Genotoxic effects of some antituberculosis drugs and mixtures in rats.

In this study*, it was aimed to observe, genotoxic effects of antituberculosis drugs and combinations on rats. Animals were treated with 31.5 mg/kg isoniazid (INH), 54 mg/kg rifampicin (RIF), 189 mg/kg pyrazinamide (PYR), 100 mg/kg etham-butol(ETA), INH+RIF+PYR (MIX1) and INH+RIF+PYR+ETA (MIX2) mixtures applied via gavage for 90 days. At the end of the study, blood, liver and kidney samples were taken and evaluated by Comet and Micronucleus techniques. Compared to control group, head intensity decreased, tail intensity and tail migration increased on experiment groups in blood samples. Head intensity of PYR and mixture groups decreased, tail intensity of PYR and mixture groups increased and tail migration of PYR, ETA and mixture groups increased in liver samples. Head intensity decreased and tail intensity increased of INH, RIF, ETA and MIX1 group; tail migration increased of MIX1 group in kidney samples. Compared to control group, micronucleus rate of ETA, RIF and MIX 2 groups increased in experiment groups. In conclusion antituberculosis drugs and their mixtures applied for 90 days causes to double strand break of DNA damage at different degrees in blood, kidney and liver cells in rats.

The role of HLA antigens in chronic hepatitis B virus infection.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the mechanism underlying the development of chronic hepatitis B virus infection (HBV) in Turkish population using HLA tissue typing. METHODS: The study group I consisted of 20 patients with HBV-related chronic liver disease (cirrhosis, chronic active hepatitis or chronic persistent hepatitis). The study group II included 30 HBV chronic carriers. The control group consisted of 50 healthy subjects with negative serologic markers for HBV. HLA typing was performed by Terasaki's microlymphocytotoxicity method. RESULTS: The frequencies of HLA-DR13 and DQ3 were significantly higher in the patients with HBV-related chronic liver disease compared to those of control group. The absence of HLA-A24 and CW1 was also significant in group I. The frequencies of HLA A2, B8, B13, CW3, DR13 were significantly higher in group II compared to the control group. There were increased frequencies of HLA- B8, B13, DR7, DR13, and DQ3 in both group I and group II. CONCLUSION: HLA-A24 AND Cw1 were associated with low risk for HBV-related chronic liver disease and HLA- B13, B8, DR7, DR13 and DQ3 were associated with high risk for chronic HBV infection in the Turkish population (JPMA 52:253;2002).