Dipeptidyl peptidase IV and adenosine deaminase activity. Decrease in depression.

Dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPPIV) and adenosine deaminase (ADA), two T cell associated enzymes, are known to have a possible interaction and play essential roles in immune system functioning. On the other hand, depression has been shown to be accompanied with some immune-inflammatory alterations. In this regard, in order to make a contribution to the understanding of the ongoing immune disturbances in depression, serum DPPIV and ADA activities were determined in minor and major depressives and compared with healthy controls.

Plasma antioxidant defense in actinic keratosis and basal cell carcinoma.

Background: Reactive oxygen species and lipid peroxides have been implicated in the pathogenesis of a variety of diseases, particularly cancer. There may be an inverse correlation between lipid peroxidation and antioxidant defense mechanisms. The aim of this study was to investigate whether certain plasma antioxidants (ascorbic acid, alpha-tocopherol, total thiol groups, ceruloplasmin, urate, albumin and erythrocyte glutathione) are altered in actinic keratosis (AK) and basal cell carcinoma (BCC).

Lipid profile in actinic keratosis and basal cell carcinoma.

Background: The lipid content of the skin and its changes are important in the pathogenesis of many disorders affecting the skin, particularly actinic keratosis (AK) and basal cell carcinoma (BCC).

Methods: Cholesterol, phospholipid, triglyceride, and total lipid levels were studied in paired lesional (AK and BCC) and nonlesional intact skin of 13 patients with AK and 12 patients with BCC. Serum concentrations of the same lipid fractions studied in the skin were investigated in AK and BCC patients and in 11 healthy, age-matched controls.

Effects of prophylactic intravenous immunoglobulin-G therapy on humoral and cellular immune components and their functions in burned patients.

In this study on patients with thermal trauma, we examined the effects of standard therapy plus prophylactic polyclonal immunoglobulin G (IgG) treatment on humoral and cellular contents, cell phenotype and function of the immune system, and compare these with those found in patients receiving only standard therapy. The quantitative, peripheral-blood mononuclear cell panel shows a decrease in the total number of T-lymphocytes and an increase in the natural killer (NK) cells of standard therapy patients 3 weeks following the burn. We found that intravenous IgG treatment does not have an important effect on T lymphocytes and the proportion of their subpopulations, but rather causes a significant decrease in the number of B lymphocytes and an increase in the number of NK cells.

A case report: familial hypoalphalipoproteinemia.

We studied an 8 year-old girl whose height was 129 cm (25-50th percentile), weight 30 kg (75th percentile), blood pressure 115/75 mm Hg (75th percentile) and had a calcified mass lesion in the left posterior mediastinum. In the histopathological investigation of this mass lesion, symptoms of complicated atherosclerosis, such as mural thrombus and diffused calcification, were observed. Lipid investigations were performed in this patient whose total cholesterol and triglyceride levels were in the normal ranges.