Maternal exposure to environmental chemicals can adversely affect fetal health. This study aims to identify, in-vivo, the risk of maternal exposure to trichloroethane (TCE) on the birth weight and the neurobehavioral performance of newborns. Groups of female albino mice (F0 generation) were injected intraperitoneally twice weekly for three weeks with TCE (100 and 400 µg/kg BW). Animals were followed up for signs of toxicity and mortality. Neonate's motor behavior including large movement (crawling, pivoting, righting) and small movement (tremor) were assessed. No toxicity adverse signs or mortality were observed in the animals (F0 generation) treated with TCE. The results showed that TCE exposure led to a significant increase in the F1 mouse body weight compared to controls. The results also showed that tremor of neonates of dams exposed to TCE (100µg/kg and 400µg/kg BW) were significantly increased when assessed on postnatal day-1 (PND-1). These findings provide support to a role of the environmental toxicant, TCE, in abnormalities in birth weight and neonatal neurobehavior.
Mohamed A. Al-Griw, Massaud S. Maamar, Naser M. Salama, Lubna N. Algadi, Abdul Hakim S. Elnfati, Emad M. Bennour(9-2015)

ا كان لإلنسان أن يخطو، يف فترة وجيزة تقارب القرن من الزمن، هذه اخلطوات العمالقة يف مجال العلوم واملعرفة، بدون البحث العلمي الرصني الذي يعتمد الطريقة العلمية يف التفكير، وليس غريبا أن تكون إحدى أهم ركائز تصنيف اجلامعات العاملية مدى قدرة اجلامعة على اإلسهام الفاعل يف إثراء املعرفة االنسانية من خالل ما جتريه من بحوث. وانطالقا من اإلحساس مبسؤولياتها، ويف سبيل السعي إلى احلصول على موطأ قدم لها بني جامعات العالم، شكلت جامعة طرابلس جلنة من أساتذتها؛ لوضع مشروع وثيقة ألخالقيات البحث العلمي داخلها تلزم باحثيها اتباع االشتراطات، واملعايير، واملتطلبات األخالقية املنبثقة أس�اس�ا م�ن املفاهيم وامل�ب�ادئ العليا التي تقوم عليها املجتمعات، وتقرها الديانات واألعراف والتشريعات والثقافة واملواثيق الدولية ذات العالقة والتي تضبط وتنظم السلوك اإلنساني وتصنف املمارسات واألفعال والعالقات والسياسات، فيما إذا كانت مقبولة، أو غير مقبولة، ولتحافظ على أعلى مستوى ممكن من الشفافية واملصداقية يف العملية البحثية.
بسمة محمد خليفة دورو, خالد الهادي عبدالسلام الرفاعي, عبدالكريم امحمد احمد احتاش, محمد عبدالسلام محمد القريو , محمود احمد امحمد الديك, ضو خليفة محمد الترهوني, (1-2017)

Alterations in genes encoding the xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes contribute to the variability in susceptibility to various cancers. In this study, we assessed the possible association between the CYP1A1 variants and lung cancer (LC) risk in a population of Libyan males. For this study, we selected 20 unrelated healthy controls and 32 patients with LC. DNA samples from the controls and patients were screened by DNA-PCR and direct DNA sequence analysis to search for genetic sequence variations in CYP1A1 gene (exon 7 and 3’ non-coding region). CYP1A1 mutations were identified in 11.5 % adult subjects and cases analyzed, and all were males. Overall, 11 CYP1A1 mutations were documented in this study implicating exon 7 and 3’ non-coding region. Nonsense, missense, and frame-shift mutations accounted for, respectively, 27.3 %, 63.6 % and 9.1 % of all CYP1A1 mutations. Three missense mutations namely CYP1A1*2B/m2 (rs1048943), CYP1A1*4/m4 (rs1799814), and CYP1A1*2A/m1 (rs4646903) have already been reported. The remaining mutations have not been described previously. We observed two apparently heterozygous carriers of mutation CYP1A1*2B/m2 (CYP1A1 4889A/G [642Ile/Val] genotype) in control group. We also observed two heterozygotic genotypes one containing mutation m4 (CYP1A1 4887C/A [461Thr/Asp]) and another containing mutation m1 (6235T/C) in cancer group. The mutations m2, m4, and m1 accounted for, respectively, 18.2 %, 9.1 % and 9.1 % of all CYP1A1 mutations. Comparing the clinical features showed that PLT and WBC counts were lower in CYP1A1 mutant than in CYP1A1 wild type, but they have not reached statistical significant (P > 0.05). The average age of CYP1A1 mutant was lower than in CYP1A1 wild type. Overall, these findings suggest that genetic alterations in the metabolic gene CYP1A1 are too rare to be of clinical relevance in this study, implying different pathways for the LC risk with respect to CYP1A1 polymorphisms as a risk factor for LC at least in this study.
Najah A. Fares, Othman A. El-Ansari, Mohamed A. Al-Griw(4-2017)