Randox

The health and hereditary core questionnaire contains questions on personal disease history, medication intake, physical activity, nutrition, smoking habits, alcohol consumption, education level, marital status, age, gender, ethnicity, income, working status, and family history of diseases and longevity (a detailed list of the available data is presented in eMaterial 4). Using electronic systems, questionnaires are administered by trained interviewers using phone or face-to-face interview methods. Coded data from the health and hereditary questionnaire generated by the LGDB was included in the SAIL data linking and harmonization project, as described by Spjuth et al.^{7 (link)} LGDB data currently eligible for phenotype searches and analysis in SAIL includes that obtained from 3,769 participants. Using a separate form, medical diagnoses are confirmed by physicians using International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 codes.
The type and mode of data collection for anthropometric and biochemical parameters differ depending on the involvement of the scheme. Nurses generally obtain anthropometric parameters at the time that participants are recruited at medical facilities. The participant’s weight is measured barefoot and in light clothing, and is recorded in kilograms to the nearest decimal value. Height is measured barefoot and is recorded in centimeters. Two non-consecutive blood pressure measurements are taken—one in the very beginning of the session, and one at the end of it. In some recruitment schemes, self-reported height and weight are obtained.
The information about participants’ life style and dietary habits is obtained using questionnaires that are based on examples in literature; included questions assess relevant data of a person’s life history, current status, and other important factors, such as smoking, physical activities, and alcohol consumption. The dietary questionnaire is designed to give an overview of a person’s dietary habits regarding the type, amount, and frequency of food and liquid consumption. These questionnaires are available upon request.
Total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and fasting glucose concentrations are obtained from participants that donate blood at biochemical laboratories. Results are reported, if stipulated within the framework of the research project, to the participant, the recruiting physician(s), and to the LGDB. Additionally, biochemical tests that are conducted on stored LGDB plasma samples are achieved using RXimola technology (Randox Laboratories, Belfast, United Kingdom). Use of this system, however, does depend upon availability of excess financial resources, with the goal of enriching biochemical data available for stored biosamples. All information on blood biochemical tests is stored electronically in the LGDB database, with a detailed list of biochemical test results that have been collected shown in eMaterial 5.

Cells were harvested for measurement of intracellular TG on day 10 of differentiation. Cells were scraped in a buffer containing 1% IGEPAL-630, 150 mM NaCl and 50 mM Tris HCl. Cell lysates were sonicated (total 30 seconds) to ensure complete lysis and the protein content determined as above. The samples were then heated at 95°C for 30 min, cooled and centrifuged at 13,000 x g for 10 min. The supernatant was collected for analysis on an iLAB 650 chemistry analyser using the Randox TAG assay kit. The total intracellular TG content was normalized to protein concentration.

Microcystin -LR; (CAS No 101043-37-2, molecular weight 995.189 g/mol; purity ≥ 98.5%) and TQ-(2-isopropyl-5-methylbenzo-1,4-quinone, CAS № 490-91-5, molecular weight 2164.204 g/mol; purity ≥ 98.5%) were purchased from Sigma–Aldrich (Saint Louis, MO, USA). Biochemical kits used were procured from the Laboratory Bio Diagnostics Company (Cairo, Egypt), except for lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) kits obtained from (Randox Laboratories Ltd., UK). Interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were purchased from Glory Science Co. Ltd. (Del Rio, TX, USA), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) was obtained from Bio Source International Inc. (Camarillo, CA, USA) for inflammatory reaction assessment.