Phenylthiocarbamide Taste Perception in Type 2 Diabetics

Phenylthiocarbamide Taste Perception in Type 2 Diabetics Phenylthiocarbamide taste perception in type 2 diabetics and healthy subjects: A case-control study Authors: Wajiha Hassan, Hina Hassan, Muhammad Usman Anwar, Muhammad Umar Kamal, Ehsan Ullah ABSTRACT Objectives: We conducted this study to find out any epistatic relationship between expression of PTC gene and the genes controlling T2D development through comparing the relative frequency of PTC taste perception among T2D patients and healthy subjects. Methods: It was a case-control study conducted in diabetes clinics / centers located at various teaching hospitals in Lahore city. A total of 270 (135 diabetics and 135 healthy) subjects were tested for PTC taste perception by pouring a drop of PTC solutions of 0.0125%, 0.125% and 0.25% concentrations to determine super-tasters, tasters and non-tasters. The proportion of tasters and non-tasters was compared in two study groups with the help of Chi Square test and a p value of 0.05 or less was considered significant and to reject the null hypothesis. Results: Mean age of T2D patients and healthy subjects was 34.21 ±5.74 and 32.90 ±7.44 years respectively. Male to female ratio among T2D patients and healthy subjects was 1:14 and 1:1 respectively. Only 22 (16.29%) of T2D patients and 40 (30.37%) of healthy subjects were super-tasters which was significant difference (p = 0.009) and Odds ratio (OR) was 0.4624. A total of 39 (28.89%) of T2D patients and 25 (18.51%) of healthy controls were non-tasters which was also significant difference (p = 0.04513) and OR was 1.788. Conclusions: Supertasters and tasters of PTC have odds ratios of 0.4624 and 1.788 to have type 2 diabetes mellitus. Key words: Phenylthiocarbamide, taste perception, type 2 diabetes mellitus Introduction: Phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) taste perception is a genetically controlled trail.(1) Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) is a widely occurring multifactorial disease with complex multigenic inheritance playing an important role in its pathogenesis.(2, 3) Interaction of genes conferring inheritance of T2D, pre-diabetes and obesity and those causing PTC taste perception has not been studied in detail though some investigators have highlighted that a possible link exists between the phenotypic expressions of these gene complexes.(4-6) We conducted this study to find out any epistatic relationship between expression of PTC gene and the genes controlling T2D development through comparing the relative frequency of PTC taste perception among T2D patients and healthy subjects. Methods: It was a case-control study conducted in three diabetes clinics located at various teaching hospitals in Lahore city i.e. Jinnah A Diabetes and Endocrinology at Jinnah Hospital Lahore, Diabetes Management Center, Services Hospital Lahore and a diabetes clinic at Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore. A sample of 270 (135 diabetics and 135 healthy) subjects was taken by simple random sampling technique with the help of lucky-draw method among the patients attending these clinics and their attendant/relatives who were non-diabetic. The confirmation of non-diabetic status of the control group participants was obtained by their random serum glucose P value of 0.05 or less was considered significant and to reject the null hypothesis. Results: Mean age of T2D patients and healthy subjects was 34.21 ±5.74 and 32.90 ±7.44 years respectively and there was no significant difference of age distribution among two study groups as shown in Table 1. Table 1. Age distribution of the study population Seventy (51.8%) of the T2D were males and 65 (48.2%) were females. Thus male to female ratio among T2D patients was near to 1:1. About half (n=67, 49.6%) of healthy subjects were males and 68 (50.4%) were females. Thus male to female ratio among healthy subjects was 1:1 as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. Gender ratio among study groups Only 22 (16.29%) of T2D patients and 40 (30.37%) of healthy subjects were super-tasters which was significant difference (p = 0.009) and Odds ratio (OR) was 0.4624. Seventy-one (52.6%) of T2D and 73 (54.1%) of healthy controls were tasters which was not significantly different (p=0.141) and calculated OR for tasters as compared to non-tasters was 1.556. A total of 39 (28.89%) of T2D patients and 25 (18.51%) of healthy controls were non-tasters which was also significant difference (p = 0.04513) and OR was 1.788 as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2. Frequency of super-tasters, tasters and non-tasters in T2D and controls Discussion: Perception of bitter taste is a variable trait both within the same population and between different human populations.(7) Bitter taste perception is encoded by a family of 25 TAS2R taste receptors.(8) Whereas, the two most studied genes are TAS2R38, the one associated with the ability to taste PTC (phenylthiocarbamide) and PROP (6-n-propylthiouracil).(9) Approximately 75% of the world’s population are considered ‘‘tasters’’, and perceive these substances as moderately to intensely bitter. These compounds are weak or tasteless for the remaining 25% of the population, who are considered ‘‘non tasters’’.(10) Another study revealed that tasters can be further divided into two sub-groups: â€Å" tasters†, who perceived moderate intensity from PTC/PROP, and â€Å"supertasters† who perceived these compounds as extremely bitter. Thus, the population distribution of non tasters, tasters and super tasters is nearly 25%, 50% and 25% respectively.(11) In current study, the distribution of PTC taste perception for non-tasters, tasters and super-tasters was 25 (18.5%), 71(52.6%), 39 (28.9%) among the healthy controls which is quite comparable to the findings of Bartoshuk et al.(11) A study from American population showed that 71.2% of their study population was taster and 28.8% was nontaster.(12) A study from a neighboring Asian country reported that taste perception to PTC compounds was present (tasters) in 67% and absent (non-tasters) in 33%.(13) Another study from same Asian country reported that 66.38% of the study population was taster and 33.62% was non-taster to PTC.(14) However, a study from a Pakistani population of young healthy adults revealed the distribution of PTC tasters and non-tasters as 73.75% and 26.25% respectively.(15) Similarly, another group of investigators from Pakistan reported that 81.33% of the healthy adults were tasters and 18.6% were non-tasters.(16) Our observations are comparable to both the studies especially prevalence of non-tasters in our study is approximately the same as reported by Iqbal et al.(16) The second point of discussion in current study is the phenotypic association between the genes encoding for PTC taste perception and diabetes which has been studied by the procedures and methods mentioned earlier. Why the authors did conduct this study? A simple answer is the compelling and enormous links between diabetes and taste perception proposed in the recent literature.(17-19) A study has revealed that increased serum glucose levels induce a concentration-dependent impairment of taste perception in T2D patients as the result of an adaptation of the sensory cell to elevated circulating concentrations of glucose.(5) A study from an Asian population revealed a significant difference in taste sensitivity to PTC between the diabetics and non-diabetics, the former being less sensitive than the latter (16.7 vs. 6.8%).(20) A decrease in palatability of the glucose solutions induced by the glucose load (negative alliaesthesia) has been reported between PTC tasters and non-tasters wher e tasters showed higher hedonic ratings (Mean 4-25), as compared to non-tasters (Mean 3-70) and this difference was more evident after the glucose load in non-tasters.(21) More recently, genetic analysis of bitter tasters and non-tasters have shown that a polymorphism in TAS2R38 is associated with differences in ingestive behavior of the two groups, which may in turn be linked to the development of pre-diabetes and T2D.(22) However, by far the most delectable observations have been reported by Wang et al., who observed significant differences in plasma levels of leptin, tumor necrosis factor-alpha and insulin-like growth factors-1 between tasters and non-tasters to PTC.(4) They also found a positive correlation between plasma levels of glucose and body mass index (BMI) exclusively in non-tasters which indicate that besides the regulation of food consumption, taste perception also appears to be snugly linked to the circulating metabolic hormones. It is proposed by the previous investigators and supported by the authors of current study that people with different taste sensitivity may respond differently to the nutrient stimulation. More robust investigations probing into the link between taste perception and peripheral metabolic control could potentially lead to the development of novel therapies for obesity or Type 2 diabetes. Conclusions: Supertasters are less whereas tasters and non-tasters are more likely to have type 2 diabetes mellitus. Further work is encouraged to unveil the link between taste perception to PTC and T2D. Acknowledgements We acknowledge the participating institutions, their staff members, patients and healthy volunteers for their cooperation. We are thankful to Prof. Dr. Tehseen Iqbal, Professor of Physiology at Dera Ghazi Khan Medical College, DG Khan, Pakistan for his critical, analytic and logistic help without that this research would have never been completed. References: 1.Kim UK, Jorgenson E, Coon H, Leppert M, Risch N, Drayna D. Positional cloning of the human quantitative trait locus underlying taste sensitivity to phenylthiocarbamide. Science. 2003 Feb 21;299(5610):1221-5. 2.Schmidt B, Dragano N, Scherag A, Pechlivanis S, Hoffmann P, Nothen MM, et al. Exploring genetic variants predisposing to diabetes mellitus and their association with indicators of socioeconomic status. BMC Public Health. 2014;14:609. 3.Banerjee M, Saxena M. Genetic polymorphisms of cytokine genes in type 2 diabetes mellitus. World J Diabetes. 2014 Aug 15;5(4):493-504. 4.Wang R, van Keeken NM, Siddiqui S, Dijksman LM, Maudsley S, Derval D, et al. Higher TNF-alpha, IGF-1, and Leptin Levels are Found in Tasters than Non-Tasters. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2014;5:125. 5.Bustos-Saldana R, Alfaro-Rodriguez M, Solis-Ruiz Mde L, Trujillo-Hernandez B, Pacheco-Carrasco M, Vazquez-Jimenez C, et al. [Taste sensitivity diminution in hyperglycemic type 2 diabetics patients]. Rev Med Inst Mex Seguro Soc. 2009 Sep-Oct;47(5):483-8. 6.Hajnal A, Covasa M, Bello NT. Altered taste sensitivity in obese, prediabetic OLETF rats lacking CCK-1 receptors. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2005 Dec;289(6):R1675-86. 7.Robino A, Mezzavilla M, Pirastu N, Dognini M, Tepper BJ, Gasparini P. A Population-Based Approach to Study the Impact of PROP Perception on Food Liking in Populations along the Silk Road. PLoS ONE. 2014;9(3):e91716. 8.Behrens M, Meyerhof W. Bitter taste receptors and human bitter taste perception. Cell Mol Life Sci. 2006 Jul;63(13):1501-9. 9.Behrens M, Bartelt J, Reichling C, Winnig M, Kuhn C, Meyerhof W. Members of RTP and REEP gene families influence functional bitter taste receptor expression. J Biol Chem. 2006 Jul 21;281(29):20650-9. 10.Guo SW, Reed DR. The genetics of phenylthiocarbamide perception. Ann Hum Biol. 2001 Mar-Apr;28(2):111-42. 11.Bartoshuk LM, Duffy VB, Miller IJ. PTC/PROP tasting: anatomy, psychophysics, and sex effects. Physiol Behav. 1994 Dec;56(6):1165-71. 12.Keller KL, Reid A, MacDougall MC, Cassano H, Song JL, Deng L, et al. Sex differences in the effects of inherited bitter thiourea sensitivity on body weight in 4-6-year-old children. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2010 Jun;18(6):1194-200. 13.Saraswathi YS, Najafi M, Vineeth VS, Kavitha P, Malini SS. Association of phenylthiocarbamide taste blindness trait with early onset of childhood obesity in Mysore. Journal of Paramedical Sciences. 2011;2(4):6-11. 14.Hussain R, Shah A, Afzal M. Distribution of sensory taste thresholds for phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) taste ability in North Indian Muslim populations. The Egyptian Journal of Medical Human Genetics. 2013;14:367-74. 15.Raziq MA, Farog A, Iqbal T, Ahmed A. Phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) Taste Sensitivity and Blood Groups in Students at Bahawalpur. Journal of Sheikh Zayed Medical College. 2011;2(1):152-4. 16.Iqbal T, Ali A, Atique S. Prevalence of Taste Blindness to Phenylthiocarbamide in Punjab. Pakistan Journal of Physiology. 2006;2(2):35-7. 17.Yu JH, Shin MS, Lee JR, Choi JH, Koh EH, Lee WJ, et al. Decreased sucrose preference in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2014 May;104(2):214-9. 18.Wasalathanthri S, Hettiarachchi P, Prathapan S. Sweet taste sensitivity in pre-diabetics, diabetics and normoglycemic controls: a comparative cross sectional study. BMC Endocr Disord. 2014;14:67. 19.Gascon C, Santaolalla F, Martinez A, Sanchez Del Rey A. Usefulness of the BAST-24 smell and taste test in the study of diabetic patients: a new approach to the determination of renal function. Acta Otolaryngol. 2013 Apr;133(4):400-4. 20.Ali SG, Azad Khan AK, Mahtab H, Khan AR, Muhibullah M. Association of phenylthiocarbamide taste sensitivity with diabetes mellitus in Bangladesh. Hum Hered. 1994 Jan-Feb;44(1):14-7. 21.Bhatia S, Sharma KN. Taste impairment for glucose in diabetic PTC tasters and non-tasters. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 1991 Jul;12(3):193-9. 22.Dotson CD, Shaw HL, Mitchell BD, Munger SD, Steinle NI. Variation in the gene TAS2R38 is associated with the eating behavior disinhibition in Old Order Amish women. Appetite. 2010 Feb;54(1):93-9.

Toxic Waste Sites in Texas Essay -- essays research papers

Major Toxic Waste Sites in Texas When thinking about the most polluted states in our country, California and New York instantly pop into our mind. What most people don’t know, however, is that Texas now ranks number one in most categories of pollution. Whether it be increased emissions from refineries in Beaumont, large pits filled with contamination at Kelley Air Force Base, or polluted water at Lake Sam Rayburn, Texas has more than its fair share of toxic waste. Exxon/Mobil, one of the nation’s leading oil producers, has its main refinery located in Beaumont, Texas. Each year, the residents of Beaumont/Port Arthur have to contend with the 39,000 pounds of pollution spewed each year by the Exxon refinery. Exxon’s emissions are 385% above the state refinery average. In 1999, the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Committee (TNRCC) allowed the plant to increase their emissions, without allowing the public to have a say in the matter. Interestingly, 95% of the people living near the plant are of African American descent and are in the poverty range. Some believe that this, along with the lack of education in the area, allows Exxon to get away with such high emissions. Residents in nearby neighborhoods have been complaining of headaches, nausea, eye, and throat irritation for years. Since 1997, Mobil has repeatedly violated health standards in its emissions of two key air pollutants: sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, These â€Å"rotten egg† smells are so strong, one can smell it through a car driving past the refinery. After numerous complaints and one record of a refinery worker becoming unconscious because of the fumes, the EPA awarded Exxon with a $100,000 environmental justice grant in October of 1998. Hopefully, Exxon has put the money to good use and cleaned up their emissions. Kelly Air Force Base (KAFB) in San Antonio has been one of the Air Force's major aircraft maintenance facilities since the 1950s. Located on 4000 acres and surrounded by residential neighborhoods, KAFB warehouses and maintains aircraft, jet engines, and nuclear materials for worldwide distribution. Activities at the base can generate as much as 282,000 tons of hazardous waste per year, all in close range to the neighboring communities. One day, a woman living near the base noticed a man dumping waste into an open pit in... ...d. As of July 2001, nothing has been done to change the water standards for the Donahue paper mill. This is a sad thing, not only for the residents that live on the lake, but also for the thousands of fish and wildlife that are killed each year. All three of these examples prove that pollution is happening in Texas and that it is important for residents to get involved if they want a change to happen. Sometimes, even governmental agencies cannot stop pollution. We must take care of our natural resources, especially land and water, because they are non-renewable. We want our state to be clean for our grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren. This will not happen unless residents of these toxic waste sites take action and let their voices be heard. Besides, whatever happened to the slogan, â€Å"Don’t Mess With Texas?† References: 1). Texas Toxic Tour, http://www.txpeer.org 2). Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, "1999 Report of Sam Rayburn Task Force," March 2000, http://www.anglersresort.com/lake.htm 3). Southwest Public Workers' Union, "North Kelly Gardens Community Health Survey near Kelly AFB, Texas," Revised Edition, 10/23/97, p. 3.

Bel Canto Historical Analysis

Historical Analysis In Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto, the setting is reflected off of the Lima Crisis, otherwise known as the Japanese embassy hostage crisis, which began on December 17, 1996. Bel Canto is a story on the events that happen in the house of a South American country’s vice president. It portrays the relationships of the characters and their feelings toward one another as well as explains the hostage situation. In the Japanese embassy hostage crisis, similar events took place, such as the actual overtake of a mansion which contained high-ranking military officials and others of a high social standing.Both settings deal with the releasing of hostages in exchange for demands that were never met, which led to the resolution of both the Lima crisis and Patchett’s Bel Canto. Bel Canto reflects the historical Japanese embassy hostage crisis, although Bel Canto has a third person omniscient point of view of the occurrences on the inside of the mansion. Bel Canto imitates the incidences of the Japanese embassy hostage crisis.The Japanese embassy hostage crisis was a 126 day hostage crisis where members of a revolutionary movement known as the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement had taken over 600 hostages, a decent amount of which were high ranked military officials and other well-known ambassadors. The MRTA, led by Nestor Cerpa, took over the highly fortified residence of the Japanese ambassador. Cerpa proclaimed that he would release any of his hostages who weren’t involved with the Peruvian government, and they did so. The MRTA eventually release all the captives except 72 men.The original plan of this takeover was to change the ways of the government. In Bel Canto, although the terrorists originally came to take the president, they were a rebellious group from the country and wanted changes in the government. The rebels demanded a few things in return for the safety of the hostages. They requested â€Å"The release of their membe rs from prison; a revision of the government’s neoliberal free market reforms, and they protested against the cruel and inhumane conditions of Peru’s jails† (Japanese embassy hostage crisis).In Bel Canto, the rebels have demands as well: ‘The terrorists having no chance to get what they came for, decided to take something else instead, something they never in their lives knew they wanted until they crouched in the low, dark shaft of the air-conditioning vents: opera. They decided to take that very thing for which Mr. Hosakawa lived. ‘(71). Both terrorists wanted demands out of their seizures of the mansions. In both Bel Canto and in the Japanese crisis, a Red Cross official was the ‘negotiator. He attempted to setup a barter system to which the terrorists would get supplies so long as they give hostages back in return. In the Japanese crisis, Luis Cipriani had worked on getting a deal that would allow the terrorists to be let go into Cuba as exi les. This negotiation failed, as did some of the consultations from Bel Canto. Messner, the negotiator, attempts to make several negotiations with the terrorists, throughout the novel. Although both mediators do try to work the situations out with the rebels, they are not able to meet the standards of the negotiations.In the end of both Bel Canto and the Japanese embassy hostage crisis, the terrorists were killed. They were not done in the same fashion, although the hostages were saved. In Bel Canto, the terrorists allow the hostages to be outside, and one day while they are together, a group of government troops come and shoot all the insurgents, as well as Hosokawa. In the Japanese crisis, a military assault overwhelmed the rebels and forced them to either surrender or be shot and killed. Bel Canto is very much reflected upon the happenings of the Japanese embassy hostage crisis.The similarities of the negotiations between the outside world and the mansions, the motives for invasi on, and the format of how the situations end are all closely related. The book may not have total accuracy of the Lima crisis, although the internal view of the occurrences in the mansion provide a different side of the hostage situation. Works Cited Japanese embassy hostage crisis. † Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Web. 23 Jan. 2013. . Patchett, Ann. Bel Canto. 2005 ed. New York: HarperCollins, 2001. Print.

Search IP Address With a PHP Script

Retrieving the users IP address is actually much simpler than you might think, and it can be done in a single line of PHP code. What the PHP script you see below does is finds the IP address of a user and then posts the address on the page that holds the PHP code. In other words, any user who visits the page will be able to see their own IP address listed there. Note:  The way this PHP script is written here does not log any IP addresses nor does it show a user anyone elses IP address - just their own. "What's My IP" PHP Script To return  the IP address of the person visiting your site, use this line: To retrieve the users IP address and then echo its value back to the user, you can use this example: Note: This is generally accurate but will not work as intended if the user is accessing your website behind a proxy. This is because the proxys IP address will be shown instead of the users true address. Test the IP Address If youre not sure that the script is working, there are numerous websites you can visit to get some other perspectives on what your IP address is being reported as. For example, after you implement the code from above, load the page and record the IP address thats given for your device. WhatsMyIP.org or IP Chicken are good places to check to see if the same IP address is recorded there.