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.