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Byline: Mustafa. Karaagaç, Çaglayan. Geredeli, Mahmut. Yildirim, Tamer. Altinok, Isa. Dede, Ali. Inal, Ayse. Zamani, Bugra. Kaya, Ahmet. Demirkazik, Mehmet. Artaç Background: Studies on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in non-small [...]

Byline: Cihan. Erol, Mehmet. Nahit Sendur, Irem. Bilgetekin, Duygu. Garbioglu, Jamshid. Hamdard, Sinem. Akbas, Mutlu. Hizal, Cagatay. Arslan, Alper. Sevinc, Ahmet. Kucukarda, Dilek. Erdem, Seda. Kahraman, Emre. Cakir, Aykut. Demirkiran, [...]

Biochar has proven to increase phosphorus (P) content in acidic soils; since biochar has alkaline character, its long-term applications may have a negative effect on the availability of P and other elements in alkaline soils. Therefore, this study aimed to study a newly developed P fertilizer, phosphorus-enriched biochar (PEB), to evaluate and compare for its agronomic performance on wheat and maize. Rice husk biochar was enriched with concentrated phosphoric acid (PA), (500/84: w/v). X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were used to determine PEB’s functional and structural properties. Under controlled conditions, a greenhouse experiment was conducted with wheat followed by maize to determine the main and residual effects of P. The four treatments were control (no P), triple superphosphate (TSP), PA, and PEB (200 mg·P·kg-1). The experiment was designed using completely randomized design with five replications. Incorporation of PEB in the form of biochar (BC) integrated with PA significantly increased plant dry weight in both crops. PEB resulted in the highest P concentration in wheat (6.38 g kg-1). Similarly, the residual effects were seen in maize (3.18 g kg-1). In both plants, treatments did not significantly affect N and K concentrations. Calcium concentration in the wheat plants increased significantly. Different P sources had different effects on Fe (wheat remained un-changed; decreased in maize), Si, Zn, Cu, and Mn (decreased in both plants). Biochar enriched with PA decreased the soil pH and increased the P concentration in soil, and plant, hence, can replace inorganic P fertilizers as an alternative and in eco-friendly manner. Additional experiments are required for better understanding the main and residual effects of the designed fertilizer. This will enable us to find its effectiveness in growth and P nutrition in different types of soils and crops, which could sustain productivity in alkaline soils.

AbstractNeoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) in gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) and gastric cancer (GC) was shown to improve survival in recent studies. We aimed to share our real-life experience of patients who received NACT to compare the efficacy and toxicity profile of different chemotherapy regimens in our country. This retrospective multicentre study included locally advanced GC and GEJ cancer patients who received NACT between 2007 and 2021. Relation between CT regimens and pathological evaluation were analysed. A total of 794 patients from 45 oncology centers in Turkey were included. Median age at the time of diagnosis was 60 (range: 18–86). Most frequent NACT regimens used were FLOT (65.4%), DCF (17.4%) and ECF (8.1%), respectively. In the total study group, pathological complete remission (pCR) rate was 7.2%, R0 resection rate 86.4%, and D2 dissection rate was 66.8%. Rate of pCR and near-CR (24%), and R0 resection (84%) were numerically higher in FLOT arm (p > 0.05). Patients who received FLOT had also higher chemotherapy-related toxicity rate compared to patients who received other regimens (p > 0.05). Median follow-up time was 16 months (range: 1–154 months). Estimated median overall survival (OS) was 58.4months (95% CI: 35.2–85.7) and disease-free survival (DFS) was 50.7 months (95% CI: 25.4–75.9). The highest 3-year estimated OS rate was also shown in FLOT arm (68%). We still do not know which NACT regimen is the best choice for daily practice.  Clinicians should tailor treatment regimens according to patients’ multifactorial status and comorbidities for to obtain best outcomes. Longer follow-up period needs to validate our results.

Byline: Ali. Inal, Hilmi. Kodaz, Hatice. Odabas, Ayse. Duran, Mehmet. Seker, Mevlide. ?nanc, Emin. Elk?ran, Yusuf. Gunayd?n, Serkan. Menekse, Turkan. Topcu, Zuhat. Urakc?, Didem. Tastekin, Mehmet. Bilici, Sener. Cihan, Caglayan. [...]

In our study, we aimed to evaluate the pathological response rates and side effect profile of adding pertuzumab to the treatment of HER2+ locally advanced, inflammatory, or early-stage breast cancer. This study was conducted by the Turkish Oncology Group (TOG) with data collected from 32 centers. Our study was multicentric, and a total of 364 patients were included. The median age of the patients was 49 years (18–85 years). Two hundred fifteen (60%) of the cases were hormone receptor/HER2+ positive(ER+ or PR+, or both), and 149 (40%) of them were HER2-rich (ER and PR negative). The number of complete responses was 124 (54%) in the docetaxel+trastuzumab+pertuzumab arm and 102 (45%) in the paclitaxel+trastuzumab+pertuzumab arm, and there was no difference between the groups in terms of complete response. In 226 (62%) patients with complete response, a significant correlation was found with DCIS, tumor focality, removed lymph node, and ER status P< 0.05. Anemia, nausea, vomiting, myalgia, alopecia, and mucosal inflammation were significantly higher in the docetaxel arm, P< 0.05. In our study, no statistical difference was found between the before–after echocardiography values. DCIS positivity in biopsy before neoadjuvant chemotherapy, tumor focality; the number of lymph nodes removed and ER status were found to be associated with pCR. In conclusion, we think that studies evaluating pCR-related clinicopathological variables and radiological imaging features will play a critical role in the development of nonsurgical treatment approaches.

Objectives:Behçet’s disease (BD) is an inflammatory disease, characterized by oral aphthous lesions, recurrent uveitis, skin lesions, and genital ulcerations. Increased release of several cytokines may play a role in the inflammatory stages of BD. IL-33, a member of the IL-1 cytokine superfamily, plays an important role in inflammation. We analyzed serum IL-33 concentration in BD patients to assess its possible role in the pathophysiology of this disease.Methods:The study included 54 BD patients, 31 with active BD and 23 with inactive BD as well as 18 matched healthy controls. Serum IL-33 levels were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).Results:The mean serum IL-33 levels were 4.84 ± 2.81 pg/ml in the BD patients (6.16 ± 2.94 pg/ml in the active stage and 2.86 ± 0.54 pg/ml in the inactive stage) and 2.88 ± 0.42 pg/ml in the healthy controls. Serum IL-33 levels were significantly higher in patients with BD compared with the healthy controls (p < 0.01). In active Behçet patients with arthritis the mean serum IL-33 level was higher but this finding was not statistically significant (p = 0.122).Conclusion:IL-33 may play a significant role of in the pathogenesis of BD.

It has been demonstrated that there are a lot of different prognostic factors which are worthy of consideration whereas diabetes mellitus (DM) has not been clearly or consistently identified as a prognostic value in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic significance of the characteristics of patients in advanced NSCLC. Specifically, we investigated the impact of DM for progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients receiving first-line platinum-based doublets chemotherapy.

To evaluate the clinicopathologic characteristics and treatment outcomes of young patients with colorectal cancer (CRC).

Familial mediterranean fever (FMF) is a systemic disorder characterized by recurrent attacks of fever and polyserositis. In FMF, several pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-6, have been found to be elevated during the attacks. In recent years, it is shown that some proteins originated from adipose tissue play important role in inflammatory process. One of them, adiponectin decreases the expression of adhesion molecules and inhibits the attachment of active macrophages to the endothelial surface, so that it acts antiinflammatory effect. In this study, we analyzed the possible role of serum adiponectin in the pathogenesis of FMF. Thirty five patients with FMF and 13 healthy controls (5 female,8 male; mean age 22.3 ± 4.2 years) were enrolled in this study. Fifteen patients were in active stage (6 female, 9 male, mean age; 22.4 ± 4.1 years, mean disease duration 6.1±2.3 years) and 20 patients were in inactive stage (6 female,14 male, mean age;22.6 ±4.2 years, mean disease duration; 5.7 ± 1.6 years). Serum adiponectin and IL-6 levels were determined by ELISA. The mean serum adiponectin levels were 5.3 ±1.6 ng/ml in healthy controls, 55.3 ± 21.8 ng/ml in active FMF patients and 17.1 ± 4.7 ng/ml in inactive FMF patients. The mean serum IL-6 levels were 1.9 ± 0.4 ng/ml in healthy controls, 4.7 ± 1.1 ng/ml in active FMF patients and 2.9 ± 1.3 ng/ml in inactive FMF patients. Serum adiponectin levels in patients with FMF were significantly higher than in healthy controls (p<0.001). Serum adiponectin levels were significantly high both in active FMF patients and in inactive FMF patients compared with healthy control (p<0.001, p<0.001 respectively). Serum IL-6 levels were significantly higher both in patients with active and inactive disease as compared with healthy controls (p<0.01 and p<0.05 respectively). In FMF, serum adiponectin levels were correlated with high levels of serum IL-6 in the active and inactive patients. Serum adiponectin and IL-6 levels were high during both active and inactive stages in patients with FMF.

Familial mediterranean fever (FMF) is a familial disease characterized by recurrent episodes of febrile serositis, peritonitis, arthritis and pleuritis. Many studies have been performed is an attempt to understand the basis of the inflammatory attacts in FMF. Ghrelin, a recently described orexigene peptide is predominantly produced by stomach. Ghrelin also exerts multiple regulatory effects on immune system. It has reported that grelin has anti-inflammatory effects. There is currently no published evidence demonstrating a role for anti-inflammatory effects of ghrelin in FMF. For this reason, we investigated the role of plasma ghrelin levels in patients with FMF. Thirty seven patients with FMF and 10 healthy controls (5 female, 5 male; mean age 35.4 ± 5.6 years) were enrolled in this study. Twenty-one patients were in active stage (10 female, 11 male, mean age; 31.0 ± 5.4 years, mean disease duration 7.2 ± 3.3 years) and 16 patients were in inactive stage (7 female,9 male, mean age; 33.0 ± 6.0 years, mean disease duration; 8.7 ± 3.2 years). Plasma ghrelin levels were determined by EIA. The mean plasma ghrelin levels were 158.4 ± 52.9 pg/ml in patients with FMF and 56.7 ± 7.5 pg/ml in healthy controls. The mean plasma ghrelin levels were 190.5 ±49.4 pg/ml in the active patients and 116.2 ± 11.7 pg/ml in the inactive patients. Plasma ghrelin levels were significantly high in patients with FMF compared to healthy controls (p<0.001). Plasma ghrelin levels were significantly high in the active patients compared to in the inactive patients and healthy controls (p<0.001 and p<0.001 respectively). There was significantly difference between in active and inactive patients with FMF (p<0.001). As a results; Plasma ghrelin levels were high both in active and inactive patients with FMF. It is showed that ghrelin may play significant role of the pathogenesis of FMF.

Phosphorus efficiency (PE), and its relationship with intracellular (APase) and secreted (S-APase) acid phosphatases, anthocyanin accumulation, and calcium and zinc nutrition, were compared among 8 cultivars of each of wheat, sunflower, chickpea, and lentil grown under greenhouse conditions with low and high rates of P supply in a P-deficient calcareous soil. Except for the chickpea cultivars, deficiency of P resulted in significant decreases in shoot dry weight of all the crop cultivars and led to significant decreases in root dry weight in wheat and sunflower, significant increases in root dry weight in chickpea, and no significant difference in root dry weight in lentil. PE differed greatly among species and their cultivars. On average, shoot P concentration in cultivars of wheat, sunflower, chickpea, and lentil increased by 44%, 54%, 47%, and 8%, respectively, with P supply, and the increases in P concentration differed greatly among cultivars of all species. Intracellular leaf APase activity of wheat and lentil cultivars was slightly decreased by P supply, while it was unchanged in sunflower and chickpea cultivars. However, root-secreted acid phosphatase (S-APase) activity was significantly reduced by P supply in wheat, sunflower, and chickpea cultivars. Under low-P conditions, S-APase activities of all species except sunflower were negatively correlated with PE. Phosphorus deficiency increased the anthocyanin concentration of the cultivars of wheat and sunflower, whereas it was usually decreased in cultivars of the P-efficient species chickpea and lentil. In general, concentration of Ca was found to be lower, but Zn concentration was higher, in P-efficient cultivars than in P-inefficient cultivars. The results demonstrated that PE of the cultivars clearly depends on their ability to take up P and Zn, and on secretion of acid phosphatases from their roots under P deficiency. The results also suggest that characteristics of Zn and Ca nutrition should be taken into consideration when screening cultivars of crop species for their P efficiency.

Several autoantibodies found in RA are directed to epitopes in citrullinated proteins. One of them is anti modified citrullinated vimentin (Anti-MCV). We tested the value a newly developed ELISA for the detection of antibodies againts a genetically modified citrullinated vimentin (anti-MCV) in comparison with an anti-CCP based ELISA system for the diagnosis of RA. Thirty-five patients with RA (mean age 42.6 ± 10.87 years, mean disease duration 9.37 ± 3.98 years) were enrolled in this study. Twenty -five ankylosing spondylitis (mean age 35.88 ± 6.64 years, mean disease duration 10.25 ± 4.61 years), and 19 healthy subjects (mean age 40.26 ± 5.11 years) served as controls. Anti-CCP antibodies and Anti-MCV antibodies were measured using ELISA. In all RA patients, mean anti- CCP level was 69.07 ± 90.43 U/ml and anti-MCV level was 665.77 ± 1040.19 U/ml. In patients with AS, the mean anti-CCP level was 10.7 ± 5.22 U/ml and anti-MCV level was 40.54 ± 20.15 U/ml. In healthy controls, the mean anti-CCP level was 11.11 ± 7.65 U/ml, anti-MCV level was 23.12 ± 12.04 U/ml. In patients with active RA, the mean serum anti-CCP level was 100.54 ± 98.07 U/ml and anti-MCV level was 998.74 ± 1154.93 U/ml. In patients with inactive RA, the mean serum anti-CCP level was 8.77 ± 1.55 U/ml and anti-MCV level was 27.59 ± 23.10 U/ml. According to these results In patients with RA, the mean serum anti-MCV and anti-CCP levels were significantly high compared to patients with AS and healthy controls (p0.002, p0.001, p0.002, p0.001 respectively). The mean serum anti-MCV and anti- CCP levels were significantly higher in active patients with RA than in inactive patients with RA patients (p0.001 and p0.001 respectively). In inactive patients with RA, the mean serum anti-MCV and anti-CCP levels were similar in patients with AS and patients (p0.484, p0.308, p0.09 and p0.222 respectively). The mean serum anti-MCV levels were correlated with DAS 28 (r0.531, p0.001), VAS score (r0.332, p0.01), ESR (r0.458, p0.001), serum CRP levels (r0.568, p0.01), serum RF levels (r0.529, p0.001), swollen joints number (r0.525, p0.001) and tender joints number (r0.638, p0.001). As a result; measurement of serum anti-MCV levels is useful for diagnosis of RA and combined use of anti-MCV and RF may be more useful prognostic factor than either method alone, RF and anti-CCP.

Sex hormones play an important role in determining the progression and severity of autoimmune diseases, but the in vivomechanisms underlying this relation are poorly understood. The main objective of current study has been to compare the changes in neuroendocrine immune features and autoantibody profile in male patients with hypogonadotropic and hypergonadotropic hypogonadism, and to determine the relationships between sex hormones and immunologic parameters. Thirty-seven male patients with Klinefelter's syndrome and 35 men with idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism who had no history of previous hormonal therapy and 30 healthy men were recruited in the study. Serum autoantibody profile, sex hormones, and immunologic parameters were studied. In conclusion, our findings suggest that both humoral and cellular immunity is enhanced in male hypogonadism. Klinefelter's syndrome patients also had increased frequency of antiextractable nuclear antibodies and anticardiolipin antibodies positivity compared to idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism patients. It is possible that testosterone deficiency and increased levels of estradiol are primary responsible factors for this enhanced autoantibody production in Klinefelter's syndrome patients.

Critical concentrations of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), and manganese (Mn) with respect to dry matter yield end antagonistic and synergistic relationships among these nutrients were studied in which tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) was grown in recirculating nutrient solution (NFT). Increments of nutrient elements in the nutrient solution increased the proportional rate of the corresponding nutrient elements. Increasing levels of N negatively correlated with plant P and positively correlated with Ca, Fe, and Zn. Iron and Mn contents of the plants were increased and N, K, Ca, and Mg were decreased as a function of P applied. Increases in K in the nutrient solution caused increases in the concentrations of K, N, P, and Zn, and decreases in the concentration of Ca and Fe. Applied Ca increased the concentrations of Ca and N, and decreased the concentrations of P, Mg, Fe, Zn, and Mn. Potassium, Ca, and Fe contents of the plants were decreased and Zn increased, while N, P, and Mn were not affected by the increasing levels of external Mg. Iron suppressed the plant Mg, Zn, and Mn contents. Synergism between Zn and Fe was seen, while P, K, Ca, Mg, and Mn contents were not affected by Zn levels. Potassium, Ca, Mg, and Fe were not responsive to applied Mn, however, N and P contents of the plants were decreased at the highest levels of Mn.

Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) plants grown in pots were irrigated with the nutrient solutions containing 50, 75, and 100 mM NaCl or a control solution. Salinity markedly decreased plant growth. Increasing salinity levels increased stomatal resistance and sodium (Na), chloride (Cl), proline contents of the plants. Potassium (K), total-nitrogen (N), and chlorophyll content of the plants were decreased under high salinity conditions.