The gene profile of Arabic-speaking Moroccans has been compared with those of other Mediterranean populations in order to provide additional information about the history of their origins. Our HLA data suggest that most Moroccans are of a Berber (Imazighen) origin and that Arabs who invaded North Africa and Spain in the 7th century A.D. did not substantially contributed to the gene pool; however, they imposed their advanced culture and their religion. Present-day Egyptians are also related to Moroccan Berbers and this supports an ancient Saharan origin for part of the present-day Mediterraneans, particularly for the Arabic-speaking ones (also Algerians) and also for the older substratum of Mediterranean people.

Carnosine is a naturally occurring dipeptide (beta-alanyl-L-histidine) found in brain, innervated tissues, and the lens at concentrations up to 20 mM in humans. In 1994 it was shown that carnosine could delay senescence of cultured human fibroblasts. Evidence will be presented to suggest that carnosine, in addition to antioxidant and oxygen free-radical scavenging activities, also reacts with deleterious aldehydes to protect susceptible macromolecules. Our studies show that, in vitro, carnosine inhibits nonenzymic glycosylation and cross-linking of proteins induced by reactive aldehydes (aldose and ketose sugars, certain triose glycolytic intermediates and malondialdehyde (MDA), a lipid peroxidation product). Additionally we show that carnosine inhibits formation of MDA-induced protein-associated advanced glycosylation end products (AGEs) and formation of DNA-protein cross-links induced by acetaldehyde and formaldehyde. At the cellular level 20 mM carnosine protected cultured human fibroblasts and lymphocytes, CHO cells, and cultured rat brain endothelial cells against the toxic effects of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and MDA, and AGEs formed by a lysine/deoxyribose mixture. Interestingly, carnosine protected cultured rat brain endothelial cells against amyloid peptide toxicity. We propose that carnosine (which is remarkably nontoxic) or related structures should be explored for possible intervention in pathologies that involve deleterious aldehydes, for example, secondary diabetic complications, inflammatory phenomena, alcoholic liver disease, and possibly Alzheimer's disease.

Turkish and Kurdish HLA profiles are studied for the first time. The comparative study of their allele frequencies, characteristic haplotypes, genetic distances with other Mediterraneans is complemented by neighbor-joining dendrograms and correspondence analyses. Turks, Kurds, Armenians, Iranians, Jews, Lebanese and other (Eastern and Western) Mediterranean groups seem to share a common ancestry: the older "Mediterranean" substratum. No sign of the postulated Indo-European (Aryan) invasion (1200 B.C.) is detected by our genetic analysis. It is concluded that this invasion, if occurred, had a relatively few invaders in comparison to the already settled populations, i.e. Anatolian Hittite and Hurrian groups (older than 2000 B.C.). These may have given rise to present-day Kurdish, Armenian and Turkish populations.

SummarySerial monitoring of peripheral blood lymphocyte subpopulations (PBLSs) counts might be useful in predicting post-transplant opportunistic infection (OI) after kidney transplantation (KT). PBLSs were prospectively measured in 304 KT recipients at baseline and post-transplant months 1 and 6. Areas under receiver operating characteristic curves were used to evaluate the accuracy of different subpopulations in predicting the occurrence of overall OI and, specifically, cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease. We separately analyzed patients not receiving (n = 164) or receiving (n = 140) antithymocyte globulin (ATG) as induction therapy. In the non-ATG group, a CD8 + T-cell count at month 1 <0.100 9 10 3 cells/ll had negative predictive values of 0.84 and 0.86 for the subsequent occurrence of overall OI and CMV disease, respectively. In the multivariate Cox model, a CD8 + T-cell count <0.100 9 10 3 cells/ll was an independent risk factor for OI (adjusted hazard ratio: 3.55; P-value = 0.002). In the ATG group, a CD4 + T-cell count at month 1 <0.050 9 10 3 cells/ll showed negative predictive values of 0.92 for the subsequent occurrence of overall OI and CMV disease. PBLSs monitoring effectively identify KT recipients at low risk of OI, providing an opportunity for individualizing post-transplant prophylaxis practices.