A new breast cancer cell line (AMJ13) has been established from an Iraqi breast cancer patient. It is considered unique because it is the first for an Iraqi population, and is expected to be a useful tool in breast cancer research. The AMJ13 cell line was established from the primary tumor of a 70-year-old Iraqi woman with a histological diagnosis of infiltrating ductal carcinoma. The cells were morphologically characterized by light and scanning electron microscopy, and found to be elongated multipolar epithelial-like cells with a population doubling time of 22 hours. The anchorage-independent growth ability test showed that the cells were able to grow in semisolid agarose, confirming their transformed nature. Cytogenetic study of these cells showed chromosomal aberrations with many structural and numerical abnormalities, producing chromosomes of unknown origin called marker chromosomes. Immunocytochemistry showed that the estrogen receptor and the progesterone receptor were not expressed, and a weak positive result was found for HER2/neu gene expression. AMJ13 cells were positive for BRCA1 and BRCA2, as well as for vimentin. This cell line should be useful when testing new therapies for breast cancer in the Middle East.

The angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene carries two alleles: insertion (I) and deletion (D) polymorphism inside its intron 16 . The study investigation the association between genetic polymorphisms and prostate patients. Materials and Methods: 75 prostate cancer patients, 75 prostate benign and 81 healthy were included. The ACE I/D genotypes were determined by PCR (polymerase chain reaction) Results showed for ACE gene polymorphism at that DD allele relation with prostate cancer p-value 0.0001** and prostate benign relation with ID allele p-value 0.0097**. This study aimed to detecting genetic early marker in angiotensin I converting enzyme (ACE) gene Iraqi patients with prostate carcinoma.

Human β-defensins (HBDs) are an important class of antimicrobial peptides that have immunomodulatory functions; however, the role of HBDs have not been well explored in the pathogenesis of meningitis. A cross-sectional study was performed to explore the levels of HBD1, HBD2, HBD3, and HBD4 in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 176 suspected meningitis cases. CSF samples were first subjected to PCR analysis using a set of universal primers targeting a portion of the eubacteria 16S rRNA gene. The analysis demonstrated that 66 samples (37.5%) were PCR-positive, whilst 110 samples (62.5%) were PCR-negative. DNA sequence analysis of the PCR-positive products identified two broad categories of bacteria, Gram-negative (68.2%) and Gram-positive (31.8%). A total of 88 PCR-negative CSF samples showed abnormal leukocyte counts, glucose concentrations, and/or protein concentrations, and were considered abnormal (ABN). The remaining 22 CSF samples were considered normal (NOR). HBD1, HBD2, and HBD4 levels did not exhibit significant differences between PCR-positive, ABN, and NOR CSF samples. However, HBD3 levels were significantly higher in the ABN CSF samples than in the NOR CSF samples (P=0.005). HBD3 levels were also elevated in the PCR-positive CSF samples compared with the NOR CSF samples, but the difference was not significant (P= 0.151). HBD2, HBD3, and HBD4 were correlated with leukocyte counts, glucose concentration, and protein concentration. In conclusion, HBD3 levels were significantly elevated in the CSF of suspected meningitis cases regardless of the cause of meningitis. The CSF levels of certain HBDs were affected by specific diagnostic laboratory parameters for meningitis, including leukocyte counts, glucose concentration, and protein concentration.

Aqueous and methanolic of polyphenols and trepenoids extractions were obtained from green tea leaves. Process of confirmation were performed with conventional qualitative chemical tests,polyphenols(F1)and trepenoids(F2) represented 27.6% and 3.0% from dry weight of leaves recepectively .Catechins recovery was 67.2% from the original polyphenols (F1) contents by HPLC. Results showed that, a single oral administration for mice of both catechol concentrations (156 and 234 mg/kg) caused decreasing mitotic index (MI), blastogenic index (BI) and increasing micronucleus frequency (MN) in bone marrow, catechins treatment due to non significant changes in BI, significant increasing in MI and decreasing in MN, while the combination treatments (catechins and catechol) improved the cytogenetic parameters (BI, MN) in comparison with single treatments of catechol. In fact a clear effect in mitotic activity was reveal such as decreasing in MI and significant increasing in MN after Methotrexate (MTX) treatment dependent on the periods of administration (2-6 weeks), and/or in comparison with negative control.

Background: AMJ13 is a new breast cancer cell line that has been established from a 70-year-old Iraqi woman with a histological diagnosis of infiltrating ductal carcinoma. It is the first for an Iraqi population. In breast cancer, angiogenesis provides the tumor tissue, which is rapidly proliferated with oxygen and nutrients, removes wastes and increases the opportunity of cancer cells to invade other organs. Methods: The AMJ13 breast cancer cell line was represented at three different passages and incubated for interval times. Microarray panel of 43 different angiogenesis markers was used to scan the supernatant for the factors. ELISA was used to quantify some of the important angiogenesis factors released in the culture medium and to confirm absence of those who was not detected by the antibody array. RT-PCR was used to confirm the gene expression (mRNA) of studied factors. Results: Microarray analysis showed that TIMP1 and two secreted at highest levels compared to the rest of the factors with low presence of endostatin. Other non-detectable factors by microarray examined by ELISA assay that showed highest expression level of VEGF-A were obtained at earliest passage, while the highest levels of FGF-b were obtained at late passage. The VEGF-D secretion was shown low concentrations at all studied passages. There is no detectable level of EGF protein in different passages and times interval tested. There are no significant differences in secretion of sICAM between different passages and incubation periods. Conclusion is that AMJ13 cell line depends on VEGF-A as main angiogenesis factor to induce micro-vessels supported by low levels of VEGF-D for lymphatic vessels formation. AMJ13 cell line depends on FGF as growth factorsas in late passages it was shifted to depend mainly on FGF completely. All of this process may be regulated by TGF-β. TIMP-1 has proangiogentic effect and has feedback talk with TIMP-2. Understanding the angiogenesis process for breast cancer can give us better targets for therapy and * Corresponding author. A. M. Al-Shammari et al. 101 more effective treatments.