No abstract

ABSTRACT.Intervertebral disc disease is a multifactorial condition, yet disease pathogenesis that can be promoted by a single dominant mutation affecting the expression of susceptibility genes. We performed a case-control study to assess the influence of the COL9A2 Gln326Arg polymorphism on risk of intervertebral disc disease in a Chinese population. Between March 2014 and March 2015, a total of 215 patients and 230 healthy controls were recruited from Binzhou Medical University Hospital. Genotyping of COL9A2 Gln326Arg was carried out using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that the Arg/Arg genotype of COL9A2 Gln326Arg was associated with increased risk of intervertebral disc disease in comparison to the Gln/Gln genotype [crude odds ratio (OR) = 2.25, 2 T. Meng et al. Genetics and Molecular Research 15 (4): gmr1504895895% confidence interval (CI) = 1.12-4.62; adjusted OR = 2.46, 95%CI = 1.20-5.29]. Moreover, the Arg/Arg genotype correlated with an elevated risk of this disease compared to the Gln/Gln + Gln/ Arg genotypes (crude OR = 2.21, 95%CI = 1.17-4.30; adjusted OR = 2.42, 95%CI = 1.28-5.51). In conclusion, our results suggest that the COL9A2 Gln326Arg polymorphism contributes to the development of intervertebral disc disease in the Chinese population.

This study was carried out to investigate the anti-carcinogenic effect of L-carnosine in human carcinoma cells (SNU-423). The SNU-423 cancer cells were cultured at a density of 2 × 10 cells/well in Dulbecco modified Eagle medium. After 24 h of adherence, the cells were treated with L-carnosine (0.2 and 1 mg/mL) for 48 h. Then, cell viability was assessed by sulforhodamine assay, while mitochondrial dysfunction was measured by fluorescence microscopy using chromatin-specific dye Hoechst 33258. Intracellular levels of ROS were assayed by fluorescence spectroscopy with 2',7'-dichlorofluorescein diacetate (DCFDA). L-Carnosine significantly inhibited the growth of the SNU-423 cells (p < 0.05). The inhibitory effect of L-carnosine was confirmed by results from mitochondrial fragmentation assay. The relative fluorescent unit was increased in a dose-dependent manner by L-carnosine, with values of 79.43, 186.87 and 400.89 for 0.6, 0.8 and 1 mg/mL of L-carnosine, respectively (p < 0.05). These results demonstrate that L-carnosine exerts anti-carcinogenic effects in human liver cancer cells.