Periodontal diseases can be defined as a wide range inflammatory condition due to the infection with pathogenic bacteria grow in oral cavity affecting the supporting structure of the teeth. Local plus systemic conditions are affected the initiating and progressing of periodontal infections. Blood groups and Rh factor may play important role in periodontal illness. The aim of present study was to find if there are relation between ABO blood groups and Rhesus factor with periodontal status and if they are possible risk factors or not according to many studies that were done throughout the world.

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) has been observed as degeneration disease of joint cartilage and the underlying bone affecting millions of people worldwide. OA has traditionally been classified as a non-inflammatory arthritis but with evidences accumulation indicates the role of immune response and inflammation in OA onset and progression. Aim of study: To shed the light on role of innate immune response, CRP and IL-6 level in the development of OA in Basra province. Patients and methods: 55 osteoarthritis patients (11 males and 44 females) and 70 healthy individuals as control (24 males and 46 females) were participate in this study. Total and differential WBCs count in whole blood in addition to the levels of all ESR, CRP and IL-6 were measured in serum for all participants. Results: The results were recorded a significant increasing in total WBCs count, neutrophils and monocyte in addition to the level of all inflammatory markers (ESR, CRP and IL-6) in osteoarthritis patients as compared with healthy control. While lymphocytes and platelets count record an increase in OA patients but insignificant . A significant positive correlation was found between IL-6 level in serum and each of CRP, ESR, WBCs and the platelet. In addition to a significant correlation was found between CRP and both of WBCs and ESR. Conclusion: The results indicates the active participation of inflammatory response in development of osteoarthritis in addition to the importance role for IL-6 as considered multifunctional cytokines effect different immunological parameters in the body and has adverse effect in development of OA.

Objective: Helicobacter pylori is associated with gastric and peptic ulcer leading to gastric cancer progress. Gingival teeth grooves among patients with chronic periodontitis can act as reservoirs for H. pylori proliferation. The purpose of our study was assessment the association of H. pylori from dental plaques of patients with periodontitis with gastric colonization. Methods: Among patients with periodontitis admitted to dentistry centers, 250 dental plaque and 250 gastric biopsy samples were obtained during 2016–2019. After bacterial identification, virulence genes including cagA, cagT, cagE, vacA and hrgA were screened using PCR technique. Results: Fifty and 75 isolates were identified in periodontitis and biopsy specimens, respectively. In periodontitis strains, the rete of cagA, cagT, cagE, vacA and hrgA were as 18 (36%), 15 (30%), 14 (28%), 6 (12%) and 6 (12%), respectively. Among 75 biopsy strains, prevalence of cagA, cagT, cagE, vacA and hrgA were as 28 (34%), 24 (32%), 19 (25.3%), 11 (14.66%) and 7 (0.14%), respectively. There was higher rate of gastric ulcer among ages more than 45 years compared with age ranges 1–15 and 20–45 years (P < 0.01 and P = 0.004, respectively). No significant difference between men and women (35/75 vs. 40/75) was observed. Conclusion: Although the prevalence of virulence genes was low among H. pylori strains from dental plaques, a relatively high-density of H. pylori among both sources was considerable. Accordingly, H. pylori possibly spread from dental plaque into gastric mucosa. Furthermore, the possible role of dental plaques among patients with periodontitis as sources for peptic ulcer by pathogenic H. pylori needs more in-depth verifications.

The study of correlation between cancer biomarkers after treatment with anticancer drugs would represent a promising insight into the effectiveness of the drug. In this study, after induction of hepatocellular carcinoma, rats were divided into four groups: groups A and B as healthy or control group and negative untreated cancer group respectively; groups C and D were treated with platinum azido-thymidine (0.9 mg/kg/day), a novel anti-cancer drug, and azido-thymidine (AZT) (0.3 mg/kg/day) respectively. After induction of cancer, the telomerase and Bcl-2 expression were evaluated by real-time PCR (RT-qPCR), and also Bcl-2 concentration and telomerase activity were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and telomerase repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) respectively. A significant correlation was observed between telomerase and Bcl-2 in untreated HCC-induced rats as compared to the control group. In untreated cancer group, a direct significant correlation between telomerase activity and expression (r = 0.453, p = 0.022*) and also a negative significant correlation between telomerase activity and Bcl-2 concentration (r = − 0.43, p = 0.034*) and also between telomerase and Bcl-2 expression (r = − 0.088, p = 0.006*) was observed. In drug-treated groups, there was a significant negative correlation between telomerase expression and Bcl-2 concentration (r = − 0.45, p = 0.025) only in the AZT-treated groups. Our results indicated a correlation between cancer factors in the untreated cancerous group B and in treated groups only limited to the azithoimidin-treated group (group D). Hence, it may be possible to use this strategy to develop remarkable anticancer drugs in future studies, though this hypothesis requires more in-depth research.

Corresponding author: Raghed M. Jassem Email: dr.raghed_2008@yahoo.com Department of Basic Science College of Dentistry University of Basra Basra Iraq ABSTRACT Objectives: The aim of the present study was to find out the effect of cigarettes smoking on several haematological, immunological parameters and inflammatory proteins C-reactive proteins (CRP) and complement (C3 and C4). Methods: Whole blood and serum samples were taken from 32 healthy smokers and 31 non-smokers male as control (19-40 years) in order to detect the total WBCs and differential count, phagocytosis activity and serum inflammatory proteins both of CRPs and complements (C3 and C4). Results: The total number of WBCs and neutrophils were significantly higher in smokers, but their phagocytic activity was significantly decreased. In relation to inflammatory proteins, both of CRPs and complement proteins (C3 & C4) were increased significantly higher in smokers. The number of smokers has a significant increase in urban rather than rural area. In addition, no significant differences were observed in the numbers of lymphocytes (p= 0.118) and mass body index (MBI p= 0.367) between smokers and non-smokers. Conclusion: Cigarette smoking has severe adverse effects on different immunologic parameters as it leads to increase in all of the total WBCs count, neutrophils and lymphocytes as well as both of the inflammatory proteins ( CRPs and complement (C3 and C4)). While on the other hand, phagocytic activity was decreased.

Forty cases of women sever from recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) compared with 40 normal women for determining the cytokine gene polymorphism in the promoter region of : tumor necrosis factor-alpha TNF-α (-308 G/A), interleukin IL-6 (-634 G/C) and IL10 (-592 C/A) in aborted women of Basra /Iraq. The results indicated that there was an association between RPL and the polymorphisms in inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, TNF-α), while IL-10 gene did not showed any effect on both cases of RPL and normal cases.

HLA-G is a nonclassical, class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC) gene that exhibits immunomodulatory properties and likely plays a role in the maintenance of successful pregnancy. In this study, we investigated the role of HLA-G polymorphisms on risk for recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) and on circulating levels of soluble (s)HLA-G in Iraqi women. DNA and plasma were obtained from blood samples collected at 9-12 weeks gestation from 50 women with RPL and 50 healthy pregnant women in Basrah province, Iraq. As measured by ELISA, median sHLA-G levels were significantly lower in the RPL cases compared to healthy controls (21.4 vs. 38.8 U/ml, respectively; P=0.025), and decreased with increasing maternal age (P=0.0051). However, HLA-G allele and haplotype frequencies did not differ significantly between cases and controls (P values ≥0.12 for all tests). In contrast, homozygosity for the C allele (CC) at a tri-allelic promoter polymorphism, -725C/G/T, was associated with lower concentrations of sHLA-G compared to the CG or CT genotypes (median levels 21.1 vs. 40.1 vs. 42.6 U/ml, respectively; P=0.0089). These results demonstrate that HLA-G genotype influences circulating sHLA-G levels during pregnancy but is not significantly associated with risk of RPL.