Background and Aims: During recent years, the relationship between vitamin D levels and chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection has attracted many researchers' attention. However, the results relating to the association of vitamin D levels and HBV infection have been conflicting and there remains a lack of knowledge about the effects of antiviral treatments on vitamin D level. Methods: Eighty-four ...

this study determines the value of linkage analysis using six rflp markers for carrier detection and prenatal diagnosis in familial dmd/bmd cases and their family members for the first time in the iranian population. we studied the dystrophin gene in 33 unrelated patients with clinical diagnosis of dmd or bmd. subsequently, we determined the rate of heterozygosity for six intragenic rflp marker...

Targeting of drug carriers to cell adhesion molecules expressed on endothelial cells (ECs) may improve treatment of diseases involving the vascular endothelium. This is the case for carriers targeted to intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), an endothelial surface protein overexpressed in many pathologies. In order to optimize our design of anti-ICAM carriers, we have explored in this stud...

Low birth weight (LBW) infants have increased susceptibility to perinatal complications. An immature and impaired vascular system may possibly participate in these complications. There is evidence that supports the notion that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which is an essential regulator of embryonic angiogenesis, plays a central role in the pathogenesis of perinatal complications....

Background: Breast cancer is a major public health problem around the world, including Thailand and it has the highest ranking among female cancer. Currently, the diversity or polymorphism of ERCC1 gene (excision repair cross-complementary group 1 gene or ERCC1) was reported to associate with an increased risk of breast cancer. This study aims to investigate the relationship between ERCC1 polym...

We assessed the prevalence of Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes in the nasopharynx of healthy children, antimicrobial susceptibility patterns, risk factors for carriage, and the coverage of heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. In 2,799 healthy infants and children, the S. pneumoniae carrier rate was 8.6% (serotypes 3, 19F, 23F, 19A, 6B, and 14 were most common). Most pneumococci (69.4%)...

We aimed to find out if the serotonin receptor (HT102T>C) and serotonin transporter (STin 2) polymorphisms play any role in genetic susceptibility of migraine. For the study, 217 migraine patients and 217 healthy controls (HC) were recruited and genotyping was carried out using the Polymerase Chain Reaction and Restriction Fragment Length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method. All results were Bonferr...

OBJECTIVE To delineate a novel autosomal recessive multiple congenital anomaly-mental retardation (MCA-MR) syndrome in 2 female siblings of a consanguineous pedigree and to identify the disease-causing mutation. STUDY DESIGN Both siblings were clinically characterized and homozygosity mapping and sequencing of candidate genes were applied. The contribution of nonsense-mediated messenger RNA (...

BACKGROUND/AIM To define the frequency of familial Mediterranean fever gene (MEFV) mutations in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and describe different clinical aspects of MEFV mutation carrier and noncarrier AS patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS In 112 AS patients, Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) and Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index (BASFI) scores were calcula...