Beata Burczynska

A comparative study of bifidobacteria in human babies and adults

The composition and diversity of the gut microbiota are known to be different between babies and adults. The aim of this project was to compare the level of bifidobacteria between babies and adults and to investigate the influence of lifestyle factors on the level of this bacterium in the gut. During this study, the levels of bifidobacteria in 10 human babies below 2 years of age were compared with that of 10 human adults above 40 years. The level of bifidobacteria proved to be significantly higher in babies in comparison with adults. This investigation concluded that a combination of several factors, such as age, diet, and BMI, has an important effect on the level of bifidobacteria in adults, while in babies, a combination of diet and age may influence the level of intestinal bifidobacteria.

3 – The molecular genetics of hCG

It is known that hCG is a complicated molecule. It is not surprising, then, that the transcription and regulation of hCG gene expression are also complicated. In the first complete text on hCG, a short paragraph was dedicated to the complex gene cluster of hCGβ, which was first fully described only 5 years earlier and mapped only a year earlier. Since then, the advances in molecular biology have thrown the field wide open, but despite these advances, many questions posed in the early 1980s still remain unanswered more than a quarter of a century later. hCG α-subunit gene expression was reported in 1979 and was shown to be expressed in translatable levels in placental and tumor tissue. The sequence was originally published in 1981 and online versions of the sequences can now be readily obtained from websites such as that of NCBI. α-Subunit mRNA is 10 times more abundant in trophoblast tissue than the β-subunit. Thus, the regulatory mechanisms resulting in α- and β-subunit gene expression are likely to be different. The control of hCGβ gene expression is independent from that of hCGα; while hCGα continues to be produced throughout gestation, hCGβ diminishes and therefore appears to regulate the overall hCG concentration in the blood

Effect of photodynamic therapy on proliferation and apoptosis of 3T3 fibroblasts and HeLa cells

OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to test the effect of photodynamic therapy on fibroblast proliferation in vitro using protoporphyrin IX as a photosensitizer. BACKGROUND DATA The abnormal proliferation of synovial tissue serves as a propagator of immune response and tissue damage in rheumatoid arthritis. Since the synovial fibroblasts mediate most relevant pathways of joint destruction, they constitute an important target for novel therapeutic approaches. Photodynamic therapy, which is the clinically applied treatment for various tumors, as well as for some non-oncologic diseases, is based on administration of an exogenous photosensitizer which is used to induce cell death of fibroblast cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS The photosensitizing effects of protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) were studied in the 3T3 cell line that served as a model of fibroblasts and HeLa cells cultured in vitro. RESULTS The number of fibroblasts and HeLa cells treated with photo-activated PpIX decreased significantly. The compound affects the viability of study cells, causing necrosis of 3T3 cells and apoptosis of HeLa cells. CONCLUSIONS The light-activated protoporphyrin affected proliferation of both 3T3 and HeLa cells. No effects of the phototherapy were seen in the form of apoptosis of 3T3 cells, whereas the induction of cell death in HeLa cells was detected.