DANESHVAR MEDICINE
Year:2016 | Volume:23 | Issue:123|Papers Count:10

Background and Objective: Vitamin D as an immunomodulatory agent is an effective factor to suppress inflammatory responses. It is shown that serum level of vitamin D reduces in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In addition, some studies have shown that vitamin D modulates white blood cells (WBC) and lymphocytes, especially in inflammatory disease. Moreover, WBC and platelets increase in people with periodontitis as an inflammatory disease. In the present study, serum level of vitamin D and its correlation with lymphocyte, platelet, neutrophils and WBC count were investigated in sulfur mustard (SM) - exposed individuals in comparison with healthy control group.Materials and Methods: Participants were 100 SM-exposed individuals with pulmonary complications and 87 unexposed as control group. Serum level of vitamin D was measured by ELISA and lymphocyte, platelet, neutrophil cells and white blood cells were measured by cell counter method.Results: The results showed that the serum level of vitamin D decreases in SM-exposed individuals (P<0.001). White blood cells and neutrophils significantly increase in SM-exposed group as compared to control group (P<0.001). Lymphocyte cells reduce in SM-exposed group (P<0.001). But percentage of platelet cells showed no differences between the two groups (P=0.083). Also, there was a correlation between serum level of vitamin D and lymphocyte cells and also between neutrophils and serum level of vitamin D (P<0.05).Conclusion: This study revealed that SM-exposed individuals with pulmonary complication have deregulation in relation to vitamin D and immune system components.

Background and Objective: The use of supplements, herbal extracts, and exercise training for the treatment of diseases and metabolic disorders has increased among people. Thus, the aim of this study was the study of combined aerobic exercise training and consumption of green tea extract on serum levels of tumor necrosis factor a (TNF-a) and interleukin 6 (IL-6) in obese women with type 2 diabetes.Materials and Methods: In this research study, 46 obese diabetic women (BMI>30, blood fasting sugar more than 150-250 mg/dL, 45-60 years old) were selected and randomly assigned into four groups, green tea (n=12), aerobic exercise training+green tea (n=12), aerobic exercise training (n=12) and control (n=10). Participants in supplementary groups received 1500 mg green tea extract daily for 10 weeks. Aerobic training program included 10 weeks of training, 3 sessions per week and each session was 60 minutes at 55% maximum heart rate during the first week and gradually increased with the progress of the training program to 75 percent of maximum heart rate. Each session consists of warm up (10 minutes), the main part of the training involves performing aerobic exercises in a standing position (40 minutes) and recovery in sitting (10 minutes).Results: The data showed that no significant difference was observed in serum TNF-a level (p>0.05). But, in training+Green Tea group, a significant difference was observed in the serum IL-6 (p=0.009). The results of analysis of variance showed that a significant difference between the effects of different interventions do not exist for TNF-a (F=2.33, P=0.089). However, for the impact of various interventions, there was a significant difference in the amount of IL-6 (F=8.01, P=0.000). Post-hoc test for IL-6 showed that significant differences exist between the control group and exercise+green tea (P=0.021), between green tea and exercise group (P=0.021) and training+green tea group (P=0.021). In addition, after different interventions, serum insulin levels in the exercise group had a significant increase (P=0.013).Conclusion: According to obtained results, it appears that aerobic training plus green tea extract consumption have better effect on serum inflammatory factors in obsess women with diabetes type 2.

Background and Objective: Aging has been associated with deterioration in postural control, which manifests itself by an increase in postural sway. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between postural sway parameters and used balance recovery strategies in older people in response to sudden perturbations.Materials and Methods: For this purpose, 30 elderly men participated in the study. Postural sway parameters were evaluated using the Biodex balance system. Then, balance recovery strategies were recorded by six high-speed cameras after sudden movement of the treadmill. Finally, Pearson correlation test was used to determine the relationship between postural sway parameters and balance recovery strategies in the elderly.Results: The results showed there is a significant relationship between the postural sway parameters in the elderly and their balance recovery strategies in response to anterior-posterior perturbations (P<0.05). The results also showed there is no significant relationship between the postural sway parameters in the elderly and their balance recovery strategies in response to posterior-anterior perturbations (P>0.05).Conclusion: According to the findings, it seems that balance recovery strategies in response to sudden perturbations in the elderly are risk factors for reducing the ability of postural control, especially in the anterior-posterior perturbations.

Background and Objective: In recent decades, stem cell therapy has been introduced as a novel therapeutic approach for patients suffering from cardiac disorders. Recently, identification of menstrual blood-derived stem cells (MenSCs) as a unique source of stem cell with some characteristics as well as ease of access, high proliferative ability and renewability has created enormous promise for cell therapy.Materials and Methods: In this study, differentiation ability of MenSCs into cardiomyocytes has been investigated. After MenSCs immunophenotyping, their differentiation into cardiomyocyte was investigated in the presence of 5-azacytidine and basic-fibroblast growth factor. Then, expression of the putative myogenic cells at mRNA and protein levels was determined by immunofluorescent staining and real-time quantitative PCR.Results: Based on flow cytometric analysis, the isolated MenSCs typically expressed mesenchymal stem cell markers like CD105, CD73, CD44 and CD166 in parallel to OCT-4 as an embryonic marker. The differentiated MenSCs expressed cardiomyocyte markers at mRNA/protein level. The myogenic cells differentiated from MenSCs were positive for Connexin-43 and troponin T2 (TNNT2) protein. The mRNAs of Connexin-43, Connexin-40, Alpha actinin, Tropomyosin1 and TNNT2 were highly expressed in the differentiated myogenic cells.Conclusion: Based on our data, MenSCs are a unique cell population with differentiation ability into cells with characteristics commonly attributed to cardiomyocytes.

Background and Objective: Despite developing use of fiber reinforced composite posts (FRC), some studies disputed the effect of this kind of posts on fracture resistance of teeth. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of FRC posts on fracture resistance of teeth restored with crown.Materials and Methods: After root canal therapy and cutting the crown, forty human maxillary premolars were divided into two groups. The first group was restored using FRC post and composite core and a full metal crown, whereas in the second group, post was not used. Then, specimens were thermocycled (3500, 5-55oc) and embedded in acrylic resin, A compressive load was applied, at 90 and 45 degree until fracture occurred. Data were analyzed with 2 way ANOVA and Tukey’s test.Results: The maximum and minimum fracture resistance were observed in np-90 and p-45 groups, respectively. ANOVA test showed that FRC post has no significant effect on the tooth fracture resistance (P value=0.178). But, significant differences were observed between the mean failure loads in groups with different loading angles (P value=0.01).Conclusion: Within the limitations of this study, it can be concluded that there is no difference between fracture resistances of teeth restored with FRC posts as compared to those without it.

Background and Objective: According to the Patients’ Rights, there is no obligation for convincing the patients to accept participation in medical researches or receive care by the medical or nursing trainees. The aim of this study was to evaluate the perspectives and experiences of medical and paramedical students about the patients’ willingness to be cared by the trainees in the Teaching hospitals.Materials and Methods: In this qualitative study, using purposive sampling and data saturation from 21 nursing students invited for participation. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The interviews’ questions were about students' experiences of patients’ interest to receive care by the trainees. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim and analyzed, coded, classified and derived themes according to the "conventional content analysis" method.Results: From data analysis, one main theme "mistrust" and sub-themes "non-compliance with patient rights", "lack of effective and humanistic communication with the patients", "the need for ethics education in clinical practice", and "lack of competence and clinical skills" were extracted. The participants stated that they have attempts to achieve their patients’ trust, while the patients showed concern of caring by the trainees and tried to avoid that.Conclusion: The findings indicated that patients’ willingness to be cared by nurses’ trainees is a big challenge in practicum. It seems more training, achieving clinical competency, and ethical education help nursing students to act better in practice.

Background and Objective: Colorectal cancer is the most common cancer of digestive system in Iran. The incidence of this cancer has increased in recent years. The aim of this study was to evaluate the survival rate and to define the prognostic factors in Iranian colorectal cancer patients using competing risk model.Materials and Methods: Data were recorded from 1060 patients with colorectal cancer who registered in Institute for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (Tehran, Iran) from 2004 to 2015 in a retrospective study. Analysis was performed using competing risks model and based on the Weibull distribution. Software used for data analysis was R and significance level was regarded as 0.05.Results: The result indicated that at the end of follow-up, 380 (35.8%) deaths were from colorectal cancer and 49 (4.6%) deaths were due to other diseases and 631 patients (59.5%) survived till the end of the study. The mean survival time for a patient in 1060 was 56.96±1.46 months with median equals of 45.5 months. According to competing-risks method, only age at diagnosis and body mass index has a significant effect on patient’s survival time.Conclusion: Based on parametric competing risk model, just age at diagnosis and body mass index were significant prognosis of colorectal cancer survival.

Background and Objective: In order to ethically supervise laboratory animal (LA) researches, various regulatory structures (RS) are developed in many countries. Our primary hypothesis was that these RS are not well developed in Iran, therefore, we aimed to propose the principles of developing these RS in our country, based on scientific principles and religious morals.Materials and Methods: Two scientific databases (SID and PubMed) were searched for literatures relevant to regulations and welfare regarding LA in Iran. Regulations on LA research in 4 selected countries (USA, Canada, UK, and Australia) were studied and compared with those of Iran. Following asserting the trueness of our primary hypothesis, we proposed a scientific and religious moral basis for research on LA in Iran.Results: Twelve articles met the inclusion criteria for our study. Two PubMed articles had mainly discussed the endeavours made for developing LA regulations and welfare in the country. We classified the rest of the articles into two groups: A) articles concerning the welfare of LA; B) articles concerning the development of ethical codes of conduct for the care and use of LA. In group A, there were a contrast between the results of various studies, leading us to an unclear view of LA welfare in the country. In group B, although invaluable codes were already developed, there was a lack of executive support for them and results of other studies showed the aforementioned codes were routinely neglected by researchers. We proposed two main bases for developing RS in our country based on scientific principles (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement) and religious morals (observing the basic needs of animals, avoiding unnecessary harm to animals, avoiding unnecessary loss of animals in research).Conclusion: Despite the development of ethical codes of conduct for care and use of LA in Iran, an effective executive support for them is yet to be developed. According to the scientific principles and religious morals, it is necessary to take serious attention for implementing regulatory acts for supervising LA research in the country.