Daneshvar Medicine: Basic and Clinical Research Journal
Year:2017 | Volume:24 | Issue:127 |Papers Count:9

Background and Objective: Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most prevalent brain neurodegenerative diseases, in which neurons are destroyed, especially in related areas of cognitive activities. It is the leading cause of senile dementia, characterized by neuronal degeneration cognitive deteriorations, especially in the elderly. In the past, many drug therapies have been introduced for Alzheimer’s disease, however, there has not been much success. Therefore, in this research the effect of extract of cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) on consolidation phase of memory in streptozotocin rat model of Alzheimer' s disease was studied.Materials and Methods: In this study, 30 male Wistar rats were divided into five groups. One group had not any injections (intact group), control groups (dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO)) or DMSO+aCSF, one group received dimethylsulfoxide-streptozotocin (at a dose of 1.5 mg/kg), another group received intracerebroventricular streptozotocin (STZ) and intraperitoneal cinnamon extract. For induction of Alzheimer’s disease, STZ was injected intracereboventricularly and after that, rats received intraperitoneal cinnamon extract (125 mg/kg, i.p.) for 4 days. To assess learning and memory in rats, the passive avoidance learning test was performed.Results: Intracereboventricular STZ severely impaired learning and memory in rats and extract significantly prevented this impairment (P<0.001).Conclusion: The overall results showed that Cinnamomum zeylanicum extract may treat cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's disease.

Background and Objective: Children learn health values and attitudes from their parents, especially their mothers. Therefore, mothers' awareness about orodental health is important, as a foundation for health promotion planning for children. The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge, attitudes and practice of mothers about their children’ orodental health at ages of 1-6 years.Materials and Methods: This research was a descriptive-analytical crosssectional study performed on 450 of 1-6 years childrens’ mothers attending kindergartens in two affluent and deprived areas of city of Tehran in 2015.Cluster random sampling was used. The standard KAP-WHO questionnaires were applied to assess mothers' knowledge, attitude, and performance regarding their children’ oral health. Validity and reliability of the instrument were confirmed in previous studies. Data were analyzed through SPSS software using t-Test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, and Spearman correlation coefficient.Results: About 47.34% of mothers had a moderate level of knowledge, 51.12% had moderate attitudes and 46.23% had moderate practice regarding orodental health in children (P=0.05). Totally, the participants in this study had moderate level of KAP score (P<0.005). The statistical tests showed a significant correlation between the variables of knowledge, attitudes and practice with mothers' age, education status, employment status, and economic situation (P< 0.001).Conclusion: Mothers’ knowledge and performance toward their children’s oral health was undesirable. Therefore, planning educational programs for mothers is necessary.

Background and Objective: Different morphologies are factors for the effectiveness of training programs on subjects. The aim of this study was the effect of 8-week Tai Chi exercise on static and dynamic balance in women with multiple sclerosis (MS) with emphasis on mesomorph and endomorph' s morphology.Materials and Methods: In a clinical trial, 48 patients with MS were purposefully selected. Then, patients were randomly divided into two groups of 24 patients (Tai Chi and control groups) with two sub-groups (12 subjects) mesomorph and endomorph's morphology. Biodex balance system meter was used to measure the subjects' balance. Then, the experimental groups did Tai exercises for 8 weeks. To analyze the results, multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) at a significant level of P<0.05 was used.Results: The outcome showed that static balance and dynamic balance between the experimental and control groups was significant different. Effectiveness of Tai Chi exercise on the static balance in patients with endomorph's morphology was better than patients with mesomorph's morphology, which means the effectiveness of these exercise on static balance endomorph's morphology.However, endomorph's morphology as compared to mesomorph's morphology had more improvement regarding dynamic balance, but there was no significant difference for dynamic balance in the mesomorph and endomorph' s morphology.Conclusion: According to the results of this study, Tai Chi exercises are effective intervention for improving the static and dynamic balance in patients with MS with mesomorph and endomorph's morphology and the effect of this practice on balance endomorph's morphology is more than balance mesomorph' s morphology.

Background and Objective: Natural killer T like (NKT) cells are a population of T cells that show NK cells features. These cells in addition to administrative actions, have an important role in the regulation of immune responses. The role of these cells in people exposed to sulfur mustard (SM) are not well known. The aim of this study was to determine the percentage of NKT cells in the peripheral blood of SM exposed people and its association with pulmonary complications.Materials and Methods: 77 SM exposed patients with lung complications and 62 healthy volunteers as control without any clinical complications were invited to participate. Spirometry was performed and participants were divided into four groups (normal, mild-moderate, severe, and very severe) according to the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD). Also, percentage of peripheral blood NKT (CD3+CD16/56+) in SM exposed individuals and control group was determined with flow cytometry.Results: There was a significant increase in the percentage of NKT-like cells in exposed group compared with controls. Also, according to GOLD classification, NKT cells percentage showed a significant difference in severe exposed as compared to the control group.Conclusion: NKT cells have the potential to migrate to the lung. So, these cytotoxic cells identified in the peripheral blood of these patients may be reflective of cell populations in the lung of this patients. However, further studies are necessary in the lung.

Background and Objective: The main purpose of drug development is finding a dose or a range of medicine dose which is both effective and safe. One of the most important goals of drug researches is estimating the target dose. In this study, median and maximum effective concentration of adrenaline on thoracic aortic contraction in diabetic rats exposed to psyllium seed was estimated.Materials and Methods: This experimental study was performed with five different drug concentrations of adrenaline on 40 male Albino Wistar rats in a weight range of 302±8.9 g and ages of 12-14 months. Four models (Linear, Emax, Quadratic, and Sigmoid Emax) were fitted to the data and the data was analyzed using R package.Results: Using Akaike's Information criteria (AIC), emax model was chosen as the best one. The median of the effective dose (ED50) was estimated using 6.6×10-8 molar dose model. The maximum effect was estimated 1.38 gr/unit of area using this model.Conclusion: Half of the maximum effect of thoracic aorta contraction in diabetic rats happened in the ones given Esforse seeds in 6.6x10-8 molar concentration of adrenaline. The maximum effect of 1.38 g/unit area indicates that the aorta contraction is saturated in this point and as concentration increases, no more changes in contraction will happen.

Background and Objective: Adhesion molecules play an important role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of combined exercise on vascular adhesion molecules and lipid profile in obese and overweight women.Materials and Methods: Eighteen women participated in this study (age: 39.33±7.7 years; weight: 76.57±5.19 kg). The subjects were randomly divided into two groups: exercise and control groups. The exercise protocol included: aerobic exercise (60-75% Maximum Heart Rate) and resistance exercise program (two sets with 10-12 repetitions and with an intensity of 40-60% of maximum repetition and rest time of 60-90 seconds) for 10 weeks 3 times a week. During the study, the control group received no intervention. At the beginning and 48 hours after exercise, blood samples were taken for measurement of adhesion molecules and lipids. Data was analyzed with independent t-test with SPSS16 (p<0.05).Results: Test results showed that there were no differences in anthropometric indices, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 and lipid levels between control and experimental groups (p>0.05).Conclusion: It seems that 10-week combined exercise in order to reduce VCAM-1 levels and lipid profiles is insufficient and more research is needed in this area.

Background and Objective: In spite of promising results in treatment of blood diseases by umbilical cord blood cell transplantation, low number of derived stem cells has been a matter of concern. Since platelets extracts has been introduced as a potent mesenchymal stem cell culture supplement, the purpose of current study was to investigate the probable effects of umbilical cord blood platelet lysate (UCB-PL) in proliferation, survival and differentiation of cord blood mononuclear cells.Materials and Methods: The umbilical cord blood platelet lysate (UCB-PL) was added to cord blood mononuclear cells culture (1×10 6 /mL) in presence of FLT3L, TPO and SCF. The effective dose of UCB-PL, cell viability and differentiation of mononuclear cells were determined by trypan blue staining and colony assay method, respectively. The number of mononuclear cells was measured by flowcytometric analysis of CD133+CD34+CD38- cells.Quantitative expression of CD 34 was performed by QRT-PCR method.Results: Combination of 5% of UCB-PL with mentioned cytokines yielded a 12-fold cell proliferation in comparison with control group. A higher concentration of UCB-PL showed cytotoxic effects. CD 34 also increased significantly in group of 5% UCB-PL treated cells. In this particular group, a significant increase of colony forming units granulocytes-erythroidmacrophages-megakaryocyte (CFU-GMMM) and granulocyte-macrophage (CFU-GM) were detected.Conclusion: Our results indicate that 5% UCB -PL can be used as a supplement in MNC cultured cells and in cord blood hematopoietic stem cells for cell therapy purposes.

Background and Objective: Functional ankle instability (FAI), characterized by feeling of “giving way” and recurrent episodes of ankle sprain, is the most prevalent problem following ankle sprain which causes balance deficits and limitations in activity and sport and can affect health status. Little is known about correlation between self-reported instability-as chief complaint of individualswith balance and health status in individuals with FAI.Materials and Methods: 23 subjects with unilateral FAI and 23 healthy people were participated in this study. Ankle Instability Index and SF-36 questionnaire were completed by participants; otherwise balance error scoring system (BESS) was used to measure static balance. To compare balance and health status between groups, independent sample and Mann-Whitney tests were used and Spearman correlation coefficient was used to determine correlation between main variables.Results: BESS scores in FAI group was significantly more than the control group (P<0.05). The Spearman’s correlation analysis revealed significant correlations between the ankle Instability Index with all of SF-36 subscales except for energy/fatigue and social function (r=0.43 to 0.85, P>0.05). There was no significant correlation, however, between balance tests scores with the Instability Index.Conclusion: High correlation of ankle instability with physical part of SF-36 revealed that self-reported instability affect physical health but there is not any correlation between self-reported instability with balance tests.