It was aimed to understand the interleukin-4 (IL-4) role in etio-pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Two approaches were adopted. In the first one, a quantitative expression of IL4 gene was assessed by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), and such findings were correlated with some demographic, clinical and laboratory parameters, which included gender, duration of disease, disease activity score (DAS-28), rheumatoid factors (RFs), C-reactive protein (CRP) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (ACCP) antibodies. In the second approach, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of IL4 gene (rs2243250) was inspected by DNA sequencing using specific primers. Fifty-one Iraqi RA patients (22 males and 29 females) were enrolled in the study. They were under therapy, which was a single weekly subcutaneous dose of 25 mg of etanercept (Enbrel) for a period of 3-5 years. The results of gene expression (2-??Ct) revealed an increased expression of IL4 mRNA (Mean ± SEM: 8.247 ± 2.442), especially female patients compared to male patients (11.545 ± 3.928 vs. 3.537 ± 1.530; p = 0.03). The expression was also subjected to variations that were related to clinical and laboratory findings. With respect to IL4 gene SNP, allele and genotype frequencies showed no significant differences between RA patients and controls. In addition, the SNP genotypes had no effect on IL4 gene expression. In conclusion, an up-regulation of IL4 gene expression was observed in RA patients, and it was more pronounced in female than male patients by approximately four folds, while no association between the IL4 SNP alleles or genotypes and RA was observed.
Background: The study of human leukocytes (HLA) alleles, and haplotype frequencies within populations provide an important source of information for anthropological investigation, organ and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation as well as disease association, certain diseases showed association with specific alleles specially those of known or suspected hereditary origin or immunological basis, whether simple renal cyst is congenital or acquired is still unclear and need to be investigated.Objectives: To study the genetic aspect of simple renal cysts by detecting the gene frequency and the haplotype of HLA class I of patients with simple renal cysts, and to find the presence of these cysts in other family members.Method: Thirty patient
... Show MoreBreast cancer is the second most common cancer in women world. Multiple Cytokines appear to have a dominant role in human breast cancer formation. Estimation of the in situ expression of IL-6 and IL-1β in breast cancer patients. A sixty patients with breast cancer BC were divided into two clinical subgroups, (30) with malignant breast cancer MBC and (30) with benign breast tumor as a control group according to histological examination. In situ hybridization technique used for detection of IL-6 and IL-1β mRNA sequence in two groups. The results showed that percentages of mRNA expression of IL-6 and IL-1β were in (≥ 11-50%) for malignant breast cancer. This research also investigated that (73.3%) of beni
... Show MoreThe research was conducted between 2017 and 2019 at the College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences and Laboratory of Plant Tissue Culture for Postgraduate Studies at the University of Baghdad. One experiment used a totally random design. The experiment examined the effects of PEG (Polyethylene glycol) at concentrations of 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8% on the development of three sunflower types (Ishaqi-1, Aqmar, and AL-Haja) exposed to UV-C rays for 40 minutes as a result of the growing of the juvenile peduncle outside the live body. The aim of the study was to better comprehend the physiological and biochemical changes caused by water stress on the callus of several sunfl
Coagulation is the most important process in drinking water treatment. Alum coagulant increases the aluminum residuals, which have been linked in many studies to Alzheimer's disease. Therefore, it is very important to use it with the very optimal dose. In this paper, four sets of experiments were done to determine the relationship between raw water characteristics: turbidity, pH, alkalinity, temperature, and optimum doses of alum [ .14 O] to form a mathematical equation that could replace the need for jar test experiments. The experiments were performed under different conditions and under different seasonal circumstances. The optimal dose in every set was determined, and used to build a gene expression model (GEP). The models were co
... Show MoreInterleukin-38 (IL-38), an inflammatory cytokine discovered in recent years, has been implicated in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). IL-38 is encoded by the
Background : To assess the actual practice of breast self-examination (BSE), as an early detection tool for breast cancer, among a sample of patients affected with breast cancer in Iraq.Methods: A random sample of 200 female patients with breast cancer was analyzed to evaluate the extent of their actual practice of breast self-examination before the diagnosis of the disease. The examined variables included the age of the patients, marital status, education, occupation, smoking habit, family history of cancer, frequency of gravidity, parity and abortions. Results: The age of patients ranged from (24-70) years with a mean age of 48 years. The highest frequency of the examined sample
... Show MoreMultiple studies support a role for inflammation in the pathogenesis of coronary atherosclerosis and unstable cardiac syndromes. However, of the known pro-inflammatory cytokines, only elevated plasma levels of interleukin-6(IL-6) have been linked to Unstable Angina. We sought to examine the plasma levels of other major proinflammatory cytokines in similar clinical settings patients with unstable angina and acute myocardial infarction and the relationship extent between them. This study aimed to investigate and compare the level of IL-1 in Unstable Angina and Acute Myocardial Infarction patients. Thirty patients with unstable angina and thirty patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction, also thirty healthy individual as control were included
... Show MoreHuman herpes virus-8 (HHV-8) infection has increased recently in Arabic countries. HHV-8 in healthy persons does not necessarily cause life-threatening infection, and however, it causes a more severe infection among immunocompromised patients. The distribution of HHV-8 genotypes varies according to ethnicity and depends on the geographic region prior rapid development of global travel. A cross sectional prospective study included a hundred healthy blood donor samples with a mean age of (36.60±10.381), 81% were positive for molecular detection of HHV-8 DNA. PCR results for HHV-8 were strongly related with risk factors such as the number of sexual relations, previous surgeries, blood transfusion, dental operation, and the number of b
... Show MoreLeishmaniasis is one of the important parasitic diseases, affecting mainly low social class people indeveloping countries, and is more prevalent and endemic in the tropical and subtropical regions of old worldand new world. Despite ofbroad distribution in Iraq,little known about the geneticcharacteristics of thecausative agents. So this study was aimed to evaluate the genetic varietyoftwo IraqiLeishmaniatropicaisolatesbased on heat shock protein gene sequence 70 (HSP70) in comparison with universal isolates recordedsequences data. After amplification and sequencing of HSP70 gene,the obtainedresults were alignment alongwith homologous Leishmania sequences retrieved from NCBI by using BLAST. The analysis results showedpresence of particular g
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