Association of maternal prenatal copper concentration with gestational duration and preterm birth: a multicountry meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Copper (Cu), an essential trace mineral regulating multiple actions of inflammation and oxidative stress, has been implicated in risk for preterm birth (PTB). OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to determine the association of maternal Cu concentration during pregnancy with PTB risk and gestational duration in a large multicohort study including diverse populations. METHODS: Maternal plasma or serum samples of 10,449 singleton live births were obtained from 18 geographically diverse study cohorts. Maternal Cu concentrations were determined using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The associations of maternal Cu with PTB and gestational duration were analyzed using logistic and linear regressions for each cohort. The estimates were then combined using meta-analysis. Associations between maternal Cu and acute-phase reactants (APRs) and infection status were analyzed in 1239 samples from the Malawi cohort. RESULTS: The maternal prenatal Cu concentration in our study samples followed normal distribution with mean of 1.92 µg/mL and standard deviation of 0.43 µg/mL, and Cu concentrations increased with gestational age up to 20 wk. The random-effect meta-analysis across 18 cohorts revealed that 1 µg/mL increase in maternal Cu concentration was associated with higher risk of PTB with odds ratio of 1.30 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.08, 1.57) and shorter gestational duration of 1.64 d (95% CI: 0.56, 2.73). In the Malawi cohort, higher maternal Cu concentration, concentrations of multiple APRs, and infections (malaria and HIV) were correlated and associated with greater risk of PTB and shorter gestational duration. CONCLUSIONS: Our study supports robust negative association between maternal Cu and gestational duration and positive association with risk for PTB. Cu concentration was strongly correlated with APRs and infection status suggesting its potential role in inflammation, a pathway implicated in the mechanisms of PTB. Therefore, maternal Cu could be used as potential marker of integrated inflammatory pathways during pregnancy and risk for PTB.

Induction of Pectinase Hyper Production by Multistep Mutagenesis Using a Fungal Isolate--Aspergillus flavipes.

Aspergillus flavipes, a slow growing pectinase producing ascomycete, was isolated from soil identified and characterised in the previously done preliminary studies. Optimisation studies revealed that Citrus peel--groundnut oil cake [CG] production media is the best media for production of high levels of pectinase up to 39 U/ml using wild strain of A. flavipes. Strain improvement of this isolated strain for enhancement of pectinase production using multistep mutagenesis procedure is the endeavour of this project. For this, the wild strain of A. flavipes was treated with both physical (UV irradiation) and chemical [Colchicine, Ethidium bromide, H2O2] mutagens to obtain Ist generation mutants. The obtained mutants were assayed and differentiated basing on pectinase productivity. The better pectinase producing strains were further subjected to multistep mutagenesis to attain stability in mutants. The goal of this project was achieved by obtaining the best pectinase secreting mutant, UV80 of 45 U/ml compared to wild strain and sister mutants. This fact was confirmed by quantitatively analysing 3rd generation mutants obtained after multistep mutagenesis.

Strain improvement of Trametes hirsuta by physical and chemical mutagenesis for better laccases production.

The Laccases production efficiency was investigated by the wild fungal strains Trametes hirsuta by treating it with physical mutagen [ultraviolet radiation (UV) and X-rays] and chemical mutagens [Ethidium bromide, Colchicine and Hydrogen peroxide]. The present work aimed to apply mutagenesis for enhancement of the enzyme production. Effective changes were observed in the efficiency of enzyme production when treated with physical and chemical mutagens. The effect of X-rays showed a decrease in production with increasing exposure in T. hirsuta (Max. at 2 sec.). UV irradiation influenced the enzyme production with higher exposure time (8 minutes) but the maximum dosage led to inhibition in fungal growth and low enzyme production. Among the three chemical mutagens used, hydrogen peroxide was found to be having lethal effects to the fungi but a minimum concentration (2 µg/mL) was positively effecting enzyme production. Colchicine showed increase in enzyme production with increasing concentrations (Max. at 9 µg) and with Ethidium bromide, maximum enzyme production was observed at concentration of 7 µg/ mL. The study on morphological differences in wild and mutant shows that there was an improvement in strains of the white rot fungi.