Anthropometric Studies on Some Primary School Children of Ajaokuta Local Government Area of Kogi State, Nigeria

 Ekpa Emmanuel*, Okpanachi Patience , Mohammed Asmau, and Iyayi Augustine

Anthropometric studies were carried out on 136 randomly selected primary school children in Jimgbe (Salem University host community) located in Ajaokuta Local Government Council of Kogi State-Nigeria. Data relating to body development and general growth in that population are not yet available. Therefore, this current work was purposely done to assess the nutritional status of the pupils who are between the ages of 5 and 12 years inorder generate a baseline for subsequent studies. The children were selected at random from classes 1-6 and different anthropometric parameters like height for age, weight for height and body mass index (BMI) were measured. Distribution by sex shows 68 boys and an equal number for girls within study group. Severe stunting and low weight was seen in 75% of the children with 25% been normal. Significant difference (<0.02) was not observed in malnourished boys and girls, while normal weight for age and height for age occurred in 25% and 35% in boys and girls respectively. Children within the age bracket of 11-12 were more stunted than other age groups both within the sexes. On the whole, the population was found to be severely malnourished based on World Health Organization Standards. The implication of this studies is hereby discussed as a panacea for improving the nutritional level of this population for a better life.

Soil Bioremediation

Shah Maulin P

Transcriptional Up-Regulation of Tert and Terc Necessarily Not Mean Higher Telomerase Activity: A Report of Telomerase Inhibition with Higher Transcription of Tert, Terc and Terf2 in A549 Cells Treated with Staurosporine

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Ratan Sadhukhan, and Utpal Ghosh*

Targeting telomerase is one of the approaches to kill cancer cells since almost 90% cancer are telomerase-positive. TERT and TERC are essential subunits of telomerase and a number of reports available regarding telomerase inhibitions due to inhibition of either of the essential subunits. Here, we present inhibition of telomerase activity with up-regulation of TERT and TERC in A549 cells treated with staurosporin, a potent protein kinase inhibitor. Staurosporin was known to inhibit telomerase and we also observed time-dependent telomerase inhibition by staurosporin. Notably, staurosporin up-regulates the transcription of TERT and TERC with time. This data implicates higher expression of TERT and TERC does not enhance telomerase activity always and there must be other post-transcriptional factors that regulate telomerase activity. Furthermore, staurosporine enhances TERF2 expression in a time-dependent manner implicating that it may alter native telomere structure. Staurosporine induced apoptosis is well-established fact. Here, we compared staurosporine induced telomerase inhibition and apoptosis induction in a time frame to elucidate whether these two events are independent or not in our case. We observed that significant apoptosis induction (12h) was earlier event than significant telomerase inhibition (24h) after staurosporine treatment. Our data suggests, staurosporine transcriptionally elevates TERT and TERC but reduces telomerase activity and may alter telomere native structure via up-regulation of TERF2. Higher transcription of essential subunits of telomerase does not assure higher telomerase activity. Since induction of apoptosis is earlier event than telomerase inhibition, staurosporine induces apoptosis independent of telomerase inhibition.

The Evolution and Sustenance of Life

Michael Deans* 

DNA Crown Cells: Synthesis and Self-Replication

Shoshi Inooka

It has been half a century since the first studies on cell biology. During this time, it was shown that cells consist of a membrane made of lipid-polymer complexes comprising proteins and carbohydrates complexed with lipids. Further studies on cell biology have been based according to this understanding of the structure of the cell membrane. No reports of a cell membrane associated with DNA have been reported. I have been studying the preparation of artificial cells and have demonstrated the formation of cells (named DNA crown cells) containing a membrane comprising lipid-DNA. I have prepared DNA crown cells using a known lipid (monolaurin) in vitro and examined whether these cells self-replicate in vivo. Here, I discuss these successful procedures. First, aggregates of sphingosine-DNA were prepared by the addition of adenosine-monolaurin to sphingosine-DNA. Next, DNA crown cells were constructed by the addition of monolaurin to the sphingosine-DNA aggregates in vitro. Finally, I demonstrated that these cells can self-replicate upon incubation in egg-white.