Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are still the leading mortality causes in the last decades. The ailments are multifactorial characterized by excessive clot (thrombus) formation in the blood vessels. Thrombus could be degraded through thrombolysis mechanism by plasmin activated by various fibrinolysis agents including, urokinase, nattokinase, or streptokinase. However, the use of these agents is restricted by relatively high cost, short half-life, allergic reaction, and bleeding effects. The search for more economical and safer thrombolytic (clot lysis) agents are essential to address the underlying problem in CVD therapy. Among Holothurians, H. scabra has been known to have the highest protein content making it ideal substrate for protease enzymes including fibrinolytic types with clot lysis properties. However, isolation of a proteases with antithrombotic activities either from tissue or from bacteria of H. scabra has not been reported. This study aimed to screen proteolytic and clot lysis activities of crude protease extracts from tissue and bacteria isolated from fermented intestine of H. scabra. Crude protease of tissue of H. scabra was extracted by cold centrifugation, which activity was measured using UV-spectrophotometer. Crude protease of proteolytic bacteria selected by clear zones on skim milk agar (SMA) medium was isolated from nutrient broth (NB). Extracts showing proteolytic activity were subjected to gravimetry-based clot lysis test. As results, crude proteases isolated directly from the H. scabra’s tissue showed low proteolytic activities, thus were no proceed to clot lysis activity test. Crude protease extracted bacteria could show both proteolytic and clot lysis activities. In conclusion, based on this screening study, intestine of H. scabra is a rich source of proteolytic bacteria, some of them could produce crude enzymes showing competitive thrombolysis activities with Nattokinase. Thus, they appeared to have more potentials to be developed as thrombolysis agent than those directly extracted from the organism’s tissue.
BACKGROUND: Childhood obesity is associated with the risk of adult obesity and obesity-related chronic disease. The fat mass and obesity-associated gene (FTO) rs9939609 variant are of particular interest because of its association with body mass index (BMI) and obesity-related phenotypes. This study was conducted to investigate the association between FTO gene rs9939609 variant with early onset obesity among Bataknese and Chinese children in Medan, Sumatera Utara, Indonesia.METHODS: The case-control study was carried out at 10 elementary schools in Medan. There were 212 children recruited; 56 early onset obesity and 61 control Bataknese and 49 early onset obesity and 46 control Chinese children. This study included a questionnaire, anthropometric measurements, and blood test analysis. rs9939609 polymorphism genotyping was performed using RT-PCR. Logistic regression, odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated to determine the risk of obesity associated with the risk alleles, p<0.05 was considered as statistically significant.RESULTS: This study found a significant association between rs9939609 and early onset obesity in Chinese children (p=0.01), but not in Bataknese. The frequency of AA genotype was lower in the early onset obesity than in the normal weight children, while an OR of 0.69 showed that this genotype may protect against weight gaining and that the TT genotype may predispose to obesity.CONCLUSION: We concluded that the FTO gene rs9939609 is associated with early onset obesity in Chinese ethnicity but not in Bataknese.KEYWORDS: pediatric obesity, FTO gene, rs9939609, polymorphism, Indonesia
BACKGROUND: Central obesity is known as a risk factor for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Its development is influenced by many factors such as a progressive failure of pancreatic beta cell function. The beta cells increase their function to secret insulin along T2DM development to compensate before it becomes exhausted. Zinc (Zn) plays a crucial role in beta cell function and insulin secretion. The majority of Zn in serum are bound to protein which is not readily available interact with cells. The free Zn in serum has been suggested as being more representative than total Zn in beta cell function. This research aimed to investigate the correlation between serum free Zn and homeostasis model assessment for beta cell function (HOMA-B) and to predict the pancreatic beta cell function in the development of T2DM.METHODS: This study was designed as an observational with a cross-sectional approach. The subjects were centrally obese men aged 30-50 years and who had met the inclusion and exclusion criteria from the screening tests. Control subjects were lean men without T2DM. Serum free Zn and serum total Zn were measured by using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).RESULTS: There was positive correlation between serum free Zn and HOMA-B (R=0.361, p-value<0.001) but there was no correlation between serum total Zn and HOMA-B (R=-0.062, p-value=0.563). This study found that if the concentration of serum free Zn >1.7 ug/dL in central obese men was suggested as an excessive function of pancreatic beta cell and as an early warning before its exhausted.CONCLUSION: This study suggested that serum free Zn had a correlation with beta cell function and had a predictive ability for beta cell excessive function before its exhausted.KEYWORDS: Type 2 diabetes mellitus, HOMA-B, serum free zinc, central obesity
BACKGROUND: There is a continuous rise in the prevalence of central obesity and become a pressing health problem in the world. Central obesity followed by many metabolic disorders especially Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). The pathogenesis started from overnutrition signal that force pancreatic beta cells to produce a large number of insulin. Low-grade chronic inflammation that occurred also affects the organs sensitivity against insulin and caused beta cells to compensated this situation and at the end become exhausted and loss its function.CONTENT: Along compensation mechanism, certain nutrients were support the beta cells to maintain their mass and function to produce insulin. Short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are gut microbiota fermentation product that act as nutrient and give an advantage to the proliferation and survivability of the beta cells. Zinc (Zn) also plays an important role in every step of insulin production. Moreover, these nutrients protecting pancreas against inflammation and oxidative stress through certain mechanism. Most of patients with central obesity are unaware of the presence of this disturbance at early stage. Whereas, at molecular level there is a magnitude of SCFAs and Zn level in the blood that would become an early signal and predict the damage of beta cells.SUMMARY: Quantification of these two nutrients in the blood expected to provide an early warning tool to maintain insulin adequacy and predict the possibility of beta cell failure in central obesity with promising performance.KEYWORDS: central obesity, T2DM, SCFAs, Zinc, beta cell failure
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