Association Of GC Phenotypes With Pre-eclampsia-Possibility For A Causal Role.

Pre-eclampsia is a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy and has been reported to be associated with altered vitamin D levels. GC being a vitamin D binding protein, may be playing a functional role in the pathophysiology of the disease. The present investigation conducted on 100 pre-eclamptic and hypertensive controls with a corresponding decrease in GC 1-1 phenotype as compared to normotensive controls. There was no difference in the frequency of GC 2-2 phenotype between eclamptic women and controls. A similar trent was observed in moderate and severe cases of pre-eclampsia and in multigravid women with recurrence of pre-eclampsia. Relative risk estimates revealed an increased risk for moderate and severe types of pre-eclampsia when their phenotypes were of GC 2-1. The increase in heterozygote frequency of GC in pre-eclampsia and hypertensive controls as compared to normotensive controls, indicates the risk of GC 2-1 phenotype which could be due to a direct physiological effect against the disease through increased physiological versatility where the two alleles of GC may vary functionally. It may be possible that the binding capacity of GC alleles 1 and 2 with vitamin D may be varying on similar lines as haptoglobin with haemoglobin. The altered levels of vitamin D as reported by many authors and the increased risk of GC 2-1 phenotype observed in the present study indicate a possibility for a causal relationship of this phenotype with the disease probably With a functional role.

Association of drongos with myna flocks: Are drongos benefitted.

Common myna (Acridotherus tristis) and jungle myna (Acridotherus fuscus) forage in pure and mixed flocks of various sizes in fallow lands. These flocks were often found associated with drongos that forage individually on the insects herded out by the movements of the flocking myna. We report here the benefits and costs of such association to drongos and mynas. Drongos had a tendency to associate with larger (> 21) than smaller (<20) flocks irrespective of the species composition of the flocks. Drongos associated with larger flocks showed increased foraging trips and harvested more insects in a given time than those that were either isolated or were associated with small flocks. The food range of drongos and mynas differed significantly indicating that they do not compete with each other. Thus our results indicate that drongos are benefitted by this association; however this association neither benefits nor costs to the mynas. The association between the drongos and mynas therefore appears to be commensalistic.