RANTES, a CC chemokine, plays an important role in the inflammatory response associated with Helicobacter pylori infection. However, the mechanism by which H. pylori induces RANTES expression in the gastric mucosa is unknown. We cocultured gastric epithelial cells with wild-type H. pylori, isogenic oipA mutants, cag pathogenicity island (PAI) mutants, or double knockout mutants. Reverse transcr...

Background. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is considered as the leading cause of the cardiovascular fatalities worldwide. CAD is diagnosed by many modalities of imaging such as myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) and coronary angiography (CAG). Methods. A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted that included all patients referred to the KAMC (King Abdullah Medical City) nuclear cardiolo...

OBJECTIVE To relate the repeat length of the androgen-receptor CAG trinucleotide to the age of onset of prostate cancer, stage and grade of disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS After obtaining ethical approval, 265 patients with locally confined or locally advanced/metastatic prostate cancer were identified and evaluated for age at diagnosis (< 65 years and > 75 years). DNA was extracted from periph...

Dentatorubral-pallidoluysian atrophy (DRPLA) is known to show the most prominent genetic anticipation among CAG repeat diseases. To investigate the mechanism underlying the meiotic instability of expanded CAG repeats in the gene for DRPLA, we determined the CAG repeat sizes of 427 single sperm from two individuals with DRPLA. The mean variance of the change in the CAG repeat size in sperm from ...

Transition metals are necessary for all forms of life including microorganisms, evidenced by the fact that 30% of all proteins are predicted to interact with a metal cofactor. Through a process termed nutritional immunity, the host actively sequesters essential nutrient metals away from invading pathogenic bacteria. Neutrophils participate in this process by producing several metal chelating pr...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) is a reproductive problem that occurs in women in reproductive age with a frequency of 1-3 per cent. Previous studies have reported high levels of serum androgens to be associated with RSAs. At the molecular level, the effect of androgens is mediated through the activation of the androgen receptor (AR). The CAG and GGN repeat polymorp...

Huntington disease (HD; OMIM 143100), a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, is caused by an expanded trinucleotide CAG (polyQ) motif in the HTT gene. Cardiovascular symptoms, often present in early stage HD patients, are, in general, ascribed to dysautonomia. However, cardio-specific expression of polyQ peptides caused pathological response in murine models, suggesting the presence of a ner...

Mitochondrial DNA polymerase gamma (POLG) is the only DNA polymerase involved in maintaining the mitochondrial genome. Recent studies demonstrated an association of CAG repeat polymorphism in the second exon of POLG gene with the risk of cancer. We investigated the CAG repeat variability in the POLG gene in tumor and non-tumor tissues from colorectal cancer patients and in DNA samples isolated ...

BACKGROUND Longer CAG repeat length is associated with faster clinical progression in Huntington disease, although the effect of higher repeat length on brain atrophy is not well documented. METHOD Striatal volumes were obtained from MRI scans of 720 individuals with prodromal Huntington disease. Striatal volume was plotted against age separately for groups with CAG repeat lengths of 38-39, 4...

ECG body surface maps (BSM) is one of the noninvasive methods for the detection of ischemic heart disease. In the present work we registered the BSM in 25 patients, 18 men, mean age 56.8 (31-83) years, 7 women, mean age 58.7 (43-72) years with coronary artery disease and in 23 healthy persons, 17 men, mean age 55 (46-60) years, 6 women, mean age 57 (42-70) years. Using diagnostic system Cardiag...