Search

Abstract Background The exact etiology of recurrent tonsillopharyngitis in children is not clear. Recurrent tonsillitis in children has multifactorial etiology like most of the diseases in childhood. In this study, our aim was to determine the potential role of vitamin D in recurrent tonsillitis by measuring serum 25-OH vitamin D levels and determining the vitamin D receptor polymorphism among children with recurrent tonsillitis. Methods Eighty-four children with recurrent tonsillitis and seventy-one healthy children aging between 2 and 10 years were enrolled in this study. Serum 25-OH vitamin D level was measured with ELISA and vitamin D receptor gene polymorphism (Apa1, Taq 1, Fok1) was determined by PCR. Serum 25-OH vitamin D level below 50 nmol/L was accepted as deficiency. The vitamin D receptor gene polymorphism in each group was compared. Results The mean age was 5.6 ± 2.4 and 6.1 ± 2.7 years in study and control group, respectively. The average serum 25-OH vitamin D level was 142.7 ± 68.1 nmol/L in study group and 192.3 ± 56.1 nmol/L in control group. There was significant difference between the groups (p < 0.01). In study group, 4.7% (n = 4) of children had serum 25 OH vitamin D levels below 50 nmol/L. None of the children in control group had serum 25-OH vitamin D level below 50 nmol/L. There was no significant differences in vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms between groups. Conclusion Serum 25-OH vitamin D levels in recurrent tonsillitis group were lower than those in healthy children. But, there was no difference in the incidence of vitamin D receptor gene polymorphism between the two groups.

Optic disc localization offers an important clue in detecting other retinal components such as the macula, fovea, and retinal vessels. With the correct detection of this area, sudden vision loss caused by diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy can be prevented. Therefore, there is an increase in computer-aided diagnosis systems in this field. In this paper, an automated method for detecting optic disc localization is proposed. In the proposed method, the fundus images are moved from RGB color space to a new color space by using an artificial bee colony algorithm. In the new color space, the localization of the optical disc is clearer than in the RGB color space. In this method, a matrix called the feature matrix is created. This matrix is obtained from the color pixel values of the image patches containing the optical disc and the image patches not containing the optical disc. Then, the conversion matrix is created. The initial values of this matrix are randomly determined. These two matrices are processed in the artificial bee colony algorithm. Ultimately, the conversion matrix becomes optimal and is applied over the original fundus images. Thus, the images are moved to the new color space. Thresholding is applied to these images, and the optic disc localization is obtained. The success rate of the proposed method has been tested on three general datasets. The accuracy success rate for the DRIVE, DRIONS, and MESSIDOR datasets, respectively, is 100%, 96.37%, and 94.42% for the proposed method., (© 2021. The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine.)

Background/aim: Leptin is a hormone that is known to be related to weight gain and obesity. The soluble leptin receptor has been found in plasma as an important determinant of leptin sensitivity. In this study, our goal was to investigate the association between leptin levels and leptin receptor polymorphisms in a Turkish population., Materials and Methods: The sample pool of this study consisted of 202 subjects. G2548A variant in the promoter region of the leptin gene and Q223R polymorphism of the leptin receptor gene were evaluated by using PCR-RFLP. Leptin levels were determined by ELISA., Results: Leptin levels were significantly higher in subjects with the A allele than in subjects without the A allele. Leptin receptor levels were lower in subjects with the AA genotype than in those with the AG genotype. There was a higher prevalence of the leptin-2548 AA genotype among subjects with a BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 than in those with a BMI < 25 kg/m2., Conclusion: The leptin-2548A allele might be a predisposing factor for obesity.

There is increasing evidence of a biochemical link between oxidative stress and bone metabolism. Oxidative stress has been shown to be involved in bone resorption as it causes loss of bone mineral density (BMD). Paraoxonase 1 (PON1), can prevent these effects of the oxidative stress on bone formation. It has been suggested that the PON1 gene as possibly implicated in reduced BMD in bone fragility cases. It has been hypothesized that PON1 gene polymorphisms may influence both the risk of osteoporosis and osteopenia occurrence and prognosis. The aim of our study is to evaluate the relationship between PON1 polymorphisms and bone fragility development. Seventy-four osteoporotic, 121 osteopenic and 79 nonosteoporotic postmenopausal women were recruited. For detection of the polymorphisms, polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism techniques have been used. BMD was measured at the lumbar spine and hip by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Distributions of PON1 (PON 192 and PON 55) polymorphisms in study groups were not significantly different. But, there was medium strength connection between in the osteopenic with control groups regarding PON1 55-PON1 192 haplotypes and we found a power strength connection between in the osteoporosis with control groups regarding PON1 55-PON1 192 haplotypes. Furthermore, subjects with PON1 192RR and PON1 55LL genotypes had lower PON activity values of osteoporotic subject compared to healthy control and this difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05). This result suggest that PON1 genotypes could be higher risk for osteoporosis, as determined by reduced BMD.

Atherosclerosis is a major pathological process related with several important adverse vascular events including coronary artery disease, stroke, and peripheral arterial disease. Endothelial lipase is an enzyme the activity of which affects all of lipoproteins, whereas HDL is the main substrate. The purpose of our study was to investigate the effects of endothelial lipase gene polymorphism and inflammation markers (CRP, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α) in the atherosclerosis. 104 patients with atherosclerosis and 76 healthy individuals were included in the study. LIPG -584C/T polymorphism gene polymorphisms were assessed with PCR-RFLP method. The serum CRP levels were measured by turbidimetric method using a biochemistry autoanalyzer, whereas serum IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α levels were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In this study, we found that the frequencies of TC genotype are more prevalent in patients than controls. We found a statistically significant difference of IL-6 levels between patient and control group. Our findings suggest that T allele might play a potential role in the susceptibility to atherogenesis in the Turkish population.

Objective. It has been stated that brain cancers are an increasingly serious issue in many parts of the world. The aim of our study was to determine a possible relationship between Vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphisms and the risk of glioma and meningioma. Methods. We investigated the VDR Taq-I and VDR Fok-I gene polymorphisms in 100 brain cancer patients (including 44 meningioma cases and 56 glioma cases) and 122 age-matched healthy control subjects. This study was performed by polymerase chain reaction-based restriction fragment length polymorphism (RF LP). Results. VDR Fok-I ff genotype was significantly increased in meningioma patients (15.9%) compared with controls (2.5%), and carriers of Fok-I ff genotype had a 6.47-fold increased risk for meningioma cases. There was no significant difference between patients and controls for VDR Taq-I genotypes and alleles. Conclusions. We suggest that VDR Fok-I genotypes might affect the development of meningioma.

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between the BRAF V600E mutation incidence and histopathologic prognostic risk factors for papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) on the Turkish population. The contribution of BRAF V600E mutation in both tumor and tumor-surrounding nontumoral tissues of 108 patients with PTC was assessed using mutant allele-specific amplification-polymerase chain reaction. The BRAF V600E mutation was found in 52.8% of the tumor tissues, and 7.4% of the tumor-surrounding nontumoral tissues. The BRAF V600E mutation was significantly higher in the tumor tissues of the classic variant of PTC (CVPTC) cases than the follicular variant of PTC cases (p=0.001). The presence of the BRAF V600E mutation was more frequent in women, but this gender difference was not statistically significant. BRAF V600E mutation was more frequent in patients with either one of adenomatous hyperplasia or diffuse hyperplasia in tumor-surrounding nontumoral tissues (p=0.012). There was no significant difference in the BRAF V600E mutation distribution among tumor-surrounding nontumoral tissues of the two PTC variants, but it was more frequent in the CVPTC. Recent data suggest that BRAF V600E is an important marker, especially, for CVPTC. We propose that patients who had subtotal thyroid resection might have an increased risk of recurrence at the residual thyroid tissue if they have BRAF V600E mutation in their tumor-surrounding nontumoral tissues.

Objective: In this study, we investigated the association of two vitamin D receptor (VDR) polymorphisms BsmI and TaqI with colon cancer in a Caucasian population., Methods: The VDR gene polymorphisms BsmI and TaqI were detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP)-genotyping assays by using endonucleases BsmI and TaqI, and an agarose gel electrophoresis technique in a series of 43 colon cancer patients and 42 healthy controls., Results: Allele frequencies and genotype distributions were found to be similar in both cases and controls. When homozygous carriers and heterozygotes were combined for each allele, alleles B and T were found to be more common in the control group (p=0.039, χ(2)=4.276, odds ratio [OR]=0.312, 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.100-0.973 and p=0.039, χ(2)=4.258, OR=0.254, 95% CI=0.064-1.000, respectively). When genotypes were analyzed as pairs, the Bb/TT variant was higher in the control group at a statistically high significance (p=0.001, χ(2)=11.854, OR=0.122, 95% CI=0.032-0.460)., Conclusion: The alleles B and T and the genotype combination Bb/TT were found to be higher in the control group, and thus BsmI and TaqI polymorphisms of the VDR gene may be possible risk factors for colorectal carcinogenesis.

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate a possible association of the CYP1A1 Ile462Val and GSTM1 null polymorphisms with the risk of developing bladder cancer in a Turkish population., Patients and Methods: The study constituted 176 patients with bladder cancer and 97 healthy individuals. Evaluation of CYP1A1 Ile462Val gene polymorphism was performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). GSTM1 null gene polymorphism was exclusively determined by PCR. Our results were examined by statistical analyses., Results: There were no significant differences in CYP1A1 genotype frequencies between patients and controls. Furthermore, the frequency of GSTM1 null genotype was higher in patients compared to controls, but it did not reach significance (p=0.622 χ(2)=0.243 OR=0.94 95% CI=0.75-1.18). Significance was discovered in combined analysis of CYP1A1 and GSTM1 genotypes. In the present study, GSTM1 null genotype with CYP1A1 Ile/Ile genotype combination was significantly more frequent in the patient group than in controls (p=0,04, χ(2)=4.217). At the same time, possessing both GSTM1 null genotype and CYP1A1 Val variants (Ile/Val+Val/Val) were significantly higher in control group than in patients (p=0.017, χ(2)=5.468). When the pathological tumor grades were assessed, the frequency of CYP1A1 Val mutant variant with GSTM1 null genotype combination was higher in patients with medium and high-grade tumors than in those with low-grade tumors (p=0.06, χ(2)=3.527, OR=1.36 95% CI=1.03-1.78)., Conclusion: We suggest that the CYP1A1 Ile/Ile genotype with GSTM1 null genotype combination may contribute to the development of bladder cancer in this Turkish population.

Aim: Although recurrent tonsillitis can be the consequence of defects in immune system, the exact etiology of recurrent tonsillitis is not clear. In this study, our aim was to determine the serum vitamin D levels and vitamin D receptor polymorphism among children undergone tonsillectomy due to the recurrent tonsillitis., Methods: A 106 children undergone tonsillectomy due to recurrent tonsillitis and a 127 healthy children aging between 2 and 12 years were enrolled in this study, to determine serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level and vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms (Apa1, Taq 1, fok1). Serum vitamin D level was measured with ELISA (nmol/L) and receptor gene polymorphism was determined by PCR. Vitamin D serum level below 80nmol/L was accepted as insufficient., Results: The average serum vitamin D level was 176±79nmol/L in recurrent tonsillitis group and 193±56nmol/L in control group. There was no significant difference between the groups (p=0.13). In recurrent tonsillitis group, 18% (n=15) of children had their serum vitamin D levels below 80nmol/L. The vitamin D receptor gene polymorphism (APA1, TAQ 1, FOK 1) in each group was compared (AA, Aa, aa, TT, Tt, tt, FF, Ff, ff). There was no significant difference between the two groups. The vitamin D serum levels and receptor sub-genotypes are also compared, and there was no significant difference between the groups., Conclusion: There is no difference between the serum vitamin D level and receptor gene polymorphism among children with recurrent tonsillitis and healthy children. But vitamin D insufficiency is more prevalent in children with recurrent tonsillitis group (18%)., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)