Positive selection of lactase persistence among people of Southern Arabia.

Objective: Frequency patterns of the lactase persistence (LP)-associated -13,915 G allele and archaeological records pointing to substantial role played by southern regions in the peopling and domestication processes that involved the Arabian Peninsula suggest that Southern Arabia plausibly represented the center of diffusion of such adaptive variant. Nevertheless, a well-defined scenario for evolution of Arabian LP is still to be elucidated and the burgeoning archaeological picture of complex human migrations occurred through the peninsula is not matched by an equivalent high-resolution description of genetic variation underlying this adaptive trait. To fill this gap, we investigated diversity at a wide genomic interval surrounding the LCT gene in different Southern Arabian populations.

Distribution of the lactase persistence-associated variant alleles -13910* T and -13915* G among the people of Oman and Yemen.

The high prevalence of lactase persistence (LP) among the people of Saudi Arabia is associated with the -13915(*)G variant allele upstream of the lactase gene (LCT). We, therefore, examined the frequency of the commonly known LP associated SNPs among randomly collected samples from Omani and Yemeni adult populations and obtained further data on the distribution of the two most common LP-associated variants, -13910(*)T and -13915T(*)G, in the Arabian Peninsula. The DNA fragment containing all the reported LP- associated SNPs was amplified and genotyped.

Combination of zerumbone and cisplatin to treat cervical intraepithelial neoplasia in female BALB/c mice.

Recent in vitro and in vivo studies have demonstrated that zerumbone (ZER) possesses anticancer properties. The main objective of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the combination of ZER and cisplatin (CIS) to treat cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) in vivo. Microculture tetrazolium assay and immunohistochemistry of proliferating cellular nuclear antigen were used to study the antitumor effect of ZER.

Regression of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia by zerumbone in female Balb/c mice prenatally exposed to diethylstilboestrol: involvement of mitochondria-regulated apoptosis.

Background: Cervical cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in women. We have demonstrated previously that zerumbone (ZER) has an anti-cancer effect towards human cervical cancer cells (HeLa).

Methods: Anti-cancer properties of ZER were investigated using female Balb/c mice exposed prenatally to diethylstilboestrol.