Collegium antropologicum
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Collegium antropologicum · Jun 2014
Comparative StudyEffects of air pollution on growth in schoolchildren.
The growth is considered a very sensitive indicator of the impact of environment of the health status of children. The aim of the study was to investigate whether air pollution is related to children's growth. The subjects were 1059 pupils, aged 7-11 years, living for more than ten years in the same home in the city of Nis (Serbia). ⋯ Air pollution is associated with children's height and weight, specially before the age of 9 years. There was a significant difference in the prevalence of thinness in children exposed to higher concentrations of air pollutants (p = 0.038). It might be possible that air pollution negatively contributed to the growth rate in urban children.
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Collegium antropologicum · Jun 2014
Importance of interleukin 6 in pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), encompassing ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), is an uncontrolled chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract caused by an interaction of diverse genes and environmental factors. There is growing evidence that cytokine production plays an important role in IBD. One of the key roles in signaling pathway in development of IBD is performed by interleukin 6 (IL-6), although molecular mechanism of this pathway is not yet fully understood. ⋯ Quantitative assessment of serum IL-6 was performed with solid-phase, enzyme-labeled, chemiluminescent sequential immunometric assay. Our results indicate that serum IL-6 is a clinically relevant parameter for CD and UC that strongly correlates with inflammatory activity of disease. We confirmed and extended the role of cytokine production patterns for IBD presentation in Croatian population.