Avicenna Journal of Medical Biochemistry
Volume:5 Issue: 2, Dec 2017

Ghrelin is a hormone that exhibits effects in a lot of biologic processes, such as food intake regulation, gastrointestinal motility and carbohydrate metabolism. Ghrelin is encoded by human preproghrelin gene (GHRL), reported with four exons. However, experiments suggested a new molecular structure for this gene.
This study aims to clarify by a simple representation GHRL and its products, showing the variants described for this gene up to this moment.
The GHRL sequence for molecular comparisons was obtained from GeneBank. The dbSNP was used to search variants and the PubMed, Scielo and Science Direct databases to investigate related studies.
The new molecular structure of GHRL includes a new exon 0 and an extended exon 1, located in the originally identified region of intron 1. Examples of GHRL products are signal, ghrelin and obestatin peptides and these molecules exhibit different effects on the organism. Thus, polymorphisms in these gene regions have been associated with a vast number of clinical effects, including metabolic disorders. We identified 11 genetic variations in the region of the GHRL which encodes for the signal peptide and 23 polymorphisms in the ghrelin coding region. One of them, rs34911341, has been associated with some disorders such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity.
In this scientific article we turned GHRL a little bit more informative for readers. Furthermore we highlighted the current reported GHRL genetic variations associated to signal and ghrelin peptides, but only the variant rs34911341 has been associated with metabolic disorders.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a main cause of liver disease and its global prevalence is estimated to be 24%. At present no approved medicines are available for NAFLD treatment. Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is a significant regulator of energy balance, show potential efficacy in the management of NAFLD. GLP-1 and GLP-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RAs) are attractive options for the treatment of type 2 diabetes (T2D) since they efficiently reduce weight, HbA1C and blood glucose without having a risk of hypoglycaemia. This incretin hormone by normalizing of insulin resistance (IR), oxidative stress, lipid accumulation, lipotoxicity, and liver cell apoptosis is proposed for the management of NAFLD and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) patient. Hence, the aim of this review was to discuss the useful effects of GLP-1, GLP-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RAs) and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) on NAFLD. In this paper we provided a new finding which highlighted the role of GLP-1 and GLP-1RAs in the treatment of NAFLD.

Urinary tract stones are one of the most common causes of kidney disease. There is evidence for the possible involvement of oxidative stress in the formation of kidney stones and renal cell injury.
In this study, we aimed to determine the total antioxidant capacity (TAC), malondialdehyde (MDA), serum thiol group, ceruloplasmin (CP) levels and catalase (CAT) activity in the serum of the patients with kidney stones.
This study was conducted as a case-control study. A total of 31 patients (16 males and 15 females) with kidney stone(s) and a comparative normal control group including 21 (12 males and 9 females) healthy subjects were included.
The present study revealed that TAC level was significantly higher in the control group (P=0.004), and the mean thiol group was remarkably decreased in the patient group (P It can be concluded that the reduction of antioxidant indices in the patients with kidney stones can damage the renal tubular cells and strengthen the accumulation of crystals and the formation of kidney stones

The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency is increasing due to changes in lifestyle and dietary habits. The aim of this study was to compare the serum levels of 25-hydroxy vitamin D between patients with bronchial asthma and the healthy control group.
Patients and In this case-control study, 45 patients with asthma and 45 healthy subjects were enrolled and the level of serum 25 (OH) vitamin D was measured in both groups. In addition, a welltrained observer assessed airway reversibility, peak flowmetry and spirometry in the participants. The data were statistically analyzed using t test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and chi-square test with Stata software (version 11).
The mean age (±SD) of participants were 49.06 ±16.43 and 46.13 ±16.10 years in case and control groups, respectively (P=.394). The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was high in both groups (69% in case and 65.5% in control groups). The mean (±SD) serum 25 (OH) vitamin D was 16.24 (±14.98) ng/ml in case group and 17.70 (±16.07) ng/mL in control group (P=.657). We found a positive correlation between the levels of vitamin D and the amount of FEV1 (r=0.2).
According to the present study, the mean serum levels of vitamin D differences were not statistically significant between asthmatic patients and control group. However, the results of this study showed a positive relationship between forced expiratory volumes in first second (FEV1) and vitamin D levels

Regular physical activity is recognized as a non-pharmacological treatment of inflammation and glycemic profile.
This exercise aimed to determine the effect of aerobic training on serum interleukin-6 (IL-6), glucose and insulin resistance in obese females.
Patients and Thirty-two middle-aged obese women (body mass index [BMI], 32 ± 3 kg/m2) aged 35 to 45 years were randomly assigned to exercise (aerobic training, n=16) and control (n=16) groups. Exercise subjects were completed a 12 weeks aerobic training program as 3 sessions per week at 60%-80% of HRmax and control subjects received no training. Pre- and post-training of fasting serum IL-6, insulin, insulin resistance, and glucose concentration were measured and compared between 2 groups. Results were compared using t test at a significance level of P Exercise group obtained significant decreases in BMI, body fat %, and abdominal obesity as well as the concentrations of serum IL-6 and fasting glucose (P0.05). There were no alterations in these variables in the control group (P>0.05).
These data suggest that aerobic training may improve glycemic profile in absence of change in insulin resistance of women with abdominal obesity

Ammonia, urea, uric acid, and creatinine are the major non-protein nitrogenous compounds (NPNs). It is reported that the concentration of NPNs in the seminal plasma of normal and infertile individuals is different and sperm is affected by NPNs.
The aim of this study was to determine the quantities of ammonia, urea, uric acid, and creatinine in seminal plasma and the correlation of these compounds with the fertilization rate after an intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).
The levels of ammonia, urea, uric acid, and creatinine were determined in seminal plasma collected from 50 men. The ammonia and urea were determined by L-glutamate dehydrogenase and diacetyl monoxime method, respectively. Uric acid and creatinine were detected by enzymatic method and Jaffe reaction, respectively. The fertilization was evaluated around 16–18 hours post-ICSI on the appearance of 2 pronuclei and 2 polar bodies. The fertilization rate was calculated by the number of fertilized oocytes per the number of oocytes injected.
There was a significant negative correlation between seminal ammonia and sperm motility (P The findings of the present study showed that urea and uric acid in seminal plasma have a negative impact on the fertilization rate.

Although acetaminophen (APAP) is considered safe at therapeutic doses, intake of high amounts of this drug can cause liver failure. In the present experiment, we examined the hepatoprotective effects of resveratrol (RES) in HepG2 cells and rat liver.
This study aimed to evaluate the influence of RES on liver function in rat model of necrosis and HepG2 cells.
In this study, rats were randomly assigned into 4 groups (7 rats in each group) as follows; group 1: control rats (received normal saline), group 2: hepatotoxic control (control rats that received 640 mg/kg/d APAP), group 3: positive control (received 150 mg/kg N-acetylcysteine), group 4: RES (received 30 mg/kg RES). The animals were treated for 7 days. Afterwards, the levels of liver enzymes, protein carbonyl content, glutathione (GSH) level, and Tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) level were determined.
In the in vitro experiment, APAP-induced HepG2 cells were treated with RES at different concentrations and various factors such as cell viability, liver enzymes, GSH and TNF-α levels were measured.
Our results indicated that RES could normalize all these factors in vitro and in vivo (P

Vitamin D level can affect pulmonary function in patient who have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
There are few studies that assess this subject, so we investigate the relation of Vitamin D and COPD.
A case-control study was conducted among the patients referred to the pulmonology clinic of Shahid Beheshti hospital of Hamadan, in which 68 of patients were assigned into the case group with COPD and 68 patients into the control group. Both groups were evaluated for respiratory differences as clinical or laboratory and the blood level of vitamin D was measured.
Of 136 evaluated participants with the mean age of 58.83 years old, 68 patients were studied as case group consisting of 2 females and 66 males. The results suggested that the serum level of vitamin D in COPD patients and control group patients were 22.22 ± 15.83 ng/mL and 27.47 ± 21.43 ng/mL, respectively. It was also found that there was a positive correlation between lung function and serum level of vitamin D in COPD. The greater the severity of COPD (forced expiratory volume in the first second [FEV1] lower level) was, the more the vitamin D deficiency was seen. It was also clarified that there was an indirect correlation between the serum level of vitamin D in COPD patients and body mass index (BMI).
Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in COPD patients was more than that in control group patients. Due to the growing prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in such patients, any use of vitamin D maybe suggested