RESUMO
The advent of the DNA sequencing age has led to a revolution in biology. The rapid and cost-effective generation of high-quality sequence data has transformed many fields, including those focused on discovering species and surveying biodiversity, monitoring movement of biological materials, forensic biology, and disease diagnostics. There is a need to build capacity to generate useful sequence data in countries with limited historical access to laboratory resources, so that researchers can benefit from the advantages offered by these data. Commonly used molecular techniques such as DNA extraction, PCR, and DNA sequencing are within the reach of small laboratories in many countries, with the main obstacles to successful implementation being lack of funding and limited practical experience. Here we describe a successful approach that we developed to obtain DNA sequence data during a small DNA barcoding project in Indonesia.
RESUMO
The gastric cancer incidence in Semarang, Indonesia, is exceedingly low: only approximately 1/100th of the level in Japan. To elucidate the reason, we carried out an ecological study recruiting 69 male and 102 female participants from the general populace in January 2005. Positive urea breath tests were 0% for both men and women, and Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) IgG antibodies were found in 2% (0-5, 95% confidence interval) of men and 2% (0-4) of women, significantly lower than the 62% (58-65) and 57% (53-60), respectively, in Japan. Furthermore, there were no positive findings with the pepsinogen tests in Semarang, again significant in comparison with the 23% (22-25) and 22% (20-23) in Japan. Variation in smoking levels and consumption of NaCl, vegetables and fruit were found, but not to an extent that would allow explanation of the major differences in gastric cancer incidence. We may conclude that the very low prevalence of H. pylori infection and thus chronic atrophic gastritis account for the rarity of stomach cancer in Semarang, Indonesia.
