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Purpose: Diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM) and its vascular complications are a serious world health problem. For this reason it is important to look for new diabetes complication risk factors. The aim of this study was to determine whether 18-bp insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism at -2549 position of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene is associated with diabetic vascular complications (DVC)., Material and Methods: Caucasian subjects (n = 100) with T2DM were recruited for this study. Genotyping of the VEGF gene I/D polymorphism was done by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. The results were correlated with laboratory and clinical data., Results: In our population heterozygous of the VEGF gene polymorphism was observed most frequently (57%). DVC were observed in 53 patients. Heterozygous T2DM patients significantly more often suffered from heart failure (HF) and stroke (p = 0.05). Amongst all the DVC, D allele of the VEGF polymorphism had a significantly increased risk of diabetic retinopathy (DR) (OR = 1.31; p = 0.033) irrespective of the duration of diabetes, BMI, the glycemia control expressed by HbA1c, renal function, lipid values or applied treatment. The studied polymorphism did not correlate with coronary heart disease, peripheral vascular disease, cardiovascular death, diabetic kidney disease or applied treatment., Conclusions: The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the D allele in the promoter region of the VEGF gene is an independent risk factor of DR irrespective of other laboratory and clinical variables in T2DM patients. Our study suggests that I/D allele in the studied gene is associated with HF and strokes., (Copyright © 2018 Medical University of Bialystok. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Lung cancer has the highest mortality rate of all malignant tumours. The current effects of cancer treatment, as well as its diagnostics, are unsatisfactory. Therefore it is very important to introduce modern diagnostic tools, which will allow for rapid classification of lung cancers and their degree of malignancy. For this purpose, the authors propose the use of Fourier Transform InfraRed (FTIR) spectroscopy combined with Principal Component Analysis-Linear Discriminant Analysis (PCA-LDA) and a physics-based computational model. The results obtained for lung cancer tissues, adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma FTIR spectra, show a shift in wavenumbers compared to control tissue FTIR spectra. Furthermore, in the FTIR spectra of adenocarcinoma there are no peaks corresponding to glutamate or phospholipid functional groups. Moreover, in the case of G2 and G3 malignancy of adenocarcinoma lung cancer, the absence of an OH groups peak was noticed. Thus, it seems that FTIR spectroscopy is a valuable tool to classify lung cancer and to determine the degree of its malignancy., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Currently cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II) (cis-DDP) is one of the most commonly applied compounds in chemotherapy of many types of cancer. However, a drawback is that its effectiveness presents with many side effects. Therefore, human normal lymphocytes were chosen as a model system to study cis-bis(3-aminoflavone)dichloroplatinum(II) (the cis-Pt(II) complex of 3-aminoflavone) in comparison with cis-DDP. We examined the effect of both tested compounds on cell viability and induction of apoptosis and necrosis. Trypan blue and acridine orange/ethidium bromide staining were carried out, as well as quantitative analysis of the apoptotic signal of P53 and BAX induction caused by the cis-Pt(II) complex of 3-aminoflavone in comparison with cis-DDP. cis-DDP induced a decrease of cell viability and led to a higher increase in necrosis and apoptosis than did the cis-Pt(II) complex of 3-aminoflavone. Moreover, at the molecular level cis-DDP increased P53 and BAX expression in comparison with the other tested compound. The cis-Pt(II) complex of 3-aminoflavone showed a weaker genotoxic effect in normal lymphocytes in comparison with cis-DDP, which was a stronger inducer of apoptosis and necrosis.