BACKGROUND Intervertebral disc degeneration (DD) is an important cause of low back pain and its precise aetiology is not fully understood, being attributed to cumulative environmental, biomechanical and genetic effects. The vitamin D plays a key role in regulation of calcium homeostasis and bone mineralization, exerting its biological activities by binding to a high-affinity receptor (VDR). Pol...

Abstract Background Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that regulates calcium and phosphorous homeostasis to maintain healthy mineralized skeleton. It can also influence immune responses has immunomodulatory properties. receptor (VDR) nuclear mediates the activities of hormonal form D. VDR polymorphisms alter immunity susceptibility infections by modulating expression activity. This study aimed...

Natural resistance-associated macrophage protein (Nramp1) and the vitamin D receptor (VDR) are central components of the innate and adaptive immunity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and associations between susceptibility to tuberculosis and polymorphisms in the genes NRAMP and VDR have been sought in geographically diverse populations. We investigated associations of NRAMP1 and VDR gene po...

Listeria monocytogenes, an emerging foodborne pathogen, can cause in the population at risk severe infections that are associated with high case fatality rates. A total of 93 L. monocytogenes strains isolated from different patients in Switzerland from July 2011 to September 2013 were further characterized. Septicemia was reported for 74.2% of the patients, meningitis for 10.8%, and abortion fo...

A physical map of the apple proliferation phytoplasma strain AT chromosome was constructed from genomic DNA extracted from diseased tobacco plants. The map was generated with single and double digestions of the chromosome with BssHII, SmaI, MluI, and ApaI restriction endonucleases and resolving the fragments by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Partial digestion and Southern blot analysis were ...

Although isolates of the "Streptococcus milleri" group (SMG) of bacteria are regarded as members of the commensal microflora of the body, they are frequently encountered in purulent infections from a range of body sites. The genetic diversity of 91 epidemiologically unrelated SMG isolates (including 37 commensal strains and 49 disease-associated strains) was analyzed by macrorestriction fingerp...

The current study investigated the association between vitamin-D-receptor (VDR) genotypes with bone-mineral density (BMD) and its interaction with physical activity level (PAL). Individuals in a sample of 192 volunteers (67.84 +/- 5.23 years) underwent BMD evaluation and were genotyped for VDR ApaI, BsmI, FokI, and TaqI polymorphisms. Haplotypes were reconstructed through expectation-maximizati...