Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) conformation and stability play an important role in brain function. Earlier studies reported alterations in DNA integrity in the brain regions of neurological disorders like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. However, there are only limited studies on DNA stability in an aging brain and the factors responsible for genomic instability are still not clear. In this study, we assess the levels of Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe) and Zinc (Zn) in three age groups (Group I: below 40 years), Group II: between 41-60 years) and Group III: above 61 years) in hippocampus and frontal cortex regions of normal brains. The number of samples in each group was eight. Genomic DNA was isolated and DNA integrity was studied by nick translation studies and presented as single and double strand breaks. The number of single strand breaks correspondingly increased with aging compared to double strand breaks. The strand breaks were more in frontal cortex compared to hippocampus. We observed that the levels of Cu and Fe are significantly elevated while Zn is significantly depleted as one progresses from Group I to Group III, indicating changes with aging in frontal cortex and hippocampus. But the elevation of metals was more in frontal cortical region compared to hippocampal region. There was a clear correlation between Cu and Fe levels versus strand breaks in aging brain regions. This indicates that genomic instability is progressive with aging and this will alter the gene expressions. To our knowledge, this is a new comprehensive database to date, looking at the levels of redox metals and corresponding strand breaks in DNA in two brain regions of the aging brain. The biological significance of these findings with relevance to mental health will be discussed.
Poroscopy is the term applied to a specialized study of pore structure found on papillary ridges of skin as a means of identification. It comes under level 3 detail of identification and hence is more reliable and accurate. The goal of this study is to estimate the importance of poroscopy for identification of individuals and to determine the gender based on frequency, type, and shape of pores. Left plain thumb prints of 200 individuals (100 men and 100 women) aged between 18 and 60 belonging to South Indian population were observed. The results have shown that women tend to have a significantly higher frequency of pores than men. Number of pores ≤ 8 pores/25 mm(2) is more likely to be of male origin and ≥9 pores/25 mm(2) is more likely to be of female origin. There was no significant sex difference based on type and shape of pores.
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