The present study was intended to appraise the oxidant and antioxidant status in preeclampsia women. Seventy-seven preeclampsia women with severe variety having average B.P. of 170/140 mmHg with proteinuria; 47 preeclampsia women with mild variety having average B.P. of 138/100 mmHg were compared to 56 healthy pregnant women and 15 non-pregnant women for oxidant and antioxidant status. Lipid peroxidation was assessed by measuring malondialdehyde (MDA), and antioxidant status was assessed by measuring antioxidant enzymes N.B.; superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase, catalase and vitamins viz; A, E, C and reduced glutathione (GSH). Lipid peroxidation was significantly higher in severe preeclampsia women. Antioxidant status was also compromised as is evident from decreased GSH levels and increased SOD activities not only in severe preeclampsia but also in normal pregnancy and mild preeclampsia women compared to non-pregnant women. Decreased antioxidant enzyme activity viz catalase and glutathione peroxidase was observed in pregnancy as compared to non-pregnant women. The levels of vitamin E which act as an antioxidant were significantly elevated in preeclampsia compared to that of normal pregnancy. These findings conclude that initially the oxidative stress due to pregnancy-induced hypertension is critically combated by the intricate defensive mechanism of natural antioxidant system of the body. It appears that this imbalance between oxidant and antioxidant is the effect of disease and not the causative factor.

In order to investigate the genomic instability associated with prostate cancer, 36 microsatellite marker loci on chromosomes 1p, 3p, 5q, 8p, 8q, 9p, 11q and 13q were analyzed using microdissected samples from prostate cancer and adjoining microscopically normal tissues from the same slide. DNA was extracted from the normal and tumor cells of 40 microdissected prostate‐cancer samples, amplified by PCR, and analyzed for microsatellite instability (MSI) using 36 different polymorphic DNA markers. In the present study, we have utilized a highly refined technique of PCR product separation on a sequencing gel, developed in our laboratory, which clearly shows high‐quality results for the microsatellite instability in prostate cancer. The results of this study suggest that 45% (18 out of 40) showed genomic instability at a minimum of 1 locus; 4 cases each showed MSI at one and 2 loci, 4 cases had MSI at 3 loci, 3 cases showed MSI at 5 loci, while one case each showed MSI at 7, 8 and 15 loci. There was no significant correlation between the MSI and stage or grade of the tumors. This extensive study on genomic instability in prostate cancer found the occurrence of MSI to be very high, which suggests a role of MSI in the pathophysiology of prostate cancer. Int. J. Cancer 72:762–767, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Preliminary data on prevalence of various genetic disorders viz. G-6-PDD, CH and CAH in the population of this region revealed that G-6-PDD is most prevalent disorder followed by CH and CAH. More efforts need to be undertaken to create awareness and emphasis on significance of preventive testing to make screening a successful program in India.

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