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Asphalt has a highly complex structure and it contains several organic compounds including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heterocyclic compounds. In this study, comet assay was used to detect the DNA damage in blood lymphocytes of 30 workers exposed to asphalt fumes and 30 nonexposed controls. This is the first report on Turkish asphalt workers' investigated DNA damage using the alkaline single cell gel electrophoresis (SCGE). The DNA damage was evaluated by the percentage of DNA in the comet tail (% tail DNA) for each cell. According to our results, workers exposed to asphalt fumes had higher DNA damage than the control group (p < 0.01). The present study showed that asphalt fumes caused a significant increase in DNA damage and the comet assay is a suitable method for determining DNA damage in asphalt workers.

Background: To evaluate association of lung cancer with arsenic and cadmium levels measured in tumor tissue., Materials and Methods: Ninety-five patients with lung cancer tumor tissue obtained surgically were included in this study. Arsenic and cadmium levels were measured and levels of metals were compared among types of lung cancer and with reference to patient data., Results: The histopathologic diagnoses of the 95 cases were SCC, 49, adenocarcinoma, 28, large cell, 11 and SCLC, 1. Mean tumor arsenic and cadmium levels were 149.3±129.1μg/kg and 276.3±219.3μg/kg, respectively. Cadmium levels were significantly associated with smoking (p=0.02), histopathologic type (p=0.005), and TNM staging (r=0.325; p=0.001), although arsenic was not related to any parameter (p>0.05). There was no relation between metal levels and mortality (p>0.05)., Conclusions: We found a significant association between tumor cadmium levels of patients with lung cancer and smoking, histopathologic type and staging, although there was no relation with arsenic levels.

Objective: Severe sepsis remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children. Given the link to pathogenesis, polymorphisms in genes involved in infection and inflammation may influence the outcomes in patients with sepsis and septic shock. The role of mutations within the innate immunity receptor NOD2/CARD15 has recently been demonstrated as a risk factor for bacteremia and mortality in adult patients with sepsis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of mutations of the NOD2/CARD15 gene in pediatric patients with sepsis., Design: Prospective cohort study., Setting: A tertiary care, ten-bed, pediatric intensive care unit., Patients: One hundred twenty-eight patients with sepsis admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit and healthy control group were included., Interventions: Venous blood from the children with sepsis and healthy controls was collected to investigate common polymorphisms (Arg702Trp, Gly908Arg, Leu1007fsincC) within the NOD2/CARD15 gene. Standard polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism technique was used to determine NOD2/CARD15 gene polymorphism., Measurement and Main Results: R702W, G908R, and Leu1007fsinsC variants in the NOD2/CARD15 gene were determined as significant risk factors associated with susceptibility to sepsis (p = .025, p = .031, p = .014, respectively). Sepsis-related mortality was increased in children carrying the Leu1007fsinsC variant (p = .041)., Conclusions: The present article is the first report of clinical implications of NOD2/CARD15 gene variants in children with sepsis. Our findings suggest that common polymorphisms in the NOD2/CARD15 gene may play a major role in susceptibility to sepsis and the outcome of sepsis in children.

The aim of this study is to examine the occurrence of the Arg753Gln polymorphism of the Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) gene in Turkish children with pulmonary and/or extrapulmonary tuberculosis (TB) disease compared with that in healthy children with latent TB infection (LTBI) and to assess the risk of progression from LTBI to active TB disease in children. The Arg753Gln polymorphism of the TLR2 gene was studied in 198 TB patients compared with 200 ethnically and age-matched children with LTBI. The culture confirmed TB patients were more frequently Arg753Gln heterozygous [odds ratio (OR) 5.05, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 2.61-9.76, p = 0.00], and Gln allele frequency was significantly higher in the patient group (13.86% vs 3.5%, OR 4.40, 95% CI 2.34-8.30, p = 0.00). We also showed that the frequencies of the heterozygous Arg753Gln genotype and the Gln allele were significantly higher in patients with pulmonary TB alone and in patients with definitive pulmonary plus extrapulmonary TB than in children with LTBI. Our data suggest that the Arg753Gln polymorphism of the TLR-2 gene influences the speed of progression from infection to TB disease in children. Further investigations are needed to clarify whether this polymorphism has a strong impact on susceptibility to TB in children., (Copyright © 2011 American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Genetic variants in Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are considered a potential indicator for host susceptibility to and outcome of several infectious diseases including tuberculosis. The aim of this study was to determine whether -129 C/G and Met1Val polymorphisms of TLR8 were associated with pediatric pulmonary tuberculosis in Turkish population., Methods: The -129 C/G and Met1Val polymorphisms were studied in 124 children with pulmonary tuberculosis compared to 150 age-matched healthy control subjects., Results: We did not identify any statistically significant differences between the patients with TB and control groups with regard to the frequency of genotypes GG or G/(-), CG, and CC or C/(-); and alleles G and C at rs3764879 (p> 0.05). We found a strong association with genotype A/(-) at rs3764880 with susceptibility to pulmonary TB in males (OR 2.87, 95%CI 1.38-5.98, p=0.007)., Conclusions: Our results provide evidence, for the first time, of a role for the TLR8 gene in susceptibility to pulmonary TB in male children. Additional research to verify our results are necessary. Tuberculosis in children presents particularly difficult challenges, but research priorities and advances in pediatric tuberculosis could provide wider insights and opportunities for tuberculosis control.

The P2X7 gene polymorphisms have been linked to increased risk for pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis in some populations. In this study, the genotype and allelic frequencies 1513A-->C variant within the P2X7 gene was significantly higher than in the healthy controls (P = 0.035, P = 0.041). This is the first study demonstrating that the 1513A-->C polymorphism is associated with extrapulmonary tuberculosis in children.