Daneshvar Medicine: Basic and Clinical Research Journal
Year:2006 | Volume:13 | Issue:63|Papers Count:14

Introduction: This paper studied the effects of various doses of arsenic acid trioxide (ATO) on induction of apoptosis in NB4 cell lines by using the neutral comet assay.Materials & Methods: NB4 cell line was treated with various doses (0.1-0.3 mol/l) of trioxide arsenic acid. 24 hours later, the cells were mixed with low melting agarose and were placed on a pre-coated slide. After lysis in neutral condition, cells were subjected to electrophoresis. Apoptotic cells were observed under a fluorescent microscope following staining with ethydium bromide as a fan-like comet. Data were analyzed and compared through using Student's t-test and Mann-Whitney test.Results: The results indicated that ATO induced apoptosis in NB4 cells at all doses used in the study. The effect was dose and time dependent and it was significantly different from that of the control group (p<0.01).Conclusion: It can be concluded that ATO is a potent inducer of apoptosis in NB4 cells and the effect is dose and time dependent. Furthermore, neutral comet assay can be considered a suitable method for detection of chemical induced apoptosis.

Background: Studies have showed that half of pregnant women complain severe or untolerable pain. Average severity of labor pain is the most sever human pain reported. With regard to this fact, the following research was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of training breathing practices on the intensity of labor pain in primipar women.Materials and Methods: In a semi-experimental study, 50 primipar pregnant women with 36±2 weeks gestational age were selected based on purposive sampling in prenatal care centers. Then, they were randomly divided into two groups (case and control). Information about different stages of labor, and labor pain was introduced to the two groups. The experimental (case) group was also trained about breathing pattern during labor contractions. Then, in the first stage of labor, vaginal examination was done every hour to determine the progress of labor. In the dilatations between (3-4), (5-6), (7-8), (9-10) cm and in the latent phase of the second stage of labor the pain intensity was measured by the Visual Analog Scale. Data were collected through a questionnaire. Chi-square, T-student and mann-whitney method were used for data analysis.Results: The research findings indicated that mean pain intensity in the first stage of labor was significantly less in the experimental group (p=0.04). But there was significant difference in the mean scores of the second stage of pain intensity between the two groups (p>0.05). 80.8% of women in the experimental group stated that the breathing pattern helped them to tolerate the labor pain.Conclusion: Breathing techniques can reduce the pain intensity but increase the pain tolerance in first stage of labor. This research emphasizes on training the breathing techniques to pregnant women during labor to reduce pain intensity but increase pain toleration.

Introduction: This study is a quasi - experimental research, carried out to evaluate the effect of education on quality of life in diabetic patients referring to Iran Diabetes Association (IDA) in 2001-2002.Materials & Methods: In this study, 40 diabetic patients with non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), (type 11), (aged 40-65) were randomly selected. The data were gathered by questionnaire in two phases. Intervention followed after the pretest. Three months after performing the per-test, questionnaires were completed once again by the patients who had participated in this research. Paired t-test was used to investigate the effect of health education on QOL and its domains in the studied sample, before and after the treatment. Also, Wilcoxon test was used to demonstrate the effect of health education on scores of total questions (1&2) about QOL, before and after the treatment. Results: The results showed that, education has improved QOL of patients, (the score 53.6±9.7 after three months of treatment versus 35.2±9.1 prior to the education, P. Value<0.001).Conclusion: Based on the results of this research, structured patient education for diabetes, significantly promotes the quality of life of diabetic patients.

All medical researchers and the editorial board of medical journals deal with statistical guidelines, which are necessary for submitting papers in those journals. Many of these papers have less chance to be accepted in such journals, if they do not comply with the rules or need major corrections.Moreover, many statistical errors appear in these papers either because of the researchers, involvements, or inexperience, and at times the errors are due to the complexity of statistics.This paper presents statistical requirements of different parts of medical papers to reduce the statistical mistakes and to increase the chance of papers being printed. These guidelines can help researchers to find answers to their statistical questions and make them needless of the statistical books.These guidelines are basically related to material and methods, analysis and interpretation of the data through using these guidelines. Thus, the researchers will not need the help of Statisticians anymore. Most of these rules are related to analysis of the data and they present the different methods based on the type of the study and observation. Furthermore, these guidelines present the common mistakes in the statistical analysis.We do hope these guidelines would empower the researchers to submit correct papers for their future researches.

Introduction: Vascular dysfunctions have been a well-established complication of diabetes mellitus. Flavonoids, including quercetin, have been proposed as one of the main treatment strategies to prevent diabetic complications. This study was conducted to evaluate the possible vasoactive effect of quercetin on the basal and active tone of aortic rings from streptozotocin (STZ)-diabetic rats.Materials & Methods: Vascular responsiveness of noreadrenaline-precontracted isolated rings of thoracic aorta from control and streptozotocin-diabetic rats was recorded after 4 weeks, by using isolated tissue setup.Results: The findings showed that although quercetin could not make a significant difference in the basal tone of the aortic rings, in both control and diabetic groups; it was capable of producing a significant dosedependent vasorelaxation in aortic rings precontracted with noradrenalin (NA) in the diabetic group as compared to the control group (p<0.01). Conclusion: Vasorelaxant effect of quercetin is developed only in noreadrenaline-precontracted aortic rings in normal and diabetic rats and there is no such effect on the basal tonicity of the aorta.

Introduction: Smoking is a great problem of our era, and its dangerous consequences are quite obvious for everyone. Adolescence is a critical period during which unhealthy behaviors in general, and smoking, in particular, may initiate. The present quasi-experimental study was carried out for the non-randomized matched control group. We attempted to study the effect of parents' involvement program on male adolescent smoking in Tehran.Material and Methods: 76 male subjects aged (13-16) was randomly selected for the experimental and control groups after matching. The subjects filled out a questionnaire which indicated their smoking habit either cigar or Hubble - bubble). The parents' involvement was evaluated through a valid check - list before and after the program. Based on the need assessment, the program was designed and performed in three stages before involvement, during the involvement and after it. In the first place, the parents' involvement was assessed, then in the second phase the designed program was conducted in four sessions by providing the participants with pamphlets. Later follow up continued. In the third phase, once again the parents' involvement was assessed together with evaluating the adolescents' smoking habit.Results: The results showed no significant difference in the smoking habit of two control and experimental groups before treatment. However, after the intervention, there was a significant difference between the two groups (p<0.05). Moreover, the parents' involvement was measured in 3 stages before the involvement, 2 weeks after the involvement and one month later through repeated measure ANOVA which showed significant difference in this regard (p<0.0001).Conclusion: Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the parents' involvement program lad significant role on correcting male adolescents' unhealthy behaviors, specially smoking. Thus, the research hypothesis was the fact approved, that parents' involvement in training and correcting adolescents' unhealthy behaviors, particularly, in reducing smoking habit is influential. Therefore, Parents' involvement program is suggested to prevent smoking in adolescents and improve their health.

Introduction: Shark cartilage has antiangiogenic and immunostimulatory activity, which inhibits tumor growth. There is little scientific evidence about the effect of shark cartilage on human immune system. Therefore, in this study we investigated the effect of shark cartilage on lymphocyte proliferation and IFNγ production in breast cancer patients.Materials and Methods: After preparing of shark cartilage powder and its distribution in capsules, the drug packages were coded. Test-group patients used shark cartilage capsules but the control group consumed the starch capsules according to the protocol, they received hormone therapy as well.Blood sampling was done before and after treatment period. After isolating and culturing PBMCs, MTT assay was done and supernatant was collected for measuring the amount of IFNγ by ELISA.Results: The findings indicated that enhancing the treatment period in the test-group would increase the lymphocyte proliferation and IFNγ quantity; however, no significant difference was found for the control group compared to before incorporating the treatment.Conclusion: Shark cartilage extract stimulates lymphocyte proliferation and IFNγ secretion which will improve the body's defense against tumor.

Introduction: Helicobacter pylori afflicts move than 50% of worlds' population, but only a small number of subjects develop clinical symptoms. It is believed that the development of this disease strongly correlates with the antigenic components, host genetic characteristics and environmental factors. The aim of this study the investigation of antigenic characteristics of Helicobacter Pylori in infected subjects with specific was pathological features that can be detected through Golden Standard Tests. Materials and Methods: A total number of 127 randomly selected patients underwent endoscopy through multiple antral biopsies. The biopsies were processed for culture, histology, RUT and ELISA tests. Sera from 37 patients, whose HP+ status was determined through golden standard tests, were tested with immunoblot system by using house antigen (NOG extracts) and standard immunoblot kit. (Helico blot 2.1. system). Results: In duodenitis cases 97.7 percent had antibodies against cag A (116 KDa) and 73.6% had anti bodies against vac A (89 KDa). Moreover, Antibodies against cag A and vac A were detected in 83% of gastritis patients, 81.8% of cancer patients and 72.7% of metaplasia ones. Antibodies against antigens 66, 61 and 58 KDa in gastritis patients were more frequent, while, antibodies against antigens 35, 37 and 45 KDa were less frequent. Nevertheless, no significant difference was observed in other cases.Conclusions: The findings suggest that antigenic components are diagnostically insufficient for prediction of disease processes. Thus, other factors seem to affect the pathogenicity of the disease.

Background: Thrombosis is the most common reason of death in the United States causing more than two million people die from arterial or venous thrombosis every year. Thrombotic episodes may be due to congenital abnormality or to acquired alteration. The term thrombophilia is used to describe any disorder associated with an increased tendendency to venous thromboembolism (VTE), either inherited or acquired. Clinical risk factors that predispose individuals to venous thrombosis include: 1- Venous stasis 2- Vessel wall damage 3- Factor V leiden and activated protein C resistance 4- Deficiency of circulating protease inhibitors 5- Elevated prothrombin levels 6- Antiphospholipid antibodies 7- Hyperhomocysteinemia 8- Decreased fibrinolytic activity 9- Malignancy.In venous thrombophilic processes multiple acquired and inherited factors are involved. Among genetic factors mutation in factor V leiden, prothrombin G20210A and C677T MTHFR plus HR2 haplotype have been described. Anti-phospholipid antibodies are the most prominent acquired form. Regarding the importance of factor V Leiden mutation, we decided to investigate the frequency of this mutation in thrombophilic patients who had referred to Tehran Blood Transfusion Organization.Thrombin activates protein c. which inhibits coagulation by inactivating factor va and factor Villa. A novel mechanism for familial thrombophilia was recognized in 1993 with the description of a syndrome characterized by inherited resistance to activated protein c, (APCR). Multiple genetical defects in F.V are reported, and it is thought that Leiden mutation (R506Q) leads to APC resistance, and genetical susceptibility to hyperquagulablity conditions. Material and Methods: In this research 300 Thrombophilic patients were selected who underwent APC-R screening test. As a result, APC resistance was observed in 23 patients. Next, DNA from positive samples was extracted through chelex method. PCR-RFLP with specific primers was chosen as a confirmatory test for factor V Leiden mutation. Short after amplification, PCR products were digested by Mull restriction enzyme. Hence, a different pattern of homozygote, heterozygote and wild type appeared.Results: From 300 patients participating in this study, 131 were male and169 were female (with the age mean of 42 (SD=±8.67). Leiden mutation was observed in 10 patients with the prevalence of 3.3%.Conclusion: In previous studies, the frequency of F.V Leiden in thrombophilic patients was reported 40-65%. Thus, it is likely that the mutation of F.V Leiden as a predisposing factor for thrombosis in our patients is not very important, and there may be other significant genetic mutations which must be investigated in further studies.

Introduction: Although numerous investigations have demonstrated the beneficial effects of co-culture system of different somatic cells on in vitro development of embryos, the effects of conditioned-media of co-culture cells have not been well documented yet. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of human cumulus cells co-culture system and the conditioned medium on the developmental rate of mouse embryos in vitro.Materials and Methods: Two sets of experiments were undertaken; in the first one 317 mouse one-cell embryos were cultured in human cumulus cell co-culture system (GC), Ham's F10 medium conditioned with cumulus cells (CM) and non-conditioned Ham's F10 (HF), for 120 hours. In the second experiment, 391 late two-cell embryos were cultured in the 3 aforementioned culture treatments for 72 hours. Embryos were obtained from NMRI mice after superovulation using PMSG and hCG. Human cumulus cells were collected from patients undergoing an IVF program during oocyte pickup, 36 hours after hCG administration. Cumulus cells in their FF were Pelleted by centrifugation and then were separated from red blood cells using a percoll gradient. Computation of X2 for different stages was done to compare their means.Results: 11, 24 and 14% of one-cell embryos passed two-cell block and continued growing to 4-cell in HF, GC and CM, respectively. This index in GC was significantly different from the two other treatments (p<0.05). Also, significantly more embryos reached blastocyst stage in GC compared to the two other treatments (p<0.05) and in CM compared to HF (p<0.05). In the second set of experiments the proportion of blastocyst stage was significantly higher in CM than the proportion in HF (p<0.05) and lower than that in GC (p<0.05).Conclusion: Based on the results, it can be concluded that although human cumulus cell-conditioned medium has non-species specific beneficial effects on mouse embryo development, it is not as effective as co-culture of these cells.

Background: Every chronically inflamed wound such as burns and scars are susceptible to change into malignant degeneration. Similarly, Pilonidal sinus may be complicated with malignant degeneration Squamuous cell carcinoma is the most common type of these complications.Methods and patients: Referring to different related sources and articles, this study introduces the current treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy and radio therapy for the disease. In addition, it reports a case study.Results: Sixty cases of malignant degeneration have been reported in various international scientific sources to date. In our case study it was observed that Pilonidal sinus is usually a long-term disease in which the associated Squamous cell carcinoma has a virulent behavior and high recurrent rate.Conclusion: Although malignant degeneration is a rare complication in prolonged Pilonidal sinus, careful resection and accurate microscopic evaluation are considered to be very crucial in its detection.