ARGINASE AND ORNITHINE LEVELS IN BREAST CYST FLUID

ARGINASE AND ORNITHINE LEVELS IN BREAST CYST FLUID

Gross cystic breast disease is the most common benign breast disease. Several recent studies have shown that women with palpable breast cyst may have a higher risk of developing breast cancer. There are two groups of breast cyst; lined either by apocrine epithelium (intracystic Na/K < 3) or flattened epithelium (intracystic Na/K > 3). The former group has been shown to be associated with a higher risk of breast cancer than the latter group. Arginase, a cytoplasmic enzyme, catalyses the hydrolysis of L-arginine to urea and ornithine in the last step of mammalian urea cycle. Arginase also play an important role in the synthesis of polyamines through ornithine. Polyamines were shown to be a cell promoter and their levels have been found to be higher in malignant lesions. In addition, arginase activities were found to be higher in several carcinomas including breast, colorectal, stomach and prostate. Therefore, presence of arginase and ornithine in breast cyst fluid may help to develop breast carcinoma from the gross cystic disease of breast. In this study, we have determined the arginase enzyme activities and ornithine levels in breast cyst fluid samples. Arginase and ornithine levels were measured spectrophotometrically using thiosemicarbazide diacetylmonoksime urea and Chinard methods respectively. There was no istatistically significant difference on the arginase activities between apocrine (Range = 0.03 to 1.8 U/mg protein, m = 0.6 U/mg protein, n = 6) and flattened (Range = 0.21 to 1.9 U/mg protein, m = 0.85 U/mg protein, n = 5) cyst groups. On the other hand, ornithine levels were significanty higher (p = 0.002) in apocrine (Range = 0.023 to 0.056 mol/mg protein, m = 0.037 mol /mg protein, n = 6) than flattened (Range = 0.006 to 0.022 mol/mg protein, m = 0.013 mol/mg protein, n = 5) groups of breast cyst.

As a conclusion, although we could not find any significant difference between arginase activities in the two groups may be due to small sample size, ornithine levels were significantly higher in the apocrine group which is suggested to have higher risk of developing breast carcinoma. These findings may indicate that arginase and ornithine may play a possible role on the development of breast cancer from the gross cystic disease of breast.

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M. Zulkuf AKDAG¹, Suleyman DASDAG¹, Feyzan AKSEN¹, Birgul ISIK² Fahri YILMAZ³.

Electric and magnetic fields (EMF) are a fact of daily life: they are emitted by power lines, transformers, service wires and electrical panels as well as by home appliances (such as electric blankets, clocks, shavers, and television). Electricity has been used, to greate advantage, for 100 years without society being aware of any adverse health effect, other than thermal injury and electrocution. Despite a multitude of studies, there remains considerable debate over what, if any, health effects result from exposure to EMF. There is still no clear answer to the question, "Can exposure to electric and magnetic fields resulting from the production, distribution, and use of electricity promote cancer or initiate other health problems?".This study evaluated the possible effect of a sinusoidal 50 Hz magnetic field (1.35 mT) on the sperm count, testes, liver, kidney and brain histopathology, malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration of the tissue under investigation, p53 immune reactivity of bone marrow and some trace elements in blood of rat. Sixteen Sprague-Dawley male rats were separated into two groups of eight, sham exposed (control) and experimental. The rats in the experimental groups were exposed to Extremely Low Frequency Magnetic Field (ELF MF) 2 hr/day/ for 2 months (7 days a week). Eight rats of sham group were treated like experimental group except ELF MF exposure. The Mann-Whitney U-test was used for statistical comparisons of groups. No statistically significant alteration in any endpoints was noted except Mn⁺², concentrations (p<0.001). This study found no evidence suggesting an adverse effect of ELF MF on measurement of MDA concentrations, histology of some tissues mentioned in this study, p53 immune reactivity of bone marrow and serum concentrations of Fe⁺³, Zn⁺², and Cu⁺².

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TAXONOMIC AND PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF TURKISH FRITILLARIA L. SPECIES

Mehtap Tekşen, Ayten Çelebi, Leyla Açık

The genus, Fritillaria consist of 43 taxa, which is 36 species and 7 subspecies, in Turkey. 25 taxa are endemic to Turkey. The ratio of endemism is 58%. The genus contains many economically and medicinally important species. Some of them commonly used as medicine for diabetes, asthma, bronchitis and hearth diseases. Some of them are being cultivated but interest in this genus is very much on rise. Although some of the taxa in Turkey are defined based on morphological differences, many ambiguities are still remain. Because of the differeences in the genetic structure of the species, protein electrophoresis can be used to distinguish intra/inter species relationships. In this study, seed proteins of 29 taxon was investigated in order to distinguish inter species level. Seed protein analysis clearly diffrentiated 29 taxon but some of the results did not match with the sistematic results in Flora of Turkey.

Key words: Fritillaria, Seed Proteins, Phylogeny

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MUTATIONAL ANALYSES OF RECOMBINANT GLOBULAR HEAD REGIONS A- AND C- IN C1Q-IMMUNOGLOBULIN INTERACTIONS

Alexandra. ZLATAROVA¹, Michaela GADJEVA², Ivanka. TSACHEVA¹, Ljubka. ROUMENINA¹, Uday KISHORE ^{3, 4} , Ken. B. M. REID³ and Michaela KOJOUHAROVA¹

The interaction of the globular C1q heads with their ligands- aggregated IgG and IgM triggers the classical complement activation. Each globular head (gC1q) is composed of the C-terminal halves of one A- (ghA), one B- (ghB) and one C- (ghC) chain. Recent evidence suggests that the gC1q region has a modular organisation and is composed of three, structurally and functionally, independent modules which retain multivalency in the form of a heterotrimer.

In the present study we have examined the contribution of several charged amino-acid residues, which are supposed to play an important role in the recognition of the immunoglobulins. The chosen residues were Arg162 and Arg156 of the A- and C-chain respectively. For reaching this goal five single-residue mutants were generated (RghA162A, RghA162E, RghC156A, RghC156E and RghC156Q) and expressed in Escherichia coli as soluble fusion proteins linked to maltose-binding protein. The abilities of the mutants to bind IgG and IgM were assessed by direct and competitive ELISA. pH dependence of IgG binding of ghA and ghC (wild types and mutants) were tested as well. The obtained results indicated that: i) the positive charge of the amino-acid residues at these positions is necessary; ii) the selected amino-acid residues contribute with up to 25% of the immunoglobulin-binding activity of wild types globular head regions; iii) a hydrophobic component in the process of interaction between ghA chain of C1q and IgG was observed.

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Karavelioğulları F.A., Çelebi A., Açık L.,

The genus Verbascum L. (Scrophulariaceae) includes about 934 species on Earth. It is also the largest second genus in Turkey, where it is represented by 233 species in 13 groups, and 126 hybrids. Partly artifical groups are used in the Flora of Turkey account, all Turkish species of Verbascum within Murbeck‘s Sect. belong to Bothrosperma Murb. A, B, C, groups in the Flora of Turkey belong to Subsect. Ebracteolate Murb. 186 species (80%) of these 233 species are endemic in Turkey. Verbascum is represented by the highest number of species in the West and Central regions of Turkey. The plants are adapted especially to steppe environment, open places and stony slopes. In this study, seed protein profiles of 21 taxa were examined. Morphological data supported with protein analysis were clarified the taxonomic status of these taxa.

Key Words: Verbascum, protein profiles, taxonomy

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