Effects of Chromium Picolinate on Micronucleus Frequency and Morphology of Lymphocytes in Calves

We report the effects of chromium picolinate (CrPic) on micronucleus frequency, morphology of lymphocytes, and lipid peroxidation in calves. Twenty-four Holstein calves were selected for the study. They were kept in a farm and were fed a commercially available calf diet and alfalfa, ad libitum. The animals were divided into three groups of eight subjects each and were treated as follows: The first group was supplemented with a daily dose of 200 μg Cr as chromium picolinate; a second group received 400 μg Cr per day and a third group that served as control received no supplemental chromium. After 12-week supplementation, blood samples were collected to determine the micronucleus frequency, the apoptotic cell percentage, and the malondialdehyde (MDA) and blood chromium levels. In both supplemented groups, the cells had irregularly shaped and segmented nuclei. Supplementation also increased the percentage of apoptotic cells (p < 0.001) and serum MDA (p < 0.01) and slightly increased the chromium levels. The animals supplemented with 400 μg showed a significant increase of micronucleus frequency (p < 0.01). The results of this study suggest that supplementation with 200 and 400 μg chromium as chromium picolinate may lead to cytotoxicity. The higher level of supplementation may also have genotoxic effects. However, further studies investigating the mechanism of the action of CrPic are required.     

Epidemic Clone I-Specific Genetic Markers in Strains of Listeria monocytogenes Serotype 4b from Foods

Listeria monocytogenes contamination of ready-to-eat foods has been implicated in numerous outbreaks of food-borne listeriosis. However, the health hazards posed by L. monocytogenes detected in foods may vary, and speculations exist that strains actually implicated in illness may constitute only a fraction of those that contaminate foods. In this study, examination of 34 serogroup 4 (putative or confirmed serotype 4b) isolates of L. monocytogenes obtained from various foods and food-processing environments, without known implication in illness, revealed that many of these strains had methylation of cytosines at GATC sites in the genome, rendering their DNA resistant to digestion by the restriction endonuclease Sau3AI. These strains also harbored a gene cassette with putative restriction-modification system genes as well as other, genomically unlinked genetic markers characteristic of the major epidemic-associated lineage of L. monocytogenes (epidemic clone I), implicated in numerous outbreaks in Europe and North America. This may reflect a relatively high fitness of strains with these genetic markers in foods and food-related environments relative to other serotype 4b strains and may partially account for the repeated involvement of such strains in human food-borne listeriosis.     

Partial Purification and Some Interesting Properties of Glutathione Peroxidase from Liver of Camel (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Camelus dromedarius</Emphasis>)

Climate change and increasing temperatures are global concerns. Well adapted to desert life, the camel (Camelus dromedarius) lives most of its life under high environmental stress and represents an ideal model for studying desert adaptation among mammals. Glutathione peroxidase is the principal antioxidant defense system capable of protecting cells from oxidative stress. Glutathione Peroxidase from camel liver was purified (11.64-fold purification with 1.73% yield) and characterized The molecular weight of the enzyme was estimated to be about 69 kDa by gel filtration and 34 kDa by SDS-PAGE, implying dimeric structure of the protein. An optimum temperature of 47°C and an optimum pH of 7.8 were found. This enzyme is a typical SH-enzyme that is inhibited by D,L-dithiothreitol and β-mercaptoethanol and sensitive to bivalent cations. The enzyme had common specificity toward hydroperoxides and high specificity for reduced glutathione. The K_m and V_max values for hydrogen peroxide and reduced glutathione were 0.57 and 2.10 mM and 1.11 and 0.87 U/mg, respectively. The purified enzyme contained 16 ng of selenium per mg of protein. Our results show that the camel glutathione peroxidse exhibits properties different of those reported for other mammalian species. Lower molecular weight, homodimeric structure, higher optimum temperature, relatively low optimum pH, high affinity for hydrogen peroxide at low concentration of reduced glutathione and very low content of selenium could be explained by adaptation of the camel to living in the desert under intense environmental stress.     

Targeted metabolomic profiling of low and high grade serous epithelial ovarian cancer tissues: a pilot study

Introduction

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) remains the leading cause of death from gynecologic malignancies and has an alarming global fatality rate. Besides the differences in underlying pathogenesis, distinguishing between high grade (HG) and low grade (LG) EOC is imperative for the prediction of disease progression and responsiveness to chemotherapy.

Objectives

The aim of this study was to investigate, the tissue metabolome associated with HG and LG serous epithelial ovarian cancer.

Methods

A combination of one dimensional proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1D H NMR) spectroscopy and targeted mass spectrometry (MS) was employed to profile the tissue metabolome of HG, LG serous EOCs, and controls.

Results

Using partial least squares-discriminant analysis, we observed significant separation between all groups (p?<?0.05) following cross validation. We identified which metabolites were significantly perturbed in each EOC grade as compared with controls and report the biochemical pathways which were perturbed due to the disease. Among these metabolic pathways, ascorbate and aldarate metabolism was identified, for the first time, as being significantly altered in both LG and HG serous cancers. Further, we have identified potential biomarkers of EOC and generated predictive algorithms with AUC (CI)?=?0.940 and 0.929 for HG and LG, respectively.

Conclusion

These previously unreported biochemical changes provide a framework for future metabolomic studies for the development of EOC biomarkers. Finally, pharmacologic targeting of the key metabolic pathways identified herein could lead to novel and effective treatments of EOC.

     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">PLP1</Emphasis> Gene Variation Modulates Leftward and Rightward Functional Hemispheric Asymmetries

Molecular neurobiological factors determining corpus callosum physiology and anatomy have been suggested to be one of the major factors determining functional hemispheric asymmetries. Recently, it was shown that allelic variations in two myelin-related genes, the proteolipid protein 1 gene PLP1 and the contactin 1 gene CNTN1, are associated with differences in interhemispheric integration. Here, we investigated whether three single nucleotide polymorphisms that were associated with interhemispheric integration via the corpus callosum in a previous study also are relevant for functional hemispheric asymmetries. To this end, we tested more than 900 healthy adults with the forced attention dichotic listening task, a paradigm to assess language lateralization and its modulation by cognitive control processes. Moreover, we used the line bisection task, a paradigm to assess functional hemispheric asymmetries in spatial attention. We found that a polymorphism in PLP1, but not CNTN1, was associated with performance differences in both tasks. Both functional hemispheric asymmetries and their modulation by cognitive control processes were affected. These findings suggest that both left and right hemisphere dominant cognitive functions can be modulated by allelic variation in genes affecting corpus callosum structure. Moreover, higher order cognitive processes may be relevant parameters when investigating the molecular basis of hemispheric asymmetries.     

Neuroelectric responses of sportsmen and sedentaries under cognitive stress

Stress and anxiety are states which sportsmen are continuously exposed to. Our study aimed to evaluate neuroelectrical peripheral and central nervous system responses of sportsmen (SPR) and sedentary individuals (SED) during concentration grid test (CGT) employed under time pressure. Forty three SPR and 33 SED participated in the study. Neuroelectrical responses were simultaneously obtained during baseline and CGT. All responses were observed to increase under stress in both SED and SPR. The SPR’s stress related peripheral responses were lower than SED’s. When central values were evaluated a stress related increase according to baseline was observed in all frequency powers in all of the participants. Statistical comparison of increase rates revealed a significantly greater increase in beta in SED compared to SPR. Beta has been associated to alertness and cortical arousal. As SED exhibit greater beta increase under stress compared to SPR their state of cortical arousal and alertness may be interpreted to be higher than SPR. However the SPR’s weak increase in beta and their lower peripheral responses taken together may imply that they are better in stress management. In fact according to their performance scores the SPR’s higher level of performance under stress compared to SED shows that they are better at maintaining and focusing their attention under stress than SED.     

Blood Cadmium Concentrations in Women with Ectopic Pregnancy

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the blood level of cadmium and the occurrence of ectopic pregnancy. Forty-one (41) case patients with ectopic pregnancy and 41 uncomplicated intrauterine pregnant patients as controls were recruited. The concentrations of cadmium (Cd) were measured from blood samples using atomic absorption spectrometry. The cases and controls were similar in age, body mass index, and smoking habits. The median blood level of Cd was 0.32 μg/l (interquartile range [IQR] 0.00–0.71) in the women with ectopic pregnancies and 0.34 μg/l (IQR 0.09–0.59) in the controls. There was no significant association between blood cadmium levels and ectopic pregnancy.