Prevalence of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) gene insertion/deletion polymorphism in South Indian population with hypertension and chronic kidney disease.

CONTEXT: Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is associated with a high risk of developing further severe complications such as, cardiovascular disease and eventually End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) leading to death. Hypertension plays a key role in the progression of renal failure and is also a chief risk factor for the occurrence of End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD). AIM: This study investigates the possible association of insertion (I) and deletion (D) polymorphism of ACE gene in patients of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) with and without hypertension (HT). SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Total 120 participants with 30 members in each group (Control, HT, CKD and CKD-HT) were chosen followed by informed consent. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Blood samples were collected and subjected to biochemical analyses and nested PCR amplification was performed to genotype the DNA, for ACE I/D using specific primers. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 13. Allele and genotypic frequency was calculated by direct gene counting method. Comparison of the different genotypes was done by using Chi square test. Odd's ratios were calculated with a 95% confidence interval limit. RESULTS: The ACE genotype were distributed as II, 27 (90%); DD, 2 (6.67%) and ID, 1 (3.33%) in control, II, 1 (3.33%); DD, 5 (16.67%) and ID, 24 (80%) in HT, II, 4 (13.33%); DD, 24 (80%) and ID, 2 (6.67%) in CKD and II, 0 (0%); DD, 2 (6.67%) and ID, 28 (93.33%) in CKD-HT group. CONCLUSIONS: D allele of ACE gene confers a greater role in genetic variations underlying CKD and hypertension. This result suggest that CKD patients should be offered analysis for defects in ACE I/D polymorphisms, especially if they are hypertensive.

Experimental and DFT studies on the antioxidant activity of a C-glycoside from Rhynchosia capitata.

Rhynchosia capitata (=Glycine capitata) Heyne ex roth, was found to possess polyphenolics including flavonoids, which acts as potential antioxidant. The study of ethanolic extract of roots and leaves reveals that the leaves possess high polyphenolics including flavonoids than roots. This was also confirmed by DPPH radical scavenging activity. Leaf powder of the plant was extracted with different solvents by soxhlet apparatus in the order of increasing polarity. The DPPH scavenging activity of methanol fraction was found to be high compared to the crude extract and other fractions. Nitric oxide scavenging activity was dominant in chloroform fraction compared to methanol fraction. Presence of flavonoids especially vitexin, a C-glycoside in methanol and chloroform fractions were confirmed by high pressure thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) analysis. The structural and molecular characteristics of naturally occurring flavonoid, vitexin was investigated in gas phase using density functional theory (DFT) approach with B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) level of theory. Analysis of bond dissociation enthalpy (BDE) reveals that the OH site that requires minimum energy for dissociation is 4'-OH from B-ring. To explore the radical scavenging activity of vitexin, the adiabatic ionization potential, electron affinity, hardness, softness, electronegativity and electrophilic index properties were computed and interpreted. The nonvalidity of Koopman's theorem has been verified by the computation of Eo and Ev energy magnitudes. Interestingly, from BDE calculations it was observed that BDE for 4'-OH, 5-OH and 7-OH are comparatively low for vitexin than its aglycone apigenin and this may be due to the presence of C-8 glucoside in vitexin. To substantiate this, plot of frontier molecular orbital and spin density distribution analysis for neutral and the corresponding radical species for the compound vitexin have been presented.

Antioxidant behavior of mearnsetin and myricetin flavonoid compounds--a DFT study.

The molecular characteristics of two naturally occurring flavonoid compounds mearnsetin and myricetin have been computed using density functional theory (DFT) approach with B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) level of theory. The computation and analysis of bond dissociation enthalpy magnitudes for all the OH sites for both the compounds clearly denotes the contribution of the B-ring for the antioxidant activity. The analysis has also indicated the higher values of BDE on the C5-OH radical species in both the compounds. The computed vibrational frequency analysis indicates the absence of imaginary frequency in the neutral as well as radical species of both the flavonoid compounds. The ionisation potential (IP) analysis was found to be within the range of the IP of synthetic food additives. In addition, various molecular descriptors such as electron affinity, hardness, softness, electronegativity, electrophilic index have also been calculated and the validity of Koopman's theorem is verified. The plot of frontier molecular orbital and spin density distribution analysis for neutral and the corresponding radical species for both the compounds have been computed and interpreted. The polar nature and their polarizing capacity are well established through the analysis of dipole moment and polarisability magnitudes.

Mesenchymal cell response to nanosized biphasic calcium phosphate composites.

Biphasic calcium phosphate nanoparticles comprising both hydroxyapatite (HA) and beta polymorph of tricalcium phosphate (beta-TCP) have been synthesized together by a polymer matrix mediated process. The process, based on in situ mineralization of poly (vinyl alcohol), exerts a good control over the morphological features of biphasic nanoparticles. By controlling the reaction chemistry (Ca:P ratios), nanobioceramic particles having three different HA/beta-TCP ratios of 50:50, 55:45 and 60:40 respectively. As the two constituents of biphasic system (HA and beta-TCP) facilitate series of signaling cascades in osteoblast division and differentiation, the adhesion and differentiation properties of mesenchymal cells (MSCs) derived from bone marrow has been studied.

Nuclear localization of non-specific acid phosphatase(s) activity in rat vaginal epithelium.

The nuclear localization of non-specific acid phosphatase(s) in rat vaginal epithelial cells (VEC) by histochemical and biochemical techniques has been reported in the present work. By different histochemical methods, the enzyme activity was predominantly localized in certain nuclei but not in all of them, however, within the nucleus nucleoli are free from the enzyme activity. This enzyme is diffused in the nucleoplasm and perhaps tightly associated with the nuclear proteins. Very little activity was seen in the cytoplasm in the selective population of VEC. After 12 h treatment of estradiol 17beta in vivo the VEC lose the enzyme activity in the basal and intermediate layers, and the activity remains within the nuclei of luminal cells. Enzyme assay in low and high salt extracts of the isolated nuclei of the VEC with or without the enzyme inhibitors indicates that this enzyme may be present in isoforms in the VEC. No activity was observed in these cells at alkaline pH.

On representing signals using only timing information.

It is well known that only a special class of bandpass signals, called real-zero (RZ) signals can be uniquely represented (up to a scale factor) by their zero crossings, i.e., the time instants at which the signals change their sign. However, it is possible to invertibly map arbitrary bandpass signals into RZ signals, thereby, implicitly represent the bandpass signal using the mapped RZ signal's zero crossings. This mapping is known as real-zero conversion (RZC). In this paper a class of novel signal-adaptive RZC algorithms is proposed. Specifically, algorithms that are analogs of well-known adaptive filtering methods to convert an arbitrary bandpass signal into other signals, whose zero crossings contain sufficient information to represent the bandpass signal's phase and envelope are presented. Since the proposed zero crossings are not those of the original signal, but only indirectly related to it, they are called hidden or covert zero crossings (CoZeCs). The CoZeCs-based representations are developed first for analytic signals, and then extended to real-valued signals. Finally, the proposed algorithms are used to represent synthetic signals and speech signals processed through an analysis filter bank, and it is shown that they can be reconstructed given the CoZeCs. This signal representation has potential in many speech applications.

Biochemical Characterization and Subcellular Localization of the Red Kidney Bean Purple Acid Phosphatase.

Phosphatases are known to play a crucial role in phosphate turnover in plants. However, the exact role of acid phosphatases in plants has been elusive because of insufficient knowledge of their in vivo substrate and subcellular localization. We investigated the biochemical properties of a purple acid phosphatase isolated from red kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) (KBPAP) with respect to its substrate and inhibitor profiles. The kinetic parameters were estimated for five substrates. We used 31P nuclear magnetic resonance to investigate the in vivo substrate of KBPAP. Chemical and enzymological estimation of polyphosphates and ATP, respectively, indicated the absence of polyphosphates and the presence of ATP in trace amounts in the seed extracts. Immunolocalization using antibodies raised against KBPAP was unsuccessful because of the non-specificity of the antiserum toward glycoproteins. Using histoenzymological methods with ATP as a substrate, we could localize KBPAP exclusively in the cell walls of the peripheral two to three rows of cells in the cotyledons. KBPAP activity was not detected in the embryo. In vitro experiments indicated that pectin, a major component of the cell wall, significantly altered the kinetic properties of KBPAP. The substrate profile and localization suggest that KBPAP may have a role in mobilizing organic phosphates in the soil during germination.