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PubMed2004

The Helicobacter pylori restriction endonuclease-replacing gene, hrgA, and clinical outcome: comparison of East Asia and Western countries.

It has been suggested that the putative Helicobacter pylori virulence factor hrgA is the first disease-specific marker for an H. pylori-related disease, (i.e., development of gastric cancer in East Asia). Our aim was to test the hypothesis that the presence of hrgA has disease specificity. We examined 458 H. pylori isolates including 289 from East Asia and 169 from Western countries whose cagA and vacA genotypes had previously been characterized. hrgA/hpyIIIR status and iceA genotypes were determined by polymerase chain reaction using DNA expanded from a single colony. hrgA was present in 29% of gastric cancers, 29% of ulcers, and 31% of gastritis cases among H. pylori from East Asia (P > 0.9). Overall, there was no significant relationship between the presence of the hrgA gene and disease presentation (cancer, ulcer, or neither) or between its presence and the cag pathogenicity island, vacA s1 , babA2, and oipA, "on" genotypes. The prevalence of the hrgA gene was significantly lower in H. pylori from East Asia (29%) vs. those from the West (49%) (P < 0.001). The prevalence of the hrgA gene was not related to clinical outcome or to other important putative virulence factors.

Age Distribution↗
PubMed2003

Environmental threats to children's health in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific.

The Southeast Asia and Western Pacific regions contain half of the world's children and are among the most rapidly industrializing regions of the globe. Environmental threats to children's health are widespread and are multiplying as nations in the area undergo industrial development and pass through the epidemiologic transition. These environmental hazards range from traditional threats such as bacterial contamination of drinking water and wood smoke in poorly ventilated dwellings to more recently introduced chemical threats such as asbestos construction materials; arsenic in groundwater; methyl isocyanate in Bhopal, India; untreated manufacturing wastes released to landfills; chlorinated hydrocarbon and organophosphorous pesticides; and atmospheric lead emissions from the combustion of leaded gasoline. To address these problems, pediatricians, environmental health scientists, and public health workers throughout Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific have begun to build local and national research and prevention programs in children's environmental health. Successes have been achieved as a result of these efforts: A cost-effective system for producing safe drinking water at the village level has been devised in India; many nations have launched aggressive antismoking campaigns; and Thailand, the Philippines, India, and Pakistan have all begun to reduce their use of lead in gasoline, with resultant declines in children's blood lead levels. The International Conference on Environmental Threats to the Health of Children, held in Bangkok, Thailand, in March 2002, brought together more than 300 representatives from 35 countries and organizations to increase awareness on environmental health hazards affecting children in these regions and throughout the world. The conference, a direct result of the Environmental Threats to the Health of Children meeting held in Manila in April 2000, provided participants with the latest scientific data on children's vulnerability to environmental hazards and models for future policy and public health discussions on ways to improve children's health. The Bangkok Statement, a pledge resulting from the conference proceedings, is an important first step in creating a global alliance committed to developing active and innovative national and international networks to promote and protect children's environmental health.

Asia, Southeastern↗
PubMed2006

A cytological study on Kelloggia (Rubiaceae), an intercontinental disjunct genus between eastern Asia and western North America.

A cytological study was carried out for the first time on four populations of the only two species of Kelloggia (Rubiaceae), which occur disjunctly in eastern Asia (K. chinensis Franch.) and western North America (K. galioides Torr.). The consistent mitotic prophase chromosome condensation pattern and interphase nuclei type were determined for both species. The chromosome base number of the genus is suggested to be x = 11. The karyotype of 2n = 22 = 2x = 16m + 6sm was examined for both species. The karyotypical asymmetry of 1A and 2A was found in K. chinensis and K. galioides, respectively. According to the predominant evolutionary direction of karyotype asymmetry in angiosperms, K. galioides (2A) seems slightly more evolved than K. chinensis (1A). Our finding is consistent with the hypothesis of the Old World origin of Kelloggia based on molecular study.

Biological Evolution↗
PubMed2004

Horse-mounted invaders from the Russo-Kazakh steppe or agricultural colonists from western Central Asia? A craniometric investigation of the Bronze Age settlement of Xinjiang.

Numerous Bronze Age cemeteries in the oases surrounding the Täklamakan Desert of the Tarim Basin in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, western China, have yielded both mummified and skeletal human remains. A dearth of local antecedents, coupled with woolen textiles and the apparent Western physical appearance of the population, raised questions as to where these people came from. Two hypotheses have been offered by archaeologists to account for the origins of Bronze Age populations of the Tarim Basin. These are the "steppe hypothesis" and the "Bactrian oasis hypothesis." Eight craniometric variables from 25 Aeneolithic and Bronze Age samples, comprising 1,353 adults from the Tarim Basin, the Russo-Kazakh steppe, southern China, Central Asia, Iran, and the Indus Valley, are compared to test which, if either, of these hypotheses are supported by the pattern of phenetic affinities possessed by Bronze Age inhabitants of the Tarim Basin. Craniometric differences between samples are compared with Mahalanobis generalized distance (d2), and patterns of phenetic affinity are assessed with two types of cluster analysis (the weighted pair average linkage method and the neighbor-joining method), multidimensional scaling, and principal coordinates analysis. Results obtained by this analysis provide little support for either the steppe hypothesis or the Bactrian oasis hypothesis. Rather, the pattern of phenetic affinities manifested by Bronze Age inhabitants of the Tarim Basin suggests the presence of a population of unknown origin within the Tarim Basin during the early Bronze Age. After 1200 B.C., this population experienced significant gene flow from highland populations of the Pamirs and Ferghana Valley. These highland populations may include those who later became known as the Saka and who may have served as "middlemen" facilitating contacts between East (Tarim Basin, China) and West (Bactria, Uzbekistan) along what later became known as the Great Silk Road.

Agriculture↗
PubMed2004

Palatine torus in the pre-conquest inhabitants of the Canary Islands.

An unusually high frequency of palatine torus in prehistoric Canary Islands skeletal remains is investigated in terms of population origins, evolutionary forces (gene flow and genetic drift) and environmental effects. Palatine torus frequencies (percent presence) are compared between the Canary Islands sample and skeletal samples from proposed ancestral regions, including northwest Africa, northeast Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, southern Europe, northern Europe and western Asia. The frequency of palatine torus is much higher in the Canary Islands sample (23.8%) than in samples from Northern and sub-Saharan Africa (1.8-6.1%), southern Europe (7.5%) and western Asia (2.1%), but is much lower than in the sample from northern Europe (57.4%). Because biological and archaeological evidence provide strong support for a northwest African origin for indigenous Canary Islands populations, the relatively high occurrence of palatine torus in the Canary Islands populace cannot be explained by an alternative ancestry; rather, it may be best explained by either evolutionary forces such as genetic drift or gene flow, or by environmental forces, such as hard chewing or a heavy dependence on marine foods. Genetic drift and gene flow seem less likely, since frequencies of other dental traits known to be under strong genetic control do not differ greatly between the prehistoric Canary Islands and northwest African samples. Environmental factors such as diet seem the most likely explanation and may include heavy consumption of marine foods, which has been implicated in torus formation.

Africa↗
PubMed1996

Epidemiology of hepatitis B infection in the Western Pacific and South East Asia.

The Western Pacific and South East Asia regions are the largest and most populous of the six World Health Organisation regions and include more than 40 countries. More than 75% of the world's estimated 350 million carriers are located here. The region has therefore provided many insights into the epidemiology, natural history, and control of hepatitis B infection and has been home to the first national control programmes. Hepatitis B is hyperendemic in most countries of the region, with carrier rates ranging from 5-35% except in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, where the mean carrier rate is less than 2%. Patterns of infection vary considerably from country to country, city to city, and even village to village, and can change with time. Most infections are acquired early in childhood or in early adult life. A variety of control measures are in place and many countries in the region have introduced widespread or universal childhood immunisation policies with significant success. While it is theoretically possible that hepatitis B infection could be eradicated by universal childhood immunisation, there are several biological and practical issues that make this extremely difficult, suggesting that, for the foreseeable future, control may be a more realisable goal.

Asia, Southeastern↗
PubMed2005

The geographic spread of the CCR5 Delta32 HIV-resistance allele.

The Delta32 mutation at the CCR5 locus is a well-studied example of natural selection acting in humans. The mutation is found principally in Europe and western Asia, with higher frequencies generally in the north. Homozygous carriers of the Delta32 mutation are resistant to HIV-1 infection because the mutation prevents functional expression of the CCR5 chemokine receptor normally used by HIV-1 to enter CD4+ T cells. HIV has emerged only recently, but population genetic data strongly suggest Delta32 has been under intense selection for much of its evolutionary history. To understand how selection and dispersal have interacted during the history of the Delta32 allele, we implemented a spatially explicit model of the spread of Delta32. The model includes the effects of sampling, which we show can give rise to local peaks in observed allele frequencies. In addition, we show that with modest gradients in selection intensity, the origin of the Delta32 allele may be relatively far from the current areas of highest allele frequency. The geographic distribution of the Delta32 allele is consistent with previous reports of a strong selective advantage (>10%) for Delta32 carriers and of dispersal over relatively long distances (>100 km/generation). When selection is assumed to be uniform across Europe and western Asia, we find support for a northern European origin and long-range dispersal consistent with the Viking-mediated dispersal of Delta32 proposed by G. Lucotte and G. Mercier. However, when we allow for gradients in selection intensity, we estimate the origin to be outside of northern Europe and selection intensities to be strongest in the northwest. Our results describe the evolutionary history of the Delta32 allele and establish a general methodology for studying the geographic distribution of selected alleles.

Alleles↗
PubMed2005

Osteoarchaeological evidence for leprosy from western Central Asia.

Published reports of palaeopathological analyses of skeletal collections from Central Asia are, to date, scarce. During the macroscopic examination of skeletal remains dating to the early first millennium AD from the Ustyurt Plateau, Uzbekistan, diagnostic features suggestive of leprosy were found on one individual from Devkesken 6. This adult female exhibited rhinomaxillary changes indicative of leprosy: resorption of the anterior nasal spine, rounding and widening of the nasal aperture, erosion of the alveolar margin, loss of a maxillary incisor, and inflammatory changes in the hard palate. While it is unclear whether the bones of the hands and the feet from this individual were absent as a result of collection strategy or poor preservation, lesions affecting the tibia and fibula were recorded, and the ways in which they may be related to a diagnosis of leprosy are discussed. This is the first skeletal evidence of leprosy from Central Asia and raises questions not only about the spread of the disease in the past, but also about the living conditions of what traditionally were thought of as nomadic peoples.

Bone and Bones↗
PubMed2002

Epidemiology of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Because of its high incidence in many of the most populous countries in the world, its often fulminant course, poor response to conservative treatment, low resectabilty rate when symptomatic, high recurrence rate after resection and liver transplantation, and grave prognosis, hepatocellular carcinoma is now regarded as one of the major malignant diseases. Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common primary malignant tumour of the liver. Relative to other tumours, it ranks fifth in overall frequency (fifth in men and eighth in women) and fourth in annual mortality rate. An estimated 372,000 new cases of hepatocellular carcinoma are diagnosed each year, constituting 4.6% of all new human cancers (6.3% in men; 2.7% in women). The annual mortality rate from the tumour is virtually the same as its annual incidence. The highest incidences occur in eastern and southeastern Asia, some of the Western Pacific islands, and sub-Saharan Africa. Intermediate incidences are found in eastern and southern Europe, the Caribbean, Central America, and Western Asia. Hepatocellular carcinoma is uncommon in the remaining countries. Men are affected more often than are women. The incidence generally increases with increasing age, although there is a definite shift towards a younger age distribution in black African and ethnic Chinese populations.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2006

MS in Asian countries.

This paper reviews all available English language literature on MS from Asian countries published between 1970 and 2005. Although limited data are available, the review reveals that western Asia--including the Middle East--has the highest prevalence of MS across the continent, and that MS in Asia largely resembles conventional MS in western countries. Opticospinal MS (a distinct clinical entity from conventional MS) is more common in eastern Asian regions. Larger epidemiological and genetic studies, with more complete ascertainment in various Asian populations, are needed so that we can understand the diversity of Asian MS.

Adult↗