Frequency of Anti-HBc & HBV DNA detection in blood donors of Kerman province, Iran

Hepatitis B is a serious global infection disease and a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. However, data on Occult Hepatitis B in Iran are scare. The current study assessed the frequency of Anti-HBc and HBV DNA in serum sample of healthy blood donors negative for HBsAg stratified by sex and age; and also investigated the relationship between detection of HBV-DNA and anti-HBc positivity. Since anti-HBc screening is not performed in Iranian Blood Bank, we assessed whether anti-HBc could be adopted as a screening assay for the donated blood. The study included a total of 1525 blood samples of blood donors negative for hepatitis B virus surface antigen ( 87% male with a mean age ± SD: of 31±8yr; and 13% female with a mean age ± SD of 30±6yr). Eight percent (121 out of 1525) of the blood samples with negative HBs-Ag were positive for Anti-HBc and were all from males. HBV-DNA was detected in 36 out of 121 anti-HBc+ specimens (29.7%). The study found a positive relation between anti-HBc positivity and detection of HBV-DNA in serum samples of HBs-Ag negative blood donors. Findings from this study suggest that, introducing anti HBc screening in Iran maybe very practical in order to limit the transmission risk of Occult Hepatitis B virus through blood transfusion.

Simulation of a device concept for noninvasive sensing of blood glucose levels

This paper introduces a method of modeling noninvasive glucose sensing for patients who suffer from diabetes mellitus. The proposed technique involves simulation of light propagation through biological tissue with an embedded photonic crystal. The proposed detection technique is Raman spectroscopy and the use of the photonic crystal enables the enhancement of Raman scattering by engineering the photon density of states. Further enhancement can be achieved using noble metal clusters which result in surface enhanced Raman scattering and has the ability to provide enhancements of up to a million times.

Functional analysis of proteins involved in Plasmodium falciparum merozoite invasion of red blood cells

Plasmodium falciparum causes the most lethal form of malaria in humans and is responsible for over two million deaths per year. The development of a vaccine against this parasite is an urgent priority and potential protein targets include those on the surface of the asexual merozoite stage, the form that invades the host erythrocyte. The development of methods to transfect P. falciparum has enabled the construction of gain-of-function and loss-of-function mutants and provided new strategies to analyse the role of parasite proteins. In this review, we describe the use of this technology to examine the role of merozoite antigens in erythrocyte invasion and to address their potential as vaccine candidates.

Differential effects of natural palm oil, chemically and enzymatically-modified palm oil on weight gain, blood lipid metabolites and fat deposition in a pediatric pig model

Background: Increasing prevalence of obesity and overweight in the Western world, continue to be a major health threat and is responsible for increased health care costs. Dietary intervention studies show a strong positive association between saturated fat intake and the development of obesity and cardiovascular disease. This study investigated the effect of positional distribution of palmitic acid (Sn-1, 2 & 3) of palm oil on cardiovascular health and development of obesity, using weaner pigs as a model for young children.

Methods: Male and female weaner piglets were randomly allocated to 4 dietary treatment groups: 1) pork lard (LRD); 2) natural palm olein (NPO); 3) chemically inter-esterified PO (CPO) and 4) enzymatically inter-esterified PO (EnPO) as the fat source. Diets were formulated with 11% lard or with palm olein in order to provide 31% of digestible energy from fat in the diet and were balanced for cholesterol, protein and energy across treatments.

Results: From 8 weeks onwards, pigs on EnPO diet gained (P < 0.05) more weight than all other groups. Feed conversion efficiency (feed to gain) over the 12 week experimental period did not vary between treatment groups. Plasma LDL-C content and LDL-C/HDL-C ratio in pigs fed natural PO tended to be lower compared to all other diets. The natural PO lowered (P < 0.02) the plasma triglyceride (TG) content relative to the lard or EnPO diets, but was not different from the CPO diet. The natural PO diet was associated with lower (P < 0.05) saturated fat levels in subcutaneous adipose tissue than the CPO and EnPO diets that had lower saturated fat levels than the lard diet. Female pigs had lower lean and higher fat and fat:lean ratio in the body compared with male pigs. No difference in weight gain or blood lipid parameters was observed between sexes.

Conclusions: The observations on plasma TG, muscle and adipose tissue saturated fatty acid contents and back fat (subcutaneous) thickness suggest that natural palm oil may reduce deposition of body fat. In addition, dietary supplementation with natural palm oil containing palmitic acid at different positions in meat producing animals may lead to the production of meat and meat products with lower saturated fats. An increase in fat content and a decrease in lean content in female pigs resulted in an increased body fat:lean ratio but gender had no effect on blood lipid parameters or insulin concentrations.

Blood mineral, trace-element and vitamin concentrations in Huacaya alpacas and Merino sheep grazing the same pasture

We aimed to determine whether the concentration of minerals and trace constituents in blood of Merino sheep and Huacaya alpacas grazing the same pasture differed with species and time of sampling. Blood samples and pasture samples were collected at frequent intervals over a period of 2 years for mineral and trace-nutrient assay. The concentration of the minerals and trace nutrients in the grazed pasture usually met the dietary needs of sheep at maintenance, apart from potassium, sulfur, cobalt and Vitamin E in occasional samples. Restricted maximum likelihood mixed model analysis indicated a significant (P < 0.001) species by month by year interaction for all blood constituents assayed, a significant (P < 0.05) species by coat shade interaction for plasma Vitamin D, E and B12 and a significant (P < 0.001) species by month by Vitamin D interaction for plasma phosphorus concentrations. In general, plasma calcium concentrations were greater in sheep than in alpacas but plasma magnesium concentrations were greater in alpacas than in sheep. There was no consistent difference between the two species in plasma phosphorus concentrations although low values were recorded in individual sheep and alpacas. Plasma Vitamin D concentrations were more responsive to increasing hours of sunlight in alpacas than they were in sheep. Sheep had consistently higher concentrations of plasma copper, zinc and Vitamin B12 and higher concentrations of blood selenium but lower concentrations of plasma selenium and Vitamin A, than did alpacas. No consistent difference was observed between the two species in plasma Vitamin E concentrations.

Effect of increased blood glucose availability on glucose kinetics during exercise

This study examined the effect of increased blood glucose availability on glucose kinetics during exercise. Five trained men cycled for 40 min at 77 ± 1% peak oxygen uptake on two occasions. During the second trial (Glu), glucose was infused at a rate equal to the average hepatic glucose production (HGP) measured during exercise in the control trial (Con). Glucose kinetics were measured by a primed continuous infusion ofd-[3-3H]glucose. Plasma glucose increased during exercise in both trials and was significantly higher in Glu. HGP was similar at rest (Con, 11.4 ± 1.2; Glu, 10.6 ± 0.6 μmol ⋅ kg−1 ⋅ min−1). After 40 min of exercise, HGP reached a peak of 40.2 ± 5.5 μmol ⋅ kg−1 ⋅ min−1in Con; however, in Glu, there was complete inhibition of the increase in HGP during exercise that never rose above the preexercise level. The rate of glucose disappearance was greater (P < 0.05) during the last 15 min of exercise in Glu. These results indicate that an increase in glucose availability inhibits the rise in HGP during exercise, suggesting that metabolic feedback signals can override feed-forward activation of HGP during strenuous exercise.