Medically Graded Honey Supplementation Formula to Preterm Infants as a Prebiotic: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to assess the effect of medically graded enteral honey supplementation on the intestinal microbiota, immune response, and somatic growth of preterm infants.

Methods: A prospective randomized controlled trial was conducted on preterm infants with gestational age ≤34 weeks and postnatal age >3 days. After reaching 1/2 goal enteral feeds, medically graded bee honey was added to milk at a dose of 5, 10, 15, and 0 g/day for 2 weeks in groups A, B, C, and D, respectively.

Clinical significance of Angiopoietin-1 in Behcet's disease patients with vascular involvement.

Behcet's disease (BD) is a chronic multisystem inflammatory disorder of unclear etiology. Vascular inflammation, endothelial dysfunction and angiogenesis may be in part responsible for the pathogenesis of BD. Angiopoietin-1 (Ang-1) is a recent angiogenic mediator.

Anti-C1q in chronic hepatitis C virus genotype IV infection: association with autoimmune rheumatologic manifestations.

A growing body of evidence suggests that anti-complement-1q (anti-C1q) antibodies are elevated in a variety of autoimmune disease. Therefore, we investigated their prevalence and clinical significance in plasma of patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype IV in the presence and absence of autoimmune extra hepatic manifestations in comparison to normal healthy individuals. Plasma Anti-C1q Abs levels were assessed by an Enzyme Linked Immunosorbant Assay in 91 chronic HCV-infected patients (51 with and 40 without autoimmune rheumatic manifestations) and 40 healthy volunteers matched for age and gender.