Lipid profile of women using oral contraceptive pills.

Oral contraceptives (OCs) are the most popular type of birth control pills. The study was designed to examine the biochemical changes which occur due to the use of oral contraceptive pills (OCs). The study was based on the questionnaire for having the information of any reproductive history fasting, age, health, nature of menstrual cycle, bleeding, disease etc and blood profiling for biochemical analysis of the women includes high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), total cholesterol (TC) and triglycerides (TG). Lipid profiling was carried out by using a commercially available diagnostic test kits. SPSS was used to analyze the data. The results showed statistically significant differences among users of OCs compared to non-users. Total cholesterol (242.92 +/- 2.842 mg dL(-1)), HDL-C (58.65 +/- 1.098 mg dL(-1)), LDL-C (115.84 +/- 1.266 mg dL(-1)) and triglycerides (105.56 +/- 2.341 mg dL(-1)) were significantly higher compared to the non-users (Total cholesterol 218.49 +/- 1.762, HDL-C 48.17 +/- 0.543, LDL-C 100.321 +/- 0.951 and triglycerides 83.77 +/- 2.299 mg dL(-1)). The result suggests that OCs increase the level of high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), total cholesterol (TC) and triglycerides (TG).

Gene diversity for haptoglobin and transferrin classical markers among Hindu and Muslim populations of Aligarh City, India.

The present paper reports the distribution of serum protein markers viz. haptoglobin and transferrin in two major groups of Aligarh city of North India. In present study we have undertaken a survey of 538 individuals belonging to eight different populations, four from the Hindu community i.e. Brahmin, Bania, Rajput and Jatav, and the rest four among the Muslim community i.e. Syed, Sheikh, Pathan and Ansari. The heterozygosity ranged from 0.2939 (Ansari) to 0.4873 (Brahmin) for haptoglobin and from 0.000 (Rajput) to 0.1498 (Pathan) for transferrin. The values of D(ST) are 0.4122 and 0.4406, and that of G(ST) are 0.5059 and 0.9726 for haptoglobin and transferrin markers respectively. Through F(ST) test, it has been concluded that there is a high genetic differentiation of populations within Hindu and Muslim groups, though there is absence of any significant differences between these groups.

Anti-genotoxic effect of Ocimum sanctum L. extract against cyproterone acetate induced genotoxic damage in cultured mammalian cells.

The anti-genotoxic effect of Ocimum sanctum L. extract was studied against the genotoxic effect induced by a synthetic progestin cyproterone acetate, on human lymphocytes using chromosomal aberrations, mitotic index, sister chromatid exchanges and replication index as a parameters. About 30 microM of cyproterone acetate was treated with O. sanctum L. infusion, at dosages of 1.075 x 10(-4), 2.125 x 10(-4) and 3.15 x 10(-4) g/ml of culture medium. A clear dose-dependent decrease in the genotoxic damage of cyproterone acetate was observed, suggesting a possible modulating role of the plant infusion. The results of the present study suggest that the plant infusion per se does not have genotoxic potential, but can modulate the genotoxicity of cyproterone acetate on human lymphocytes in vitro.

Variation in alphoid DNA size and trisomy 21: a possible cause of nondisjunction.

The cause of nondisjunction of chromosome 21 remains largely unknown. In the present report, we investigate the hypothesis that variation in alphoid DNA size has a role in trisomy formation. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis was used to examine the chromosome 21 alphoid DNA array lengths in 23 families (all of Northern European ancestry) with an affected child with trisomy 21 in whom the parental and meiotic origin of nondisjunction had been determined as maternal meiosis I, and in 38 controls. Initially, the combined alphoid size of both chromosome 21 homologues was assessed. This indicated an association between small combined alphoid size and maternal meiosis I nondisjunction. Moreover, in a subset of the families under study (n=12), it was possible to study the alpha21-I size of individual chromosome 21 homologues (simple alphoid size); this provided further evidence that the risk for nondisjunction is related to the size of the alphoid array of one of the two chromosome 21 homologues being small.

Novel methodology for the detection of chromosome 21-specific alpha-satellite DNA sequences.

We present a novel method, based on the hybridization of allele-specific oligonucleotide probes, that allows the specific detection of chromosome 21 alpha-satellite sequences. Absence of informative polymorphic markers from the centromeric region of chromosome 21 has constituted one of the difficulties in studying the centromere of this chromosome. The alpha-satellite subfamilies from chromosomes 21 and 13 are almost identical in sequence and thus cannot be distinguished using conventional hybridization techniques. Analysis using nuclear families showed that the centromeric polymorphism, detected using our specific probe and pulsed-field gel restriction analysis, segregates in a Mendelian fashion and exhibits a high degree of polymorphism among unrelated individuals. The alphoid DNA of chromosome 21 is highly polymorphic, useful not only as a definitive anchor for the genetic map, but also for studies of chromosome 21 nondisjunction, including the unequivocal assignment of meiotic origin.