ABSTRACT
Nigeria is experiencing, together with the rest of the world, consequences of relentlessly accelerating technological developments, in the contexts of relative lagging of developments in the Humanities, new discoveries in sciences and technological innovations, advances in medicine, changes in government policies and norms, rapid changes in the society, unhealthy practices in the area of food and agriculture, degradation of the environment as well as climate change. Furthermore, Nigeria as a Member State of UNESCO Bioethics is expected to have a National Bioethics Committee to enhance her participation in global concerns, as well as increase her opportunities to tap into global Bioethics resources. For this Committee to be established, the National Bioethics Framework and Policy Documents must be put in place. This paper discusses the rigorous process of developing the National Bioethics Framework and the National Bioethics Policy Documents as well as the need for a National Bioethics Committee in Nigeria.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The association between ABCC8 gene C49620T polymorphism and type 2 diabetes (T2D) in populations of diverse ethnic backgrounds has been reported. However, such occurrence in an African population is yet to be established. This case-control study involving 73 T2D and 75 non-diabetic (ND) patients investigated the occurrence of this polymorphism among T2D patients in Nigeria and assessed its relationship with body lipids of patients. METHODS: Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients were collected and lipid profile indices including total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL) and high density lipoprotein (HDL) were assayed. Restriction fragment length polymorphism-PCR (RFLP-PCR) was employed to genotype the ABCC8-C49620T polymorphism using PstI restriction enzyme. RESULTS: This study revealed significantly (p < 0.05) higher prevalence of the T allele of the ABCC8 gene in T2D patients (33.1%) compared to ND patients (28.0%). The mutant TT genotype was also higher than the CC and CT genotypes in T2D patients compared to ND patients but did not show any significant risk (p>0.05) of T2D for the unadjusted codominant, dominant and recessive models. Following age adjustment, the mutant genotypes (CT and TT) showed significant (p<0.05) risk of T2D for all the models with the recessive model presenting the greatest risk of T2D (OR: 2.39, 95% CI: 1.16-4.91, p<0.018). The TT genotype significantly (p<0.05) associated with high level of HDL and reduced levels of TC, TG and LDL in non-diabetic patients but was not associated with any of the demographic and clinical characteristics among T2D patients. CONCLUSIONS: ABCC8 C49620T polymorphism showed possible association with T2D marked by predominance of the mutant TT genotype in T2D patients. However, the relationship between TT genotype and lipid abnormalities for possible beneficial effect on people suffering from T2D is unclear.
