EPIDEMIOLOGICAL FEATURES OF CHRONIC VIRUS HEPATITIS B AND C IN THE REPUBLIC SAKHA (YAKUTIA).

High disease burden of chronic virus hepatitis B and C of population in the Republic Sakha (Yakutia) is subject to referring it to endemic territories due to these infections. For a 15-year-old period the disease has been registered at higher rates in the Russian Federation.

[Molecular epidemiology of hepatitis C in centers of hemodialysis in St. Petersburg].

AIM: Study molecular epidemiology of hepatitis C (HC) in 5 departments of hemodialysis (DH) in St. Petersburg. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sequences of nucleotides of 93 isolates including 67 isolates from patents of 5 DH and 26 isolates from patients, who never had hemodialysis in anamnesis, were obtained in 2010 by a method of limited sequencing of NS5B region of HC virus genome. Phyologenetic analysis was carried out by using PHYLIP veision 3.69 program package. Evolution differences were evaluated in DNADIST program using F84 algorithm. Phylogenetic trees were constructed by using nearest neighbor and UOGMA methods in PHYLIP program package. RESULTS: Subtype 1b was established to dominate in all the DH (69.2 - 92.9%) and the same isolates of HC virus were detected in DH, that were isolated for the first time in 1999. Comparatively higher proportion of isolates of HC subgenotype 3a (26.7 - 30.8%) was detected in 2 of 5 DH in 2010. The same proportion of 3a isolates was detected in the control group. CONCLUSION: The fact that HC 3a virus isolates were detected in DH in a higher proportion is proof that they have successfully integrated into circulation among dialysis patients over the last decade. ,

[Assessment of clinical-instrumental, morphological data and expression of coxsackie adenovirus receptor in patients with inflammatory cardiac pathology].

In 22 patients with heart failure and/or ventricular arrhythmias presumably of inflammatory etiology the results of clinical and instrumental investigation were analyzed and compared to the endomyocardial biopsy data. In the subgroup of patients with left bundle branch block (LBBB) we revealed features indicative of lesser contribution of inflammatory destruction in pathogenesis of cardiomyopathy. The only virus, detected in biopsy samples, was parvovirus B19. Its persistence in myocardium was not related to activity of inflammation and severity of clinical course. Increased expression of Coxsackie adenovirus receptor (CAR) was found in 20 patients. It was not related to inflammatory cells infiltration and virus persistence in myocardium. Patients with most prominent CAR expression were characteried by right heart dilatation, more severe heart failure and absence of LBBB. Enhancement of CAR expression could reflect the attempt of organism to repair intercellular communications between cardiomyocites and to protect cells from the products of necrotic lysis during long standing inflammation.

[Use of functional classes to assess the status of patients with severe heart failure]. / Ispol'zovanie funktsional'nykh klassov v otsenke sostoianiia bol'nogo s tiazheloi serdechnoi nedostatochnost'iu.

The possibilities of the classification developed by Lang, Strazhesko, Vasilenko and that of heart failure functional classes, which has been adopted by the New York Heart Association (NYHA), to evaluate the status of patients with severe heart failure are compared in this communication. A total of 1619 patients with Stages IIB-III heart failure of various origin (coronary heart disease, dilated cardiomyopathy, rheumatic heart disease, myocarditis, primary pulmonary hypertension) were studied. To assess the patients' status the attending physicians used 7 grades: (1) satisfactory; (2) close to moderate; (3) moderate; (4) close to severe; (5) severe; (6) close to critical; (7) critical. Each patient was independently evaluated for grade and functional class by experts by using a specially developed schedule. An analysis of the distribution of the patients by grade and functional class demonstrated that the 4-graded functional class classification has advantages over the 7-graded one due to more settled, reproducible, recurrent and less scattered opinions (in case of the common source of information), the functional class, unlike the grade, was found to be unassociated with the nature of the disease. A simple grade summing-up (regrouping the patients from 7 to 4 grades) unenables one to adequately go over to the NYHA functional class. It is concluded that the tested NYHA classification should be used to evaluate the status of patients with severe heart failure.

[State of DNA structural alkalinity in tissue of rats of different ages]. / Sostoianie strukturnoi tselostnosti DNK tkanei krys raznogo vozrasta.

The single-strand breaks in DNA of cell nuclei of the normal and regenerating liver and kidneys are studied depending on the rat age by the sedimentation analysis within the gradient of alkaline sucrose without previous purification and isolation of the preparations. It is found that DNA of tissues under study in the six-month rats sedimentates, forming one fraction of high-molecular DNA (molecular mass 1.3-1.5 x 10(8) Daltons). In sedimentograms of DNA of the same tissues of 24-month rats there appear additional peaks which correspond to the fractions with the low molecular mass (1.6 x 10(7) and 1.2 x 10(5) Daltons), which evidences for the presence of single-strand breaks in DNA of old animals.

[Relationship between tissue mitotic activity, animal age and defects in the secondary structure of DNA]. / Doslidzhennia defektiv vtorynnoï struktury DNK zalezhno vid mitotychnoï aktyvnosti tkanyny ta viku tvaryn

The content of defects of the secondary structure of DNA native and gamma-irradiated preparations from the intestinal mucosa and liver of adult (6-8 months) and old (24-26 months) rats was studied by the kinetic formaldehyde method. The content of the native DNA secondary structure defects does not depend on the animal and tissue mitotic activity. After gamma-irradiation in vitro (60Co, 550 R/min, 3 and 6 krad) of intestinal mucosa DNA solutions (tissues with a high mitotic activity) the content of the DNA defects is higher in old animals than in young ones. The injuring effect of gamma-rays is more pronounced in experiments with intestinal mucosa DNA than with liver DNA (tissue with a low mitotic activity). In liver DNA the content of the defects caused by gamma-rays does not depend on the animal age.

Growth of replicating DNA chain in adult and old rat spleen.

The rate of growth of the DNA chain length was found to decrease in rat spleen with aging. This can be substantiated by the slowing down of transformation of old spleen 3H-labeled DNA with low molecular weight to that with high molecular weight as labeling time increases. At the same time, the intensity of the DNA total synthesis is higher in old spleens than in adult ones. This may result from an increase of mitotic activity in rodent spleen with aging. In its turn, the increased mitotic activity may represent an adaptive reaction responsible for maintaining the number of immunocompetent cells which tend to decrease with aging. The slowing down of the newly formed DNA chain growth may lead to the decreased rate of stabilization of the secondary structure of replicating DNA in old spleen.