effect of chronic exposure to organophosphorous insecticides on apoptosis in patients with liver diseases

The rapidly increasing use of organophosphorous compounds in everyday life obligate that greater attention should be paid to the toxic effect exerted by these compounds of human organism. To investigate the effect of chronic exposure to organophosphorous insecticides on liver at chronic hepatitis C virus infection and the chance of development to hepatocellular carcinoma, through studying apoptosis by the measurements of soluble Fas. This study was carried out on sixty subjects; they were divided into six groups: The first control group composed of 10 healthy subjects. The second group composed of ten patients with hepatocellular carcinoma associated with chronic hepatitis C virus and chronic exposure to organophosphorous. The third group composed of ten patients with hepatocellular carcinoma associated with chronic hepatitis C virus. The fourth group composed of ten patients with chronic hepatitis C virus and chronic exposure to organophosphorous. The fifth group composed of ten patients with chronic hepatitis C virus. The sixth group composed of ten patients with chronic exposure to organophosphorous. The time of exposure to organophosphorous was chosen to be over than 10 years. For all groups we do the following investigation: Detection of anti-HCV and HbsAg by ELISA technique, quantitative determination of HCV RNA by real time PCR, estimation of serum levels of bilirubin; albumin level and serum activities of aspartate and alanine aminotransferase; gamma glutamyl transferase activity [GOT]; and prothrombin time, determination of paraoxonase [PON] activity, and determination of sFas by ELISA. All patients show hyperactivity of AST, ALT, and GOT, hypoactivity of PON and high level of sFas. Chronic exposures to organophosphorous giving a high chance to the development of hepatocellular carcinoma by decreasing apoptosis and this risk is further exaggerated by the presence of previous chronic hepatic inflammation as chronic HCV

TT virus DNA among hemodialysis patients in Alexandria

Since TTV was discovered a few years ago, it was a target for many studies; however, there is still a poor understanding of its mechanism of transmission and pathogenic potential. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the presence of TTV among hemodialysis patients. One hundred and twenty eight serum samples obtained from patients undergoing hemodialysis were tested for the presence of TTV DNA using PCR technique, and the levels of liver enzymes were also determined. TTV DNA was detected in 83 [64.8%] out of the 128 hemodialysis patients. There was significant positive statistical relation between the presence of TTV DNA and history of blood transfusion. However, there was no significant effect of the duration of dialysis or the levels of liver enzymes on the presence of TTV DNA. This significant high rate of isolation highlights the need to further investigations and the development of sensitive and simple detection methods to understand the epidemiology and natural history of TTV infection