Evaluation of TLR2 and TLR4 Polymorphisms in Chronic HBV Infection.

Aims: Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play a central role in initiating innate response by mediating inflammatory reactions against a wide range of pathogens. We aimed to determine if TLR2 Arg753Gln, TLR4 Asp299Gly and Thr399Ile polymorphisms are associated with chronic hepatitis B (HBV) infection. Study Design: A case-control study. Methodology: Genomic DNA was obtained from peripheral blood of 100 patients with chronic HBV infection and 108 healthy volunteer controls. The TLR2 and TLR4 polymorphisms were genotyped by the polymerase chain reaction-restriction length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique. Results: The distribution of the TLR2 Arg753Gln, TLR4 Asp299Gly and TLR4 Thr399Ile variants were not significantly different between patients and controls (P = .05). Conclusion: Our results showed that there is no association between TLR2 Arg753Gln, TLR4 Asp299Gly and TLR4 Thr399Ile polymorphisms and chronic HBV infection.

Y chromosome microdeletions in Turkish infertile men.

AIMS: To detect the frequency and types of both chromosomal abnormalities and Y chromosome microdeletions in infertile men attending to our university intracytoplasmic sperm injection ICSI/IVF centre and fertile control subjects in our patient population. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A total of 50 infertile men who were referred to IVF center of Meram medical faculty were selected for the molecular azospermia factor (AZF) screening program. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Karyotype analysis and polymerase chain reaction amplification using 15 Y-specific sequence-tagged sites of AZF region were done. RESULTS: The total prevalence of chromosomal abnormalities was found to be 10% (5/50), including 4 patients with numerical and 1 patient with structural abnormalities. Overall, 4 of the 50 patients tested (8%) exhibited deletions of the Y chromosome, 3 of them being azospermic and 1 of them oligospermic men. The frequency of the microdeletions in subgroups with azospermia and oligozoospermia was found to be 10.7% (3/29) and 4.7% (1/21) respectively. Microdeletions of AZFb and AZFc regions were detected in all of the 4 patients. Neither AZFa nor AZFd microdeletions were indicated. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that one must know whether there is a genetic cause for male infertility before patients can be subjected to ISCI or testicular sperm extraction (TESE)/ISCI treatment.