Sedat Abusoglu

OBJECTIVE: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disorder characterized by insulin resistance and β-cell dysfunction, often coexisting with obesity. Obesity increases adipose tissue inflammation and oxidative stress, which may impair mitochondrial function and muscle metabolism. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of obesity severity on oxidative stress biomarkers, exercise-related biomarkers, physical activity level, and sleep quality in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Objective: Bipolar disorder is a chronic disease that occurs in 1-5% of the population. It has been reported that bipolar disorder patients have approximately twice as many cardiovascular disease-related deaths as the general population. In recent years, it has been reported that Asymmetric Dimethylarginine (ADMA) and its metabolites can be biomarkers for determining the risk of cardiovascular disease, and galectin 3(Gal 3) levels can be biomarkers for determining the burden of disease in chronic diseases. Myocardial performance index (MPI) is an echocardiographic parameter used to evaluate left ventricular (LV) systolic and diastolic functions. It has been reported that MPI indicates the risk of cardiovascular mortality. This study aims to investigate the relationship between the sociodemographic and disease-related characteristics of patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder and the parameters that evaluate the risk of cardiovascular and chronic diseases. Material and Methods: ADMA and N(G)-monometil L-arginin (L-NMMA) were measured from the serum samples remaining from routine blood tests of 75 patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder who applied to Selçuk University Faculty of Medicine Mazhar Osman Mood Center and who had been euthymic for at least 8 weeks, and simultaneously echocardiography was performed to obtain information about cardiac function and myocardial performance index was calculated. Results: The study included 75 patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder. 48% (n: 39) of the patients were female and 48% (n: 36 ) were male. 54.9% (n: 39) of the patients had previously experienced psychotic symptoms, while 45.1% (n: 32 ) had not previously experienced psychotic symptoms. Half of the patients had family members with bipolar disorder. The mean plasma ADMA values of the patients were 0.26±0.10µM/l, the mean MPI values were 0.33±0.77, and the mean galectin 3 value was 895.66±721.29 pg/ml. There is a moderately significant positive correlation between the patient's age and the MPI value (r=0.588, p≤0.001). There is a moderately significant negative correlation between the patient's age and the Gal 3 value (r=-0.493, p≤0.001). No significant correlation was found between the patient's age and the ADMA values. No statistically significant difference was observed in the mean values of MPI, ADMA, Gal 3 according to the presence of psychotic symptoms. Conclusion: In this study, no significant relationship was found between ADMA, which is important in determining the risk of cardiovascular disease, and the burden of illness and psychotic symptoms in bipolar disorder patients. The fact that bipolar disorder is a chronic disease and that the episodic course increases with age and the increase in MPI and galectin 3 parameters are consistent with the literature.

Analyzing the local pericardial fluid (PF) surrounding the heart can provide insights into the function of myocardial and pericardial epithelial cells. Kynurenine (KYN) metabolites have been associated with endothelial dysfunction and the progression of atherosclerosis. This study investigated the relationship between KYN pathway metabolites in serum and PF and the severity of coronary atherosclerosis, as assessed by the Syntax Score (SS). The study involved 101 patients (mean age: 60 years). Of the participants, 17% were female. KYN and its metabolite levels were measured using API SCIEX 3200 LC-MS/MS methods. Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS 25.0. The mean serum levels of tryptophan (TRP), 3-hydroxykynurenine (3-HK), and 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid were significantly higher (p < 0.01) when compared to the mean PF levels. In the SS-low group, PF IDO activity was significantly higher than serum IDO activity (p = 0.040). In the SS-high group, PF IDO activity was significantly higher than serum IDO activity (p = 0.002). The mean 3-HK measurements showed significant differences between the SS groups (p < 0.05). In this study, higher IDO enzyme activity in the PF compared to systemic circulation suggests the presence of inflammatory activity in the pericardial endothelial cells. This research aimed to uncover the role of amino acid metabolism, which is poorly understood in atherosclerosis. Specifically, 3-HK, a metabolite from the KYN pathway, may contribute to the development of atherosclerosis. These findings indicate that localized kynurenine pathway activation in the PF may contribute to coronary atherosclerosis, highlighting its potential as a biomarker or therapeutic target.

Objectives: This study aims to examine the trends and distribution of research areas and methodologies in biochemistry theses over time by performing a bibliometric analysis in the CoHE database and comparing them with PubMed trends. Methods: The study includes biochemistry theses from Türkiye spanning 1969 to 2023, totalling 5,543 theses in the CoHe database. Also, the PubMed database is used to compare the world’s and our country’s scientific trends. Google Sheets, AppSheets and Python are used for data analysis. The study employed various bibliometric techniques like performance analysis, cluster analysis, science mapping and co-occurrence analysis. Results: Although several diseases exhibited insignificant associations, pregnancy demonstrated a significant positive correlation between CoHE and PubMed trends (ρ=0.455, p=0.0022). The noted negative associations for atherosclerosis (ρ = −0.429, p=0.0041) and hypertension (ρ = −0.470, p=0.0015) suggest that national trends in thesis production differ from international publication trends for these conditions. Furthermore, oxidant-antioxidant system studies at CoHe have held the first place for over 30 years, despite being decreasing after the 2000s and having a positive but statistically irrelevant connection with global trends (ρ=0.100; p=0.873). Conclusions: We propose that biochemistry studies should prioritise diseases such as atherosclerosis and osteoarthritis in parallel with the findings in our work, particularly considering increasing life expectancy. Moreover, placing increased focus on microbiota studies and the utilisation of animal models within research methodologies will be crucial for advancing our understanding in the field.

Cardiovascular mortality in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients is more than double that of the general population. There appears to be a dual effect between cardiovascular diseases and schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Inflammation and increased oxidative stress cause cardiac remodeling and increase the severity of psychiatric illness. Echocardiographic imaging was performed simultaneously with serum samples obtained for asymmetric dimethylarginine, symmetric dimethylarginine, monomethyl-L-arginine, arginine and its metabolites, and galectin 3 levels in 80 patients with bipolar disorder who were euthymic for at least 8 weeks and 69 patients with schizophrenia undergoing treatment. Monomethyl-L-arginine and arginine levels were significantly higher in bipolar disorder patients compared to schizophrenia patients. Galectin 3 level was significantly higher in bipolar disorder patients with psychotic symptoms compared to schizophrenia patients. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of other parameters. Statistically significant differences were found between bipolar disorder and schizophrenia patients in terms of diastolic diameter (mm), systolic diameter (mm), interventricular septum (mm), left atrium (mm), and posterior wall (mm) values. Arginine and its metabolites, asymmetric dimethylarginine, symmetric dimethylarginine, and galectin 3, may be important biomarkers of cardiovascular diseases risk. In this study, changes in biochemical parameters and cardiac structure could not be explained by disease severity.

Tube manufacturers use different composition of gels and blood clot activator formulations in serum tube production. Our aim was to investigate the within-tube (repeatability) and between-tube variation, concordance between comparison results of BD and VacuSEL tubes. Blood samples were collected from control subjects (n = 20) and patients (n = 30) in accordance with the CLSI GP41-A6 and CLSI GP34-A guidelines. Twenty-three clinical chemistry parameters were analysed via Roche Cobas C702 Chemistry Analyzer on T0 (0 hour) and T24 (24 hour). Mean differences % were compared with Wilcoxon matched pair test. Clinical significance was evaluated based on desirable bias according to total allowable error (TEa). VacuSEL tubes demonstrated acceptable performance for the results of 20 parameters with regards to desirable bias % limits. Lactate dehydrogenase (LD) [mean difference % (%95 confidence intervals (CI) values of BD and VacuSEL tubes at T0 [6.41% (4.80-8.01%)]; sodium (Na) and total protein (TP) at T24 [-0.27% (-0.46 to -0.07%) and -1.39% (-1.87 to -0.91), respectively] were over the desirable bias limits (LD: 4.3%, Na: 0.23% and TP: 1.36%, respectively) but not exceeding total biological variation CV % [Na: 0.5 (0.0-1.0) % and TP: 2.6 (2.3-2.7) %). %95 confidence intervals (CI) of T0 LD values overlap with within-subject biological variation % (CI) limits (LD: 5.2 (4.9-5.4) %). The differences between two tubes were not medically significant and necessarily conclusive. VacuSEL serum tubes presented comparable performance with BD serum tubes.

AIMS: The purpose of this study is to determine if heat shock protein 70 (Hsp-70), a marker of cellular stress, is elevated in maternal serum and umbilical cord in pregnancies complicated by gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and to determine whether altered serum Hsp-70 concentrations in umbilical cord are related to serve as an indicator of early term delivery (37 0/7–38 6/7 weeks of gestation) in women with GDM and control group. METHODS: The study included 62 patients with GDM (GDM group) and 22 non-diabetic, healthy women before caesarean section in this case-control study. We analyzed serum levels of Hsp-70 in pregnancies and umbilical cord sera and other biochemical and anthropometric markers, early term delivery in all subjects. RESULTS: Maternal Serum levels of Hsp-70 were significantly higher in patients with GDM than in healthy pregnant women. The umbilical cord levels of Hsp-70 in GDM patients were also increased as compared to healthy pregnant women but missed the commonly acceptable significance level. Cord Hsp-70 levels showed a negatively significant correlation with time of delivery, in women with GDM patients. Cord Hsp-70 levels showed a negatively significant correlation with time of delivery, also in the whole group. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal Hsp-70 was significantly higher in patients with GDM. The obtained results seem to indicate that elevated umbilical cord Hsp-70 values may potentially be used as indicators of risk factor for early term delivery in pregnancies.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a lethal, progressive disease with a complex pathogenesis. Bosentan, a dual endothelin receptor antagonist, and sildenafil, a phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor, are used to treat PAH. In this study, we aimed to develop a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method (LC–MS/MS) to measure the levels of bosentan, sildenafil, and their active metabolites in patients with PAH. We have developed an LC–MS/MS measurement procedure using a liquid–liquid extraction to measure serum drug concentrations and validated the procedure according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) protocols. Finally, the validated method was used to measure the levels of sildenafil, bosentan, and their metabolite in pediatric PAH patients. The method was linear in the range of 0.975–1000 ng/ml and 0.76–3125 ng/ml for sildenafil and bosentan, respectively. LOQ values of sildenafil and bosentan were determined as 1.95 and 1.50 ng/ml, respectively. A method for measuring the levels of sildenafil and bosentan was developed that is rapid, robust, inexpensive, and requires a small serum volume. In addition, the validated method measured these drugs’ levels and metabolites in pediatric patients with PAH. The results show that the established method can routinely monitor drug levels.