RESUMO
Background: Telomeres are evolutionary, specialized terminal structures at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes containing TTAGGG repeats in human. Several human diseases have been known to be associated with dramatic changes in telomere length. The aim of the present study was to assess the correlation between the relative leukocyte telomere length [LTL] and infertility in a group of Iranian azoospermic males
Methods: In this casecontrol pilot study, relative telomere length [RTL] of peripheral blood leukocytes from a total of 30 idiopathic nonobstructive azoospermic males and 30 healthy fertile males was evaluated using real-time PCR. RTL was calculated as T [telomere]/S [single copy gene] ratio and compared between infertile and fertile groups
Results: Patients with azoospermia showed significantly shorter RTL than fertile males [0.54 vs. 0.84, p < 0.05]. The area under the receiver operating characteristic [ROC] curve was estimated to be 99.8%, suggesting LTL as a potential marker for the diagnosis of azoospermia
Conclusion: Our findings demonstrated a probable association between telomere shortening and azoospermia in a population of Iranian infertile men affected by idiopathic azoospermia
RESUMO
Background: Differential expression profile of microRNAs [miRNAs] could be a diagnosis signature for monitoring gastric cancer [GC] progression. In this study, we focus on the comparison of expression levels of miR-21, miR-25, miR-93, miR-106b, and miR-375 during the sequential pattern of GC development, including normal gastric, gastric dysplasia, and GC sample
Methods: We used SYBR Green-based quantitative-PCR to quantify miRNAs expression
Results: Our analysis revealed the increased expression levels of miR-21 [p = 0.034], miR-25 [p = 0.0003], miR-93 [p = 0.0406], and miR-106b [p = 0.023] in GC samples. In addition, GC patients with positive lymph node metastasis showed the up-regulation of miR-25, miR-93, and miR-106b [p < 0.05]
Conclusion: Our findings suggested that the expression of miR-21, miR-25, miR-93, and miR-106b altered in GC, and some of them may be further investigated as biomarkers for GC early detection and prognosis prediction