Serum immune reactivity against ß2-Glycoprotein-I and anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic auto-antibodies by ELI-P-Complex Screening Technology in recurrent miscarriage.

BACKGROUND: A plethora of evidence has shown that circulating auto-antibodies (a-Abs) are critically linked to pregnancy failure. In this study the possible association of serum immune reactivity (IR) against ß2-Glycoprotein-I (ß2GPI) and anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic (ANCA) a-Abs in recurrent miscarriage (RM) was examined. METHODS: This is a case-control study which was carried out in a research and clinical center for infertility, during January to December 2013 on 128 women with RM, matched with 65 women with no history of pregnancy wastage. The participant's sera were collected and serum IR was analyzed against ß2GPI and ANCA a-Abs by ELI-P-Complex screening technology, the assay involved a standard enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Serum IR of each sample was calculated in conditional units (CU). RESULTS: Elevated serum IR against ß2GPI and decreased serum IR against ANCA a-Abs were detected in a total of 51.5% (N.=66; m=-42 CU) and 24.2% (N.=31; m=-42 CU) patients, respectively. In rare control subjects, serum IR against ß2GPI (3%) and ANCA (1.5%) was observed. The elevated serum IR of ß2GPI was not correlated with the decreased serum IR against ANCA (r=-0.23, P<0.05). Moreover, ß2GPI IR was associated with first trimester miscarriages (P=0.03) and the number of previous miscarriages (P=0.04). CONCLUSIONS: The present study indicates that the risk of RM may be high in women with the prominent serum IR deviations against ß2GPI and ANCA a-Abs. According to the findings and ELI-P-Complex technology principles, it is suggested that the vigorous monitoring of these two a-Abs pre- and during pregnancy may be useful to avoid negative outcomes such as miscarriage.

Selective recognition of dysprosium(III) ions by enhanced chemiluminescence CdSe quantum dots.

The intensity of emitted light from CdSe quantum dots (QDs)-H2O2 is described as a novel chemiluminescence (CL) reaction for determination of dysprosium. This reaction is based on the catalytic effect of Dy(3+) ions, causing a significant increase in the light emission, as a result of the reaction of quantum dots (QDs) with hydrogen peroxide. In the optimum conditions, this method was satisfactorily described by linear calibration curve in the range of 8.3×10(-7)-5.0×10(-6)M, the detection limit of 6.0×10(-8)M, and the relative standard deviation for five determinations of 2.5×10(-6)M Dy(3+) 3.2%. The main experimental advantage of the proposed method is its selective to Dy(3+) ions compared with common coexisting cations, therefore, it was successfully applied for the determination of dysprosium ions in water samples.

High level of microsatellite instability but not hypermethylation of mismatch repair genes in therapy-related and secondary acute myeloid leukaemia and myelodysplastic syndrome.

Microsatellite instability (MSI) is associated with defects in the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) system, such as mutation or epigenetic silencing of the genes by promoter hypermethylation. We investigated the presence of MSI and promoter hypermethylation of hMLH1 and hMSH2 genes in 82 patients (68 acute myeloid leukaemia, AML; 14 myelodysplastic syndromes, MDS). Twelve separate microsatellite loci, including three mononucleotide repeat markers, were used. Mutator phenotype (RER+) was detected in 20 AML (29.4%) and 3 MDS (21.4%) patients. RER+ rate was much higher in the therapy-related and secondary cases compared with the de novo cases. Three out of 7 (42.9%) secondary (s-AML) and 8 out of 17 (47.1%) therapy-related (t-AML) showed RER+ in comparison with 9 out of 44 (20.5%) de novo cases. Similar rates were detected in MDS patients (2/2 therapy-related and 1/12 de novo). The promoter hypermethylation was found in three hMLH1 (3.7%) and two hMSH2 (2.4%) genes. All these five patients had AML and were older than 60 years of age. Two of them had s-AML and one had t-AML. RER+ was detected in three of these five patients. Our data suggest that genetic instability is associated with AML and MDS, especially t-AML and s-AML. In addition, our results indicate that the hMSH2 and hMLH1 promoter hypermethylation is not a common event in these malignancies, but may play a role in the development of AML in elderly patients.