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Background: Diabetes is an umbrella term for a number of metabolic diseases that affects the body’s ability to control blood glucose levels. The hormone insulin is produced in the pancreas, and helps to metabolize glucose for energy. Diabetes occurs when insulin production is impaired. Objective: The present study was to examine the effect of smoking on type 2 diabetic patients visiting Federal Medical Centre. Materials and Methods: The sample size was 97 respondents while the major instrument for data collection was a well constructed, validated and reliably tested questionnaire, including observations made on secondary existing record data of the hospital. Data obtained was analyzed using frequency distribution, means, standard deviation and fisher’s exact test. Results: Results of the study indicated that majority of the diabetic patients 78(80.4%) were non smokers, while 8(8.2%) and 11(11.3%) respondents were current and past smokers respectively. Maintainance of good glycaemic control should be considered as the therapeutic goal for prevention of diabetic complications. Conclusion: A comprehensive programmes should be initiated to prevent smoking in type 2 diabetic patients such as: regular physical activity, health education on diabetes, smoking cessation, home blood sugar monitoring - minimize smoking impact to body organs that may lead to many complications. Asian Journal of Medical Science, Volume-5(3) 2014: 63-71 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ajms.v5i3.8950

Objectives: To investigate the biochemical effects of oral doses of Piper guineense (P. guineense) leaf extract on female diabetics using experimental animals. Methods: The animals, albino wistar rats, were divided into six groups (n=7). Animals in group 1 received water and feed only. Animals in groups 2 to 6 were induced with diabetes using alloxan. Methanolic leave extracts of P. Guineense were administered to groups 2 to 4 in 40 mg/kg, 80 mg/kg and 100 mg/kg body weights representing low, medium and high doses respectively. Group 5 animals were treated with 10 mg/kg body weight of Glibenclamide (Antidiabetic drug) and group 6 animals were left untreated. All treatments were carried out orally and lasted for a period of 14 days. At the end of the 14 days, the animals were humanely sacrificed through cardiac puncture and the blood samples collected for the analyses of some liver and kidney function parameters using assay kits. Results: The results showed that the oral doses of methanolic leave extract of P. guineense had no negative alterations on the biochemical parameters analyzed namely, 1) Lipid profile (Triglyceride, Low Density Lipoprotein, Total Cholesterol and High Density Lipoprotein levels), 2) electrolytes profile (Sodium, Potassium, Chloride, Bicarbonate, 3) Urea) and 4) Creatinine levels. Furthermore, there was a significant reduction in the urea levels of treated animals and marked but insignificant reduction in the total cholesterol level and increase in High Density Lipoprotein at P<0.05. Conclusion and Implication for Translation: The reported antidiabetic P. guineense leaf extract caused no adverse biochemical changes in female diabetic rats. This implied that the extract may not distort the lipid and electrolyte profiles of female diabetics and could be pharmacologically safe in the management of female diabetics. It further implied that the Piper, Uziza, commonly taken after childbirth by nursing mothers in some tropical countries may maintain the lipid and electrolyte balance and consequently, prevent hypercholesterolemia and hypertension. Keywords: • Diabetes • Piper guineense • Lipids • Electrolytes • Methanolic extracts • Black pepper   Copyright © 2019 Gordon et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Telomeres cap ends of eukaryotic chromosomes prevent them from degradation and ensure genomic stability. Cdc13 is an essential telomere recruitment and maintenance protein. A temperature-sensitive point mutation in cdc13 gene leads to telomere impairment, giving rise to cdc13-1 mutants that suffer lethality at enhanced temperatures. Deleting Exo1 gene from these mutants, however, leads to the emergence of temperature-tolerant mutants called survivors. Yeasts are known to exist as either diploids or haploids. These yeast genotypes generate survivors. The frequency of survivorship in the haploid genotype is one cell in 104 cells/generation at 36˚C, however, the frequency at which they emerge in their diploid counterparts at the same temperature is not known. In this study, we investigated the frequency of Survivorship in heterozygous diploids of cdc13-1exo1Δ mutants of S. cerevisiae at 36˚C. Diploids were constructed by mating haploid strains of opposite mating type cdc13-1 exo1:LEU strains with strains of cdc13-1 exo1:HIS. The crosses were 1296 × 3181, 2561 × 3182, 1296 × 3182 and 2561 × 3181. Genetic markers and phenotypic appearance were considered while mating the mutant cells. Using a stick, a smear of one haploid strain was made on each YEPD plate labelled C2, C8, C9, D1, D14, and D15. A smear of another opposite mating type was made on the previous strain. They were mixed and allowed to mate overnight, before culturing on media lacking Luecine and Histidine (-L and -H).

This study assessed the comparatively antimicrobial activity of ethanol extracts of aeruginosa, respectively at the same concentration (100 mg/mL). S. aureus showed greatest susceptibility while P. aeruginosa was the least for both extracts. The stem bark extract of C.Africana possess greater antimicrobial activity compared to B. dalzielii.

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Background: Telomeric DNA is found at the end of eukaryotic chromosomes, where they play a role in protecting the chromosome and the integrity of the genome of the organism through the activity of telomerase. Saccharomyces cerevisiae exists in two genotypes: haploid and diploid. Temperature sensitive point mutation on the cdc13 gene of each genotype and deletion of exo1 gene (cdc13-1Exo1 mutants) give rise to mutant survivors at enhanced temperatures. The mode of inheritance of the thermal tolerance allele in the heterozygous diploid genotype is not known. Materials and Methods: We constructed diploids by mating temperature sensitive haploid strains of opposite mating type cdc13-1 exo1: LEU with temperature resistant strains of cdc13-1 exo1::HIS. The crosses were 1296x3182 (D) and 2561x3181 (C). Using a sterile stick, smear of one haploid strain was made on each YEPD plates labelled C2, C8, C10, D4, D10, and D113. A smear of another opposite mating type was made on the previous strain. They were mixed and allowed to mate for six hours, before culturing on media lacking Luecine and Histidine (–L and –H) to purify and confirm that they are diploids. After confirmation, a loop full aliquot of the diploids were streaked on sterile media lacking leucine and histidine (-L, -H) and on YEPD and cultured at 370C to check thermal tolerance and number of viable colonies from each diploid crosses in (cfu). Result: The heterozygous diploid D thrived at the enhanced temperature of 370C and there is a significant difference in the yield of viable colonies by the D diploids when compared to the yield of the C diploids with P-value of 0.05. Conclusion: The growth of diploid D10 as shown in plate 3.1 establishes that, temperature resistant allele inherited by cdc13-1 exo1heterozygous diploids is a dominant phenotype, and its mode of inheritance is dominant as the heterozygous diploid thrived at the enhanced temperature of 370C.