ABSTRACT
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a commonly encountered central neurodegenerative disease in elderly people. According to theories of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), PD is characterized by deficiency in the root and excess in the branch. Deficiency was referred to qi-blood deficiency of the liver and kidney. Excess was referred as the wind, fire, phlegm and stasis. Deficiency was the root and excess was the branch. Good efficacies have been obtained by treatment based on syndrome differentiation, treatment with specific prescriptions, acupuncture and moxibustion and comprehensive treatment. Some experiments had been conducted to elucidate its mechanisms. However, no uni-fied standard for therapeutic evaluation, poor control of medicinal quality, inferior quality of designed clinical trials, and unclear treatment mechanism in the clinical study on therapeutic effect of PD treatment with TCM require fur-ther studied.
ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the association of PGC-1 α gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Southern China Han population. Methods 350 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and their parents and 366 normal Han volunteers were recruited in the study. Their blood specimens were collected to extract the genornic DNA. Thr394Thr(G/A), Gly482Ser(G/A), Thr528Thr(A/G) and Thr612Met (C/T) genotypes were identified by PCR-RFLP and DNA direct sequencing. The possible association was analyzed between diabetic patients with the specific cSNPs and their haplotypes by case-control and haplotype relative risk (HRR) and transmission disequilibrium test (TDT) methods. Results (1) The case- control study indicated that G and A allele frequencies of PGC-1 α gene Gly482Ser variant were 0.589, 0.411 in type 2 diabetic group and 0.687, 0.313 in normal group respectively (X<'2> = 15.076, P < 0.01). The allele frequencies of Thr394Thr, Thr528Thr, Thr612Met polymorphisms did not show significant difference between twogroups respectively (all P > 0.05). The distributions of Thr394Thr-Gly482Ser-Thr528Thr haplotypes in the diabetic group were significanly different from the controls (X<'2> = 40.2, P < 0.05) and had a linkage disequilibrium with type 2 diabetes mellitus (t = 2.503, P < 0.05). (2) The family-basod studies showed that 482A allele was transmitted more significantly both via TDT and extended TDT from heterozygous parents to patients than expected respectively (all P < 0.05). HRR also supported that the 482A allele was more often transmitted to patients than predicted by chance (X<'2> = 7.217, P = 0.007, HRR = 1. 450). TDT analyses of haplotypes suggested that the frequencies of 394A-482A-528A-612C,394A-482A-528A-612T, 394A-482A-528G-612C and 394A-482A-528G- 612T haplotypes significantly deviated from 0.5 (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). Conclusion In Southern China Hanpopulation, type 2 diabetes mellitus is associated with the Gly482Ser variant of PGC-1α gene, and Thr394Thr (G/ A) variant of PGC-1α gene appears to play an auxiliary role in this association.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the association of the 482G/A polymorphism of the PGC-1alpha gene with type 2 diabetes by family-based study in the Han population in South China, and to analyze the quantitative and qualitative binding force changes between the PGC-1alpha domain mutant and MEF2C, as well as to evaluate the possibility of PGC-1alpha -MEF2C-GLUT4 pathway in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Blood samples were collected from 350 patients with type 2 diabetes and their first-degree relatives. Genomic DNA was extracted and polymorphic PGC-1alpha genotypes were determined by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism and direct DNA sequencing. The results were analyzed by family-based transmission disequilibrium test (TDT) and haplotype relative risk (HRR). The protein-protein interaction between PGC-1alpha and MEF2C was detected by means of the site-directed mutagenesis kit and bacteriomatch two-hybrid system kit.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>In the family-based study, HRR analyses demonstrated that the 482A allele was more often transmitted to patients than predicted by chance (chi (2)= 7.2170, P= 0.0072, HRR= 1.4496). TDT-extended test(ETDT) analyses also revealed that PGC-1alpha 482A allele was significantly deviated from 0.5 from heterozygous parents to patients than expected (219 trios, P= 0.0310; 350 trios, P= 0.0292). BacterioMatch Two-Hybrid System showed that 482A variation could lead to decreased binding force between PGC-1alpha and MEF2C (62.1+/- 8.97, P< 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The 482A polymorphism increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetic mellitus in the South China Han population, which might be mediated by the PGC-1alpha -MEF2C-GLUT4 pathway.</p>