Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of multiple populations with distinctive genetic and lifestyle backgrounds are crucial to the understanding of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) pathophysiology. We report a GWAS on the genetic basis of T2DM in a 3,286 Lebanese participants. More than 5,000,000 SNPs were directly genotyped or imputed using the 1000 Genomes Project reference panels. We identi...

BACKGROUND Hip fractures are serious fall injuries that often result in long-term functional impairment and increased mortality. As the population ages, the number of hip fractures is likely to increase worldwide. The main objective of this pilot study was to evaluate the risk factors of hip fracture among the older adults in the Lebanese population. METHODS This pilot epidemiological, prospe...

Glutathione-S-transferases (GST) are key phase II detoxifying enzymes that play critical roles in protection against products of oxidative stress and against electrophiles. Glutathione S-transferase mu (GST-M1) and theta (GST-T1) are isoforms of glutathione transferase enzymes that participate in the metabolism of a wide range of chemicals. Deletion variants that are associated with a lack of e...

Carine Sebaaly, Sahar Kassem, Elena Grishina , Hussein Kanaan, Alaa Sweidan, M. Said Chmit, Hussein M. Kanaan* Laboratory of Biotechnology of Natural Substances and Health Products, Faculty of Pharmacy, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon, Laboratory of the Medical Analyses Center, Faculty of Public Health, Lebanese University, Hadath, Lebanon, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine STATE SCI...

With the demographic explosion of the population worldwide, the human, social, and economic costs of osteoporosis will continue to rise. It is estimated that the magnitude of the problem might be even larger in developing countries, including those in the Middle East. Although several organizations and countries have developed or adapted guidelines to their local needs, as of today there are no...

BACKGROUND The IDMPS is a study to identify changes in diabetes treatment practice in several developing countries. This paper focuses on diabetes management and compliance with guidelines in a Middle Eastern country like Lebanon. METHODS The cross-sectional data from the 2006 wave of two weeks duration on the Lebanese population along with the longitudinal data of a 9-month follow-up study w...

In Lebanon, data stemming from national cross-sectional surveys indicated significant increasing trends in the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and associated behavioral and age-related risk factors. To our knowledge, no data are available on relative telomere length (RTL) as a potential biomarker for age-related diseases in a Lebanese population. The aim of this study was to evaluate whet...

Deletion polymorphisms for the glutathione S-transferase (GST) gene are associated with increased risk of cancer, and are implicated in detoxifying mutagenic electrophilic compounds. GST Polymorphic variants were reported for different populations. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequencies of GSTM1 and GSTT1 null genotypes among Bahraini, Lebanese and Tunisian Arabs. GST genotypi...

This paper reports the results of a study to investigate the digital divide in Lebanon based on data collected in August 2008 from 330 potential users of Lebanese public e-services. The study investigated factors that make a difference for e-access and e-skills and how socio-economic, demographic, and cultural factors explain the digital divide. Overall, results show that gender, age, religion,...

Maple Syrup Urine Disease (MSUD) is a genetically heterogeneous metabolic disorder that is transmitted in an autosomal recessive manner. According to clinical data, MSUD prevalence in Lebanon is expected to be higher than the International prevalence because of consanguineous marriage. Novel mutations are still getting detected by using DNA sequencing for mutation analysis in MSUD patients. In ...