in view of the fundamental role of genetics in development of obesity, the present study aimed to investigate the single nucleotide polymorphism of some obesity-related genes among a subset of obese women living in tabriz, iran. for this purpose, 70 eligible obese women (aged 18-45 years) were genotyped for the uncoupling protein-1 (ucp-1) -3826a>g, ß3-adrenergic receptor (ß3adr) trp64arg, lept...

OBJECTIVE Neonatal screening for congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) among preterm infants is complicated by the fact that healthy preterm infants have higher levels of 17-hydroxyprogesterone (17-OHP) than term infants, resulting in a higher false-positive rate. Even when gestational age-related cutoff levels after ether extraction were used, the false-positive cases primarily comprised preter...

many factors including genetic, environmental, and acquired are involved in breast cancer development across various societies. among all of these factors in families with a history of breast cancer throughout several generations, genetics, like predisposing genes to develop this disease, should be considered more. early detection of mutation carriers in these genes, in turn, can play an import...

BACKGROUND Cadmium (Cd) is a major environmental pollutant that causes multiple adverse health effects in humans and animals. In this study, we investigated Cd-mediated toxic effects in rats during pregnancy and endocrine intervention in the placenta. METHODS We exposed pregnant rats to intraperitoneal Cd (CdCl2) at various doses (0, 0.25, and 0.5 mg/kg BW/day) from days 5 to 19 of pregnancy ...

Adrenal zona fasciculata (AZF) cells express a cAMP-activated guanine nucleotide exchange protein (Epac2) that may function in ACTH-stimulated cortisol synthesis. Experiments were done to determine whether cAMP analogs that selectively activate Epacs could induce cortisol synthesis and the expression of genes coding for steroidogenic proteins in bovine AZF cells. Treatment of AZF cells with the...

OBJECTIVE To characterize specific mutations within the 21-hydroxylase gene (CYP21-B) using ARMS-PCR assay in patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) and to compare it with that reported in other populations. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Five families, having an index case with CAH diagnosed on the basis of clinical and biochemical findings volunteered to give blood samples for analysis. A...

The human ovarian surface epithelium (HOSE) is a common site of gynaecological disease including endometriosis and ovarian cancer, probably due to serial injury-repair events associated with successive ovulations. To comprehend the importance of steroid signalling in the regulation of the HOSE, we used a custom microarray to catalogue the expression of over 250 genes involved in the synthesis a...