Transforming growth factor-beta1 gene expression in hepatocellular carcinoma: a preliminary report

The transforming growth factor [TGF]-beta signalling pathway plays a dual role in hepatocarcinogenesis. It has been recognised for its role as a tumour suppressor as well as a tumour promoter depending on the cellular context. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical significance of serum TGF-beta1 level and TGF-beta1 messenger RNA [mRNA] in the peripheral blood of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma [HCC] patients as noninvasive biomarkers in diagnosing HCC. Twenty patients were allocated to each of the liver cirrhosis and HCC groups, in addition to 20 healthy volunteers. TGF-beta1 gene expression in peripheral blood was quantitated using real-time polymerase chain reaction [PCR], while serum TGF-beta1 was analysed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA]. TGF-beta1 gene expression was significantly lower in HCC patients [median 0.401 [0.241-0.699] fold change] than in liver cirrhosis patients [median 0.595 [0.464-0.816]] [p = 0.042] and normal controls [median 1.00 [0.706-1.426] fold change] [p = 0.001]. TGF-beta1 gene expression showed significant positive correlation with serum TGF-beta1 [r = 0.272, p = 0.036] and significant negative correlation with alpha-fetoprotein [AFP] [r = ?0.528, p = 0.001]. Receiver operating characteristic [ROC] analysis was conducted for TGF-beta1 gene expression in comparison with AFP. The area under the curve for TGF-beta1 gene expression was 0.688 [95% CI = 0.517-0.858] [p = 0.042] and AFP was 0.869 [95% CI = 0.761-0.976] [p = 0.001]. The sensitivity and specificity of TGF-beta1 gene expression were 65% and 75%, respectively, at a cutoff value of 0.462 fold change. TGF-beta1 gene expression in the peripheral blood may be used as a molecular marker for the diagnosis of HCC. Additional studies on a large-scale population are necessary to gain greater insight into the impact of TGF-beta1 gene expression in the pathogenesis of HCC

Bone homeostasis in type II diabetes mellitus

This study was conducted on 80 cases of adult onset diabetes mellitus [type II DM]. There was significant increase in serum calcium, alkaline phosphatase, albumin, urea and creatinine. This was associated with high serum insulin level and low T3 levels which were measured by radioimmunoassay. The study showed that DM causes changes in mineral and calcium homeostasis but these changes were not related to serum glucose level, serum insulin level or the duration of DM. The decreased serum T3 and elevated serum reverse T3 [r T3] were found to progress towards normalization upon achievement of good metabolic control