Sixty eight adult ewes of Zel sheep breed were screened with forced PCR RFLP method for the detection of the FecB gene and its effects on litter size. Genomic DNA was extracted from the blood of 68 Zel matured ewes with litter size varied from 1 to 2 lambs per ewe lambing. Digestion of the FecB gene (190 base pairs) with AvaII restriction enzyme resulted in none carrier 190 bp band wild type in...

Unaccustomed exercise may cause muscle breakdown with marked increase in serum creatine kinase (CK) activity. The skeletal muscle renin-angiotensin system (RAS) plays an important role in exercise metabolism and tissue injury. A functional insertion (I)/deletion (D) polymorphism in the angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) gene (rs4646994) has been associated with ACE activity. We hypothesized ...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotype and its role in disease progression and patients' response to antiviral treatment, is not well studied in Pakistan. This comprehensive study was aimed to determine the distribution of HBV genotypes in Pakistan and their possible association with phases of HBV infection. METHODS A total of 840 HBsAg positive samples was collected and tested for HBV D...

BACKGROUND & AIMS Hepatitis C viral infection (HCV) after injection drug use is very prevalent. The kind of genotype determines the response to treatment. However, no systematic review update on the global genotype distribution of HCV in people who inject drugs (PWID) is currently available. METHODS A systematic review was performed by using the keywords: Genotype, Hepatitis C, Injection drug...

Age at onset is one of the most important factors that affects the clinical course in Alzheimer disease (AD), whereas other factors such as apolipoprotein E (apoE) genotype may also play a major role. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of age at onset and apoE genotype on white-matter changes in AD using diffusion tensor imaging. About 213 patients with AD and 66 normal individua...

Species whose reproductive strategies evolved at one density regime might be poorly adapted to other regimes. Field and laboratory experiments on the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus franciscanus examined the influences of the two most common sperm-bindin alleles, which differ at two amino acid sites, on fertilization success. In the field experiment, the arginine/glycine (RG) genotype performed b...

Extensive genomic diversity has been observed among hepatitis E virus (HEV) strains. However, the implication of the genetic heterogeneity on HEV antigenic properties is uncertain. In this study, monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) against truncated ORF2-encoded proteins (aa452-617, designated p166 proteins) derived from HEV strains of Burma (genotype 1a, p166Bur), Pakistan (1b, p166Pak) and Morocco (...

BACKGROUND Both alcohol consumption and the proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) gene polymorphism modulate serum lipid levels, but their interactions on serum lipid profiles are still unknown. The present study was undertaken to detect the interactions of PCSK9 E670G polymorphism and alcohol consumption on serum lipid levels. METHODS Genotypes of the PCSK9 E670G in 1352 unre...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Atherothrombotic diseases including stroke share a common etiology of atherosclerosis, and susceptibility to atherosclerosis has a genetic component. Stromelysin-1 (matrix metalloproteinase-3 [MMP3]) regulates arterial matrix composition and is a candidate gene for atherothrombosis. A common polymorphism of MMP3 alters expression levels and affects atherosclerotic progres...