Iraqi Journal of Cancer and Medical Genetics

Transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the bladder in patients has historically a favorable prognosis. Bcl-2 and p53 genes are implicated in cell cycle regulation with roles on programmed cell death. Presence of nuclear accumulation of p53 and cytoplasmic accumulation of bcl-2 were proposed to confer a growth advantage to tumor cells. In this study, we investigated the roles of p53 and bcl-2 as prognostic factors in TCC of bladder.
Method: Investigated 25 patients with transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) and 27 patients with cystitis (control group) for the expression of Bcl-2 and P53 by immunohistochemical staining with specific monoclonal antibodies.
Results: Bcl-2 was significantly expressed in TCC compared to those with cystitis (control). Moreover, P53 was significantly expressed in TCC compared to those with cystitis (control). A significant positive correlation between these two parameters in Tcc.
Conclusions: These observations detect that increased the expression of Bcl-2 and P53 in TCC play a potential role in
the development of bladder cancer.

Objective: The aim of this study is to find out the efficiency of CA15-3 in the follow up of metastatic invasive ductal carcinoma patients pre and post-treatment.
Method: Seventy five inavasive ductal carcinoma Iraqi patients with metastasis were admitted to Nuclear Medicine Hospital in Baghdad, all were females and have received the same treatment regimen which is represented by FAC: 5-fluorouracil, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide given 3-weekly for 6 cycles. Those patients have been observed for four months until they completed their course of treatment. Also 15 samples of apparently healthy women were involved as a control. The blood samples (5 mL) were drown from all of studied cases in order to be used for measuring their serum level of CA15-3 (serum CA15-3 levels of patients were measured pre and post treatment) by using Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) technique.
Result: Serum CA15-3 concentration was elevated in 36 patients (highly significant) from the total number of patients that had been considered in the study before starting therapy, 31 patients from them were followed up for four months while they completed their course of treatment. Then; their serum CA15-3 concentrations were measured again, the result showed that the CA15-3 values decreased in 27 patients to be within normal level, but increased in 4 patients more than its primary concentration before starting therapy.
Conclusion: CA15- 3 is a sensitive tumor marker for diagnosing metastatic invasive ductal carcinoma and especially for monitoring treatment of those patients.

Newcastle disease virus selectively kills human cancer cells versus normal cells.Newcastle disease virus has pleiotropic immune stimulatory properties. This study was conducted to investigate the ability of Iraqi strain of NDV to induce immune stimulation when used as oncolytic agent by intratumoral injection, IL-2 and IFN-gamm as well as CD8 and CD56 were used as parameters to determine of immune stimulation properties. The results showed high immune stimulatory effect for Iraqi strain of NDV.

Background: Interleukin-6(IL-6) is a pleiotropic cytokine that plays a major role in response to injury or infections and involved in immune response, inflammation and haematopoiesis. It is produced by a variety of cell types in response to variety of stimulants. Also deregulation impacts to numerous disease states, including many types of cancer. Elevated IL-6 levels have been observed in most types of cancer and it’s implicated in the pathogenesis of several disease such as acute myeloid leukemia, multiple myeloma, lymphoma and it may be a prognostic factor for solid tumors, such as prostate cancer.
Objectives: Estimation of the serum levels of IL-6 in patients with AML in different stages of the disease and assess their prognostic value and study its relationship with bacteremia, total leukocyte count, and hemoglobin concentration.
Materials and Methods: Forty patients of AML in different stages in National centre of hematology-Baghdad were studied immunologically for the detection of serum IL-6 by Enzyme Linked Immune Sorbent Assay (ELISA) kit. Specimen of blood collected from AML in relapse stage with episode of fever, were subjected to well known established microbiological methods for diagnosis and identification of isolates and data were compared with 20 healthy donors.
Results: Newly diagnosed and in relapse stage patients with AML had significantly higher serum levels of IL-6 compared with both control group and leukemic patients in remission stage P<0.05, in addition there was a positive correlation of IL-6 with the presence of fever due to bacterial infection. The clinical specimen result in (8) isolates, from which (6) were coagulase negative and (2) were staphylococcus aureus, all isolates show high sensitivity to erythromycin and high resistant to chloromphenicol .Also IL-6 level correlated positively with total leukocyte count (TLC) and inversely with hemoglobin (Hb) concentration in AML at diagnostic and relapse stage.
Conclusion: Serum levels of Interleukin-6 can be used as prognostic serum markers at diagnosis of adults acute myeloid leukemia and it could be used as follow up parameters for early detection of relapse stage, in addition it seem to be a good markers to detect patients with bacteremia.

Background: Pomegranate (Punica granatum) fruits are widely consumed as juice. The potent antioxidant and antiatherosclerotic activities of pomegranate are attributed to its polyphenols.
Aim: Pomegranate extract were evaluated for in vitro cytotoxic and its effect on the level of p53 in Hep2 (Human larynx epidermal carcinoma).
Methods: Aqueous extraction of pomegranate was prepared and in vitro cytotoxicity and amount of p53 was evaluated on cancer cell line Hep2 (Human larynx epidermal carcinoma).
Results: The study showed that the pomegranate extract has greatest antiproliferative activity by inhibition proliferation from 13% to 73.9%, at 10 μg/ml and 24 hr period of exposure. Also, the study showed significant decrease of p53 in treated group in comparison to control.
Conclusions: According to the in vitro antiproliferative activity, inhibition of p53 expression pomegramate extracts may be possess a potent anticancer activity.

The possible action of high dose of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) powder extract was evaluated in normal healthy and dacarbazine-induced toxicity in albino rats. Twenty-eight male albino rats were used in this study. The animals were divided into three different groups in addition to control group. The first group treated with intravenous injection of (1mg/kg b.w.) dacarbazine. The rats of the second group supplemented with pomegranate juice with concentration (1000mg/l) in drinking water, while the third group was the combination of the two treatments. Samples of blood were collected after a weeks of treating, and the serum was obtained in the laboratory for the evaluation of P53 protein within the serum. The results showed a significant reduction of P53 level in dacarbazine treated rats comparing with control. Whereas, pomegranate juice treated rats had significant increasing of P53 level as compared to control. The level of the combination treatment also was significantly more than control and dacarbazine treatment, while it was significantly lesser than pomegranate juice treated rats. These finding suggests that dacarbazine cytotoxicity is not P53 dependent and high dose of pomegranate has role in P53 protein expression induction.

In tumor pathogenesis and metastasis, defects in apoptosis are essential. They allow tumor cells to overcome nutrient deprivation, absence of growth-stimulating signals, and presence of growth-inhibitory signals, surrounding tissue barriers, hypoxia, oxidative stresses, and host immune responses. Newcastle disease virus is interesting oncolytic agent with promising anti-tumor properties. One of the major anti-tumor properties is apoptotic induction. This study aimed to find out the apoptotic pathway induced by Iraqi strain of NDV, in vitro and in vivo study were conducted to find out that Endoplasmic reticulum pathway is the dominant pathway for NDV in inducing apoptosis.

This work was done by using explants cultured in MS medium supplemented with 3mg/l of NAA plus BAP, 30g/l sucrose beside different concentrations of silver nano particles 4,8,12 mg/l. to assess the efficiency of using these particles in control the infection percent. The results indicate that healthy plants percent were increase from 45% to 100% in all treatments. However, in 4 mg/l treatment the explants were continued to grow better even after 28 days in culture. This is the first report on using silver particles in vitro technique especially in Iraq.

The association between HLA-class I (A and B) antigens and polycystic ovary syndrome was investigated in 45 Iraqi female patients during the period February - July 2010. Additionally, ABO blood group phenotypes (A, B, AB and O) were also investigated. The comparison was made with 40 apparently healthy females (controls) who were blood donors and matched patients for age and ethnicity. The O blood groups showed a significant (P = 0.02) decreased percentage frequency in patients as compared to controls (33.3 vs. 57.5%), but the corrected P (Pc) was not significant (Pc = 0.08). In contrast, the HLA antigens were presented with a corrected significant variation. The antigen HLA-B7 showed a significant (Pc = 0.016) increased percentage frequency in patients as compared to controls (42.2 vs. 10.0%), and such variation was associated with a relative risk (RR) value of 6.58 and an etiological fraction (EF) of 0.36. Such variation may highlight the importance of HLA system in conferring immunogenetic predisposition to develop ovarian cysts.

Cryopreservation of umbilical cord hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) is essential step in stem cell transplantation. The Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) mostly used as a cryoprotective agent, associated with toxic effects to stem cells. In order to minimize the effects of DMSO, low concentrations of DMSO with additional cryoprotectants should used. In this study mononuclear cells (MNCs) isolated by ficoll from umbilical cord blood (UCB), which contain hematopoietic stem cells (CD34+), were used for cryopreservation. Cryopreservation of UCB-derived MNCs was done for period of one month by using uncontrolled-rate freezing technique at -196˚C in liquid nitrogen. Cryopreservation solution was used which consisted of minimum essential medium (MEM) and 20% fetal calf serum (FCS) supplemented with the cryoprotectant dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) in two concentrations 2.5% and 5% DMSO, lower than usually used 10%, with and without 25μg/ml trehalose or 80μg/ml ascorbic acid to improve cryopreservation process. The addition of trehalose and ascorbic acid improved cryopreservation process in comparison with control. Addition of 5% DMSO alone and with additives showed a better result than 2.5% DMSO alone or with additives for cryopreserving CD34+ cells as indicated by immunocytochemistry. Washing out DMSO also affected the count and viability of MNCs. These results indicated that it could use low concentrations of DMSO in cryopreservation of HSCs by association with trehalose and ascorbic acid.

This study has been conducted on blood samples from patients with chronic lymphoid leukemia’s (CLL) who were diagnosed and treated at The National Center of Hematology between January 2006 to September 2009. The diagnosis was established depending on clinical and hematological findings. Immunophenotyping was performed by indirect immunofluorescence technique using fluorescent microscopy to identify CD 23 and CD 6 markers expression on peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Positive cell is seen with multiple fluorescence dyes around the membrane or by bright green membrane fluorescence, the cases considered as positive for marker when the marker is expressed in ≤ 30 of cells. Sixty cases were newly diagnosed untreated CLL patients with mean age of 64.5 ± 10.1 years with 9.4% of cases below the age of 45 years and male to female ration of 3:1were involved in this study. Immunological study showed that all the cases were CD 23 positive while CD6 were positive in 45 (75%) out of 60 cases and negative in 15(25%) out of 60 cases. These percentages in all CD 23 positive cases and CD6 positive CLL patients were higher significant than normal group (p=0.000). In conclusion, the positive CD23 expression clarify that the majority of chronic lymphoid leukemia are B-cell type. B-cell is the most common which is heterogeneous disease regarding clinical presentation ,hematological findings and morphological feature although CD6 is not specific marker for diagnosis of CLL ,but it may help in the diagnosis of CLL.

This research was designed to study the effect of water and alcoholic crude extracts of Agaricus bisporus in vivo. Therapeutic effect of both extracts was studied in murine mammary adenocarc- inoma- implanted mice after (I.P) administration of watery extract at concentrations of (333.3, 500, 666.6 mg/kg) and alcoholic extract at concentrations of (500, 1000, 1500 mg/kg) for 30 days alternatively. The results revealed significant reduction in the tumor volume weather in those treated with watery extract 87.10%, or those treated with alcoholic extract 87.98%, particularly at the concentration of 666.6 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg respectively. Histopathological study showed necrosis and infiltration of inflammatory cells within fibrous encapsulated tumor mass.

The aim of this study was cytotoxic and cytogenetic study of crude extract of juglans spp on Human Glioblastoma cell line (AMGM) and normal cell line (REF) before and after treatment on 24 and 48 hrs. of exposure time. The results have showed a significant effect between concentrations started with 39.1 μg/ml compared with control after 72 hrs. of exposure time and with no significant effect on all concentrations compared with control on normal cell line (REF); whereas the results of mitotic index have showed a significant effect for the concentrations (312.578.1 ،156.2 ، ( و 39.1 μg/ml compared with control.

In this study we do achromosomal analysis to 26 iraqi patients with confirmed Turner Syndrom , after subjected to medical examination by their doctors. Turner Syndrom is achromosomal abnormalities in X chromosome .the age of pateins are among (5-25) years old and divided into tow groups ,the first one is patients with age below 12 years old and the second is patients with age above 12 years old. The goal of this study is to understand the major causes of increase the genetic disorders in Iraq .The results showed in group one founds normal genetic structure in all examined cells,but in group tow its found eight case from twenty one case had Turner Syndrom ,due to the absence of one of the X chromosome, under chromosomal profilic (45X0). And (Xp-,Xq-,iX) with variation in its frequency between patients. The conclusion was increase in chromosom changes due to several factors such as pollutions.

The Rh(D,C,c,E,e) were typed in a sample consisted of 378 individuals, one hundred of them present the control whereas the remaining 278 individuals were affected by β-thalassemia. The last group was divided into three types; 156 of individuals affected with major thalassemia, 66 of individuals affected with intermediate thalassemia and 56 of individuals affected with minor thalassemia (carriers). The aim of the present study is to find any genetic variation in the distribution of Rh blood group system between thalassemia and control groups. The various comparisons lead to a significant difference in Rh group for β-thalassemia and all its subtypes except the minor one, because of the decrease in resistant phenotype CCDee and increase in CcDEe phenotype. It is clear, the importance of the Rh blood group since it can be considered as a source for detecting the risk of inheritance for β-thalassemia and / or the probability of its expression. It can be used with the other laboratory tests in genetic counseling. This study, recommended to do more studies about the other blood groups in order to know about its phenotypic frequencies between healthy and disease samples.

This study was aimed to know the inhibitory effect of the flavonoid extract of Silybum marianum seeds on two of the cancer cell lines, human brain cancinoma (AMGM), human cervix uteri epitheloid carcinoma (Hela ) and one normal cell line, Mouse embryonic fibroblast cell line (MEF). The concentration was (1000,500,250,125,62.5) μg/ml respectively with two exposure time (24 & 48) hours for the cancer cell lines and one exposure time (48) hr. for the normal one . The results showed that flavonoids extract has obvious inhibitory effect on (human brain carcinoma & Hela) with (P<0.05) significantly in high concentration (1000) μg/ml the cellular density (obsorption) of human brain carcinoma was (0.052) with inhibitory ratio (39%) compared with control, At 48 hours exposure the density was (0.051) with inhibitory ratio (94%) compared with control , whereas the density in Hela was (0.059, 0.06) with inhibitory ratio85.7% and 86% respectively at 24 and 48 hr. exposure. While the normal cell line showed no signification effect (P<0.05) for all brevious concentration except the high one (1000) μg/ml , whereas the density of MEF was (0.23), with inhibitory effect (34%) . The result of this study has indicated ahighest inhibitory activity of the cancer cell lines for both AMGM & Hela.