RESUMO
BACKGROUND: New-onset diabetes after transplantation (NODAT) is a serious complication in transplant recipients. Transcription factor-7-like 2 (TCF7L2) is a Wnt signaling-associated transcription factor that plays an important role in ß-cell proliferation and insulin secretion. The association between TCF7L2 SNP rs7903146 and NODAT was documented in renal transplant patients. OBJECTIVE: To determine the association between TCF7L2 rs7903146 variants and the risk of NODAT after liver transplantation. METHODS: This study was conducted on 140 liver transplant recipients who had received tacrolimus-based immunosuppressive drugs. The patients were divided into NODAT (n=70) and non-NODAT (n=70) groups and were genotyped using PCR-RFLP. In addition, 100 normal subjects were considered as the comparison group. RESULTS: There was a significant difference (p<0.05) between the two study groups regarding donor and recipient age, recipient body mass index, and recipient fasting plasma glucose before the transplantation. No significant relationship was observed between TCF7L2 rs7903146 genotypes and development of NODAT. No significant difference was also found between the two groups in terms of the tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil daily dosage as well as tacrolimus blood level. However, the prednisolone daily dosage was significantly (p=0.01) higher in the NODAT group compared to those without NODAT. The majority of the patients in the NODAT group also had an episode of acute rejection. Furthermore, a significant difference was found between the transplant recipients and the comparison subjects regarding T allele (p<0.001, OR=1.96) and TT genotype (p<0.001, OR=3.47) frequencies. CONCLUSION: No correlation was found between TCF7L2 genotypes and development of NODAT. Acute rejection and prednisolone pulse therapy predisposed the susceptible patients to NODAT.
RESUMO
Environmental stress especially drought stress can play an important role in the reduction of plant growth and development. In order to study the effects of drought stress on different growth stages of wheat, an experiment was conducted with five Iranian variety included Atrak, Red-Seed, Cross-Flat, Hirmand and Darab. A split plot design was used with drought treatment being the main plot and cultivar the subplot with three replications. Poorest yield were when drought stress was applied at flowering. It was shown that the most sensitive crop stage in terms of the total number of spikelets is at early stem elongation. Onset of the drought stress at flowering had the greatest damaging effect on seeds per spikelet. The most damaging to seed size was drought stresses applied at and just after flowering. Significant interactions occurred because Darab the highest yielding cultivar and Red-Seed the lowest yielding cultivar both showed an equal and great reduction in seed size under the drought stress while Hirmand was much less responsive. Morphological characters are likely to be affected by water stress. The results of this study indicate that if water for irrigation is scarce and needs to be conserve any saving should not be at the risk of causing drought stress around anthesis. Hirmand, while not the highest yielding cultivar is more stable over the range of moisture stresses applied and it could be considered as a parent to combine its stability with the higher yield potential of say, Darab.