the other study subjects. TB patients also had higher levels of plasma ghrelin compared with those of the other study subjects, while sarcoidosis patients had higher plasma adiponectin levels than the other study subjects. Glucose levels were similar in all groups, yet, insulin and Homeostasis Model of Assessment-Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) levels were significantly higher in the TB group compared to the other study groups. There was no correlation between leptin, ghrelin, adiponectin and orexin-A and other parameters.

CONCLUSIONS

These data suggest that leptin and orexin-A levels have effects on weight loss in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. Particularly, leptin may play a role in the early immune response to pulmonary TB and prolonged inflammation may further suppress leptin production. Measurement of HOMA-IR can indeed be used as a marker for the risk of activated TB. Further clinical studies are needed to better understand the role of feed regulating proteins in pulmonary tuberculosis.