SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

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Paediatric Endocrinology Unit, Dept. of Woman and Child Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm

Postal address: Department of Woman and Child Health, Pediatric Endocrine Unit, Karolinska Institutet, SE-17176 Stockholm
Visiting address: Entrance Q2:08, Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital, Karolinska University Hospital, Solna
Fax: (+46) 8 51775128
Web page: http://www.ki.se/kbh/endokrin/testis.htm

Contact person: Professor Olle Söder, phone: +46 (0)8 517 75124

The Pediatric Endocrinology Testis Group focuses on basic research on testis physiology and pathophysiology in experimental animal models. Main interests are regulation of Sertoli cell proliferation and differentiation, paracrine control of spermatogenesis, Leydig cell steroidogenesis, testicular host defence mechanisms with emphasis on cytokines and endogenous antibiotic peptides, transplantation of male germ and Leydig stem cells, and preservation of testicular function and fertility after gonadotoxic cancer therapy in childhood and adolescence. The research group consists of the group leader (see photo) and several full time experienced graduate (PhD) students, two postdoc scientists and one technician. Projects are run by the PhD students and postdocs.

Research connected to South Asia

Professor Olle Söder has been involved in collaboration with Pakistan since the middle of the 1980’s, supervising Pakistani PhD candidates, and worked with courses in research training at Aga Khan University in Karachi. On 21 June 2005 KIRT, Karolinska Institutet Research and Training Committee, decided to appoint him as scientific coordinator to intensify and extend the already existing collaboration on research and research training between KI and Pakistan. More information.

Professor Zulfiqar Bhutta, now Head of the Dept. of Paediatrics, Aga Khan University, Karachi (photo to the left) was one of the Pakistani PhD candidates supervised by Söder.
Zulfiqar Bhutta defended his doctoral thesis at KI in 1996 on “Nutritional rehabilitation of Persistent Diarrhoea in Childhood. Factors determining recovery and the relationship of systemic infections with intestinal function. Faculty opponent was Professor Lars Å. Hanson, Department of Clinical Immunology, University of Göteborg. Prof. Bhutta is still closely connected to his Alma Mater and regularly visits KI. He is also a member of SASNET’s South Asian Reference group, and has taken part in SASNET conferences.

• Dr. Arif Siddiqui, Associate Professor, Dept. of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Aga Khan University, was a guest researcher at Karoliniska Institutet in 2001-02, working together with Prof. Olle Söder. He has later worked at Söder’s laboratory at KI for a fellowship to learn research techniques in the field of reproductive biology. In September 2004 Siddiqui and Söder’s research group at Astrid Lindgren’s Children Hospital successfully organised a workshop on ”Molecular and Diagnostic Techniques in Reproductive Disorders” at AKU in Karachi. When Staffan Lindberg and Lars Eklund from SASNET visited Pakistan in 2003 Dr. Siddiqui organised their visit to Karachi University. Read the report from the visit.

• Dr Taranum Sultana was also supervised by Professor Söder, and also by Associate Professor Günther Weber at the Unit for Clinical Genetics, Department of Molecular Medicine; and Professor Anwar Siddiqui at Aga Khan University (AKU).
Dr. Sultana defended his doctoral dissertation on ”Molecular and functional studies on interleukin-1-alpha in the testis” in 2002, and then returned to work at the Dept. of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, AKU, Karachi. The thesis dealt with a novel splice form of IL-1-alpha being isolated from the adult testis. The cDNA of the splice variant was cloned and sequenced, and the corresponding protein expressed end functionally investigated.
She is however now (2008) back in Sweden. She has got a 2-year position at the Stockholm Branch of the European Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, located at the Karolinska Institutet (and affiliated with the Dept. of Cell and Molecular Biology).

Dr Farasat Zaman (photo to the right) is currently connected to the department. He is working on a study of ”Apoptosis in growth plate cartilage”.

Shahzad K. Akram (photo to the left) is a Licentiate Student at the department. He is working on a project on ”Multivariate Analysis of Biochemical and Clinical Variables for Prediction of Low Birth Weight and Infant Morbidity”. He is supervised by Prof. Söder.
Abstract: The aim of this study is to predict fetal birth weight and possibly diagnose IUGR (IntraUterine Growth Restriction) using maternal anthropometric and fetal biometric data. The data consists of 3471 observations on 39 variables, gathered from 89 sampled pregnant women from selected field sites in rural Pakistan. Analysis was conducted at the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. These data were analyzed using stepwise linear regression and correlation tools of statistics.