α-Dystroglycanopathy (α-DGP) is a group of muscular dystrophy characterized by abnormal glycosylation of α-dystroglycan (α-DG), including Fukuyama congenital muscular dystrophy (FCMD), muscle-eye-brain disease, Walker-Warburg syndrome, and congenital muscular dystrophy type 1D (MDC1D), etc. LARGE, the causative gene for MDC1D, encodes a glycosyltransferase to form [-3Xyl-α1,3GlcAβ1-] polymer in...

BACKGROUND Hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance have been recently recognized as an important cause of atherosclerosis. Clinical studies have also found that expression of the estrogen receptor is closely related to the incidence of atherosclerosis. This study investigate the effects of insulin and estrogen receptor α (ER-α) in atherosclerosis. METHODS Double knockout ApoE/Lepr mice were g...

Tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) is a key regulator of inflammation and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). TNF-α blocker therapies can be very effective for a substantial number of patients, but fail to work in one third of patients who show no or minimal response. It is therefore necessary to discover new molecular intervention points involved in TNF-α blocker treatment of rheumatoid arthritis patients...

Alpha (Α) thalassaemia is the most common inherited disorder in Malaysia. The clinical severity is dependant on the number of Α genes involved. Full blood count (FBC) and haemoglobin (Hb) analysis using either gel electrophoresis, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or capillary zone electrophoresis (CE) are unable to detect definitively alpha thalassaemia carriers. Definitive diagnos...

Background: The majority of adult tribal subjects in the western part India, show microcytic hypochromic red cells, and borderline anemia with a normal iron profile, suggesting high prevalence thalassemia this population. Methods: current study was designed to perform qualitative (to screen for Hb Bart’s) quantitative estimate percentage hemoglobin electrophoresis modification method, evaluate ...

BACKGROUND Genetic factors may play a role in the susceptibility of Ischemic stroke (IS). Previous studies have shown that Tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) gene polymorphisms were associated with the risk of IS in multiple ethnicities. The present case-control study tested the hypothesis that genetic polymorphisms of the TNF-α gene may affect the risk of IS in North Indian population. We invest...