Expression of class mu glutathione-S-transferase in human liver and its association with hepatopathies.

We studied the distribution of GSTM1 phenotypes in 611 individuals from an ethnically mixed sample of the Brazilian population who died from various causes. No influence of age, gender, or ethnicity was detected on the phenotypic distribution. In a sub-sample of 66 alcoholic individuals compared with 399 non-alcoholics there was almost a doubling of the odds ratio for GSTM1(0) individuals in the alcoholic category. The incidence of hepatopathies was higher in this group as well, and we observed a significant association of the null phenotype with cirrhosis. An excess of null phenotypes (374/611) was observed, and the allelic distribution was: GSTM1*A = 0.168, *B = 0.089, and *0 (null) = 0.743.

Ethnic admixture composition of two western Amazonian populations.

A small riverine community, Portuchuelo (8 degrees 37'S, 63 degrees 49'W), and a rural county, Monte Negro (10 degrees 15'S, 63 degrees 18'W), both in the state of Rondjnia, Brazil, were studied for the purposes of ascertaining health conditions and the causes of the variability of some infectious diseases. The sample included 181 inhabitants of Portuchuelo and 924 of Monte Negro. Data on 11 blood polymorphisms (ABO, Rh, MNSs, Kell, Fy, haptoglobin, hemoglobin, ACP1, PGM1, GLO1, and CA2) were used to determine the ethnic composition of the inhabitants of Portuchuelo and Monte Negro. The contributions of Africans, Amerindians, and Europeans to the ethnic composition of the studied populations were, respectively, 0.21 +/- 0.046, 0.44 +/- 0.064, and 0.35 +/- 0.069 in Portuchuelo; and 0.25 +/- 0.032,0.12 +/- 0.046, and 0.63 +/- 0.054 in Monte Negro.

A rural community in a Brazilian Western Amazonian Region: some demographic and epidemiological patterns.

Some demographic and epidemiological patterns of the rural population of Monte Negro, locality situated in the State of Rondônia (Brazil), Western Amazonia, are described based on a sample of 924 randomly selected individuals, approximately 10% of the whole population. The main features of this sample are (1) the illiteracy rates in the parental generation were 23% for fathers and 20% for mothers. Among children, this figure dropped to 6%; (2) housing in Monte Negro is characterized by being constructed with wood (92%), and also a floor (75%). Nevertheless, only 32% of these houses had electric energy; (3) the mean ages for the parental generation were 41.9 for males and 36.3 for females. These values for the offspring generation were 12.2 and 10.5, respectively; (4) the sex-ratio of the offspring generation was 1.32;(5) the bioassay of kinship was estimated as.033 for this long range migrant population; (6) the prevalence of some macrophage dependent infectious disease was conspicuously high; (7) the reported number of malarial episodes among males and females was statistically different, suggesting that malaria may be, in part, a "professional" disease; (8) the prevalence of serum-positive reactions against B-hepatitis is distressing. It has a strong age dependence and reaches 74% among adult males. Conversely, signs of active infection (AgHbs) rises to 16% among children.

A rural community in a Brazilian Western Amazonian region: some demographic and epidemiological patterns

Some demographic and epidemiological patterns of the rural population of Monte Negro, locality situated in the State of Rondônia (Brazil), Western Amazonia, are described based on a sample of 924 randomly selected individuals, approximately 10 percent of the whole population. The main features of this sample are (1) the illiteracy rates in the parental generation were 23 percent for fathers and 20 percent for mothers. Among children, this figure dropped to 6 percent; (2) housing in Monte Negro is characterized by being constructed with wood (92 percent), and also a floor (75 percent). Nevertheless, only 32 percent of these houses had electric energy; (3) the mean ages for the parental generation were 41.9 for males and 36.3 for females. These values for the offspring generation were 12.2 and 10.5, respectively; (4) the sex-ratio of the offspring generation was 1.32;(5) the bioassay of kinship was estimated as .033 for this long range migrant population; (6) the prevalence of some macrophage dependent infectious disease was conspicuously high; (7) the reported number of malarial episodes among males and females was statistically different, suggesting that malaria may be, in part, a "professional" disease; (8) the prevalence of serum-positive reactions against B-hepatitis is distressing. It has a strong age dependence and reaches 74 percent among adult males. Conversely, signs of active infection (AgHbs) rises to 16 percent among children

Allele frequencies of three STRs of the human von Willebrand factor gene (vWF) in a Brazilian population sample.

Allele frequencies were calculated for three tetrameric short tandem repeats (STRs) located in intron 40 of the human von Willebrand factor (vWA, vWF1 and vWF2) in 352 white individuals sampled from an urban population from the northeastern region of the State of São Paulo, Brazil. The exact test did not indicate any significant deviation from HWE for any of the three investigated loci. The allele frequencies of vWA and vWF1 showed unimodal and bimodal distributions, respectively, and the frequencies of vWF2 in our sample exhibited bimodal or even trimodal patterns. These differing patterns could reflect the differential action of one selective factor or of the distribution of mutations in these STRs, although the STRs are very close to one another and belong to the same gene. The frequency of paternity exclusions observed for each of these three loci conform to the theorectical expectations. The lack of difficulties regarding the methodology of typing and the forensic value of statistical parameters confirm the usefulness of these systems to study Brazilian populations.