Iranian South Medical Journal
Year:2014 | Volume:17 | Issue:2|Papers Count:17

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is the most common metabolic disorder, with defective insulin secretion or insulin receptor function, or both. We examined the protective effect of estradiol against the destruction of pancreatic b-cells by streptozotocin (STZ).Material and Methods: This empirical research involved 56 adult female rats (180-200 g) randomized to: group 1, food and water; group 2, olive oil injection; group 3, STZ-induced DM; group 4, castrated rats; group 5, gonadectomy+STZ; group 6, gonadal hormone+STZ; group 7, gonadal hormone+STZ+gonadal hormone. Estradiol valerate was injected intramuscularly (5 mg/kg in group 6, 4 weeks before DM induction, and 5 mg/kg in group 7, 4 weeks before and 2 weeks after DM). Diabetes was induced by 60 mg/kg, intraperitoneal STZ (STZ; 20130 Sigma-Aldrich) in citrate buffer. Data were analyzed using SPSS 16 software.Results: In groups 6 and 7 (estradiol) blood glucose was higher than in groups 3and 5 and in group 7 was significantly higher (P£0.05). Groups 6 and 7 also had higher serum insulin concentrations (P£0.05) and absolute numbers of islet cells (P£0.05) compared to groups 3 and 5.Conclusion: Estradiol exerted a protective effect against early STZ-induced apoptotic damage to pancreatic b-cells.

Background: Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is a key enzyme in lipid metabolism, and has important role for uptake of lipoproteins from plasma. The effect of acute exercise on adipose tissue LPL is not yet elucidated. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the response of adipose tissue LPL activity and its mRNA to acute exercise in male Wistar rats.Material and Methods: Twenty four male Wistar rats (weight: 388±31 g) randomly divided into 2 groups: control (n=12) and trained (n=12). The exercised rats ran on treadmill for 120 minutes (18 m/min). After anesthetizing and killing the rats, blood and epididymal fat pad samples were taken at 0, 2, and 24 h after exercise. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR was used to measure LPL mRNA level in adipose tissue. Data were analyzed with using repeated measurment ANOVA. The alpha level was established at P<0.05.Results: The results showed that adipose tissue LPL mRNA significantly increased immediately (F=14.98, P=0.01), 2 (F=3.97, P=0.01), and 24 (F=2.48, P=0.001) hours after exercise in comparison with control. Also, LPL activity in adipose tissue significantly increased immediately (F=2.06, P=0.02), 2 (F=3.05, P=0.001), and 24 (F=0.729, P=0.003) hours after exercise.Conclusion: Elevation of adipose tissue LPL activity following acute exercise means up to 24 after exercise plasma triglyceride reduced and deposited in adipose tissue. These confirmed the positive effect of even one session of exercise on lipid metabolism.

Background: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are appropriate target for gene and cell-based therapy of hemophilia B patients. MSCs possess several unique properties such as capability of differentiating into multiple lineages and lower immunogenecity in transplant procedure that make them attractive candidates for cell and gene therapy. One of the challenges in the gene therapy is the low expression level of transgene. To improve expression, strong regulatory elements in the context of vectors could contribute to improve efficacy of gene therapy strategies. In this study four human factor IX (hFIX) -expressing plasmids equipped with various combination of human b-globin (hBG) introns and Kozak sequence were transfected into the MSCs and expression of the hFIX was evaluated in vitro.Material and Methods: MSCs were obtained from tibias and the femora of rats and phenotypic characterization of the MSCs was determined by flow cytometry. Four hFIX-expressing plasmids were introduced into the culture-expanded MSCs using transfection agent.48 hours after transfection, ability of the MSCs for expression of the hFIX and efficacies of the plasmids were evaluated by performing sandwich ELISA on cultured media as well as semi-quantitative RT-PCR. All analyses were performed with One-way ANOVA using SPSS software.Results: The highest expression level of the hFIX was obtained from intron-less and hBG intron-I containing construct. The highest biological activity was obtained from hBG intron-I, II containing construct.Conclusion: Successful expression of the hFIX was obtained from recombinant MSCs. MSCs were able to splice heterologous hBG intron-I from the hFIX-cDNA. Application of thehBG introns reduced the hFIX expression levels, probably due to improper splicing of the hBG introns.

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, systematic inflammatory disorder that may affect many tissues and organs, but principally attacks synovial joints and it is a common rheumatic disease with many subtypes. Nuclear Magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectrometers with high sensitivity, resolution and dynamic range has permitted the rapid, simultaneous investigation of complex mixtures of endogenous or exogenous components present in biological materials. Metabonomics is the systematic study of chemical finger print resulted from cell reactions and could be used as a new biomarker for early disease diagnosis. In the present investigation, we studied serum metabolic profile in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in order to find out the metabolic finger print pattern of the disease.Materials and methods: In our metabonomics study serum samples were collected from 16 patients with active RA, and from equal number of healthy subjects. They were evaluated during a one-year follow-up with the assessment of disease activity and 1H NMR spectroscopy of sera samples. In all the cases, the presence of active rheumatoid arthritis was shown by an increase in the T1 values of the synovium of the joints. We specified and classified all metabolites using PCA, PLSDA chemometrics methods. Chenomx (Trail Version) and ProMetab codes in Matlab software environments were used for our data analysis. Results were compared with the NMR metabolite data bank (www.metabolomics.ca). Anti-CCP, ANA and urea were also analyzed by ElISA and colorimetric methods respectively.Results: The most changes identified in this study were in the biosynthesis pathways of steroid hormones, biotin, fatty acids, amino acids (Leucine, Valin and isoleucine) and also linoleic acid.Conclusion: In rheumatoid arthritis disease, the activation of the immune system consumes larg amounts of energy. The main donor of free energy in cells is ATP, which is generated by both glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation. Changes in amino acids and free fatty acids biosynthesis pathways confirm the high energy utilization. In this disease, the increase in free fatty acid metabolism leads to production of Acetyl CoA and ketone bodies. Since there are many diseases subtype in rheumatoid arthritis, more sensitive diagnostic method is required. The result of our investigation suggests that metabolome profiling method could be used as a new biomarker for early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis disease.

Background: Human spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs), are the foundation of spermatogenesis. Because of low number and lack of significant marker in human SSCs, studying their characteristics, could provide better understanding about the biology of male fertility. This study was designed to examine the effects of in vitro co-culture with sertoli cells on SSC colonization and germ cells specific gene expression of human spermatogonial stem cells.Material and Methods: Testicular cells were isolated from testis biopsies by using two step enzymatic digestion and differential plating. two culture system were designed: co-culture with patient Sertoli cells and culture of SSC without co-culture (as control group). The number and diameter of colonies were evaluated during 3 weeks of culture. The expression of alpha 6 integrin, beta1 integrin and PLZF, as germ stem cell specific markers, was assessed using quantitative RT-PCR. Statistical analysis was performed using one way ANOVA in SPSS vesion 16 software with 95% Confidence interval.Result: Our results were showed that the number and diameter of colonies increased significantly in co-culture with sertoli cells (P<0.05). The expression profile of genes in 2nd and 3rd weeks of culture revealed that there is significant higher expression of germ stem cell markers in our co-culture group versus control group.Conclusion: Based on the optimal effects of sertoli cells on spermatogonial stem cells, co culture of the human SSCs with the feeder layer sertoli may be used as a suitable method for the enrichment of human spermatogonial stem cells.

Background: Normal levels of ghrelin and insulin hormones play an important role in energy-balance, weight control and preventing type 2 diabetes.The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of twelve weeks physical activity with omega-3 supplementation consumption on insulin and ghrelin hormones in young women.Materials and methods: In this semi-experimental study 60 young women aged 19-25 years randomly divided into four groups including. (Exercise with supplementation, exercise alone, supplementation alone and control group). Exercise group and exercise- supplementation group followed the basketball training for 12 weeks under the supervision of skillful trainers.Supplementation group and exercise-supplementation group were asked to take 3gram omega-3 capsules per day for 12 weeks.Anthropometric indicators and blood samples were obtained in the morning after an 8-12 hr fast prior to the start of the study and again 12weeks after at the end of the study under the same conditions to measure plasma ghrelin and insulin hormones (Elisa method). Data analysis using tests of Kolmogorov-Smirnov t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) conducted through SPSS-16 software.Results: The results of ANOVA test showed that after 12 weeks of study ghrelin and insulin levels in exercise-supplement group, (P=0.000, P=0.000), exercise group (P=0.000, P=0.000), and supplement group (P=0.044, P=0.017) significantly increase and decrease respectively. But no significant changes were observed in control group for ghrelin (P=0.740) and insulin (P=0.108) levels before and after the study.Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, physical activity with omega-3 supplementation can create significant changes on the levels of ghrelin and insulin hormones in young women. These changes may help to control and prevent diabetes and its, complications.

Background: Ciprofloxacin is a synthetic antibacterial agent belonging to the family offluoroquinoloneswith a very broad spectrum against of microbial pathogens, especially Gram-negative infectious diseases, that has been approved in more world-widecountries. The aim of this study was planned to seeeffects of ciprofloxacin after inducement, in rat Spermatogenesis.Material and Methods: The twenty male wistar rat were selected and randomly divided into two groups; control (n=10) and test (n=10). The test group was received 12.5mg/kg (PO) ciprofloxacin daily for sixty day; however the control group just received plate. In sixtieth day the testis tissue of Rat in both groups were remove and prepared for histomorphomotric study and 5cc blood samples were taken for Testosterone analysis.Results: Light microscopic observation, Score count study in seminiferous tubules confirmed most of tubules were in Score2, Score4-5, Score 6-9, and these scoreswere significantly in P<(0.05), and this results confirmed tubular, Sertoli cells syndrome, hypospermatogenisis in experimental group, in other hand most seminiferous tubules in control group was significantly in Score 10 P<(0.05), and this dataconfirmed intake tubules. There was a marked decrease in serum testosterone hormone, in experimental group as compared with control group, the statically analysis was fishers method (P<0.05).Conclusion: Since in our study ciprofloxacin had decreasing side effect on Spermatogenesis developmentin rat, it was suggested that using ciprofloxacin maybe cause harmful effects on seminiferous tubular.

Background: Influenza virus is a globally important respiratory pathogen causing high degree of morbidity and mortality annually. The novel Influenza virus (A/H1N1) which involved many populations of the world in 2009 is a sort of triple reassortment between swine, bird and human viruses. Given the important role of hemagglutinin in the infectivity of influenza virus, genome sequencing of this protein and investigation of its changes seems necessary.Material and Method: In this experimental study, the viral genome was extracted from clinical throat swab samples, in which the presence of swine influenza genome has been confirmed by Real-time PCR according to WHO protocol in Influenza Research Lab, Pasteur Institute of Iran. Full-length of HA genome was amplified using specific primers by one step-RT-PCR, cloned into pGEM-T Easy vector followed by identification with restriction enzyme analysis and sequencing.Results: Full genome of novel influenza A/H1N1 from clinical samples was amplified by PCR and the expected 1777 bp segment PCR product was visualized by electrophoresis, gel purified, cloned into pGEM-TEasy vector and then sequenced. Analysis of sequencing was accomplished by chromas software (version 1.45-Australia) and the nucleotide sequence data was deposited in GenBank database under the accession number: “HQ419001.1”.Conclusion: The result of sequencing was well-matched with the recommended vaccine strain and other registered sequences in NCBI.

Background: Today use conotoxin as a neurotoxin and cytotoxin in medical science is obvious. These compounds are produced by venomous cone snails. Toxins produced by the venom apparatus of this snail and injected into the prey. To obtain and identification of these toxins, study of venom apparatus and the manufacture formation is necessary.Materials and Methods: In order to study the organ, specimens of C. coronatus were collected from the Coast of Gheshm Island. After dissection were fixed in Bouin's for 48 hours and transferred to laboratory into 70% ethanol. After dehydration and Paraffin embedded were cutted by microtome and then collected on glass slides and stained then photographed and studied.Results: Observation showed that, the venom bulb was muscular and in their middle part a channel with epithelial cells was observable that secreted some material. Venom duct walls composed of 3 parts including the outer layer of connective tissue with muscle an inner layer of columnar epithelial cells with basal nucleus and the inner lumens which filled by the. Departed nucleus by secretion exist in all 3 part of venom duct. In radula sac sections, lots growing radula were observed.Conclusion: Venom bulb was a weak secretion role and venom duct near the pharynx have a more mature granule than the other part. Holocrine secretion happened in all part of venom duct. Most suitable part for extract the conotoxin was the venom bulb end part.

Background: Determination of the exposure levels in the computerized tomography (CT) practices is necessary to define the respected national reference levels, quality control of CT centers and the risk assessment for radiation induced cancers.Material and Methods: On the basis of this necessity, the radiation exposure distribution due to common CT practices has been investigated at Razi Hospital CT center in Rasht using tissue-equivalent phantoms and the thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD). The Head and Thorax phantoms were used with the standard dimensions incorporating holes at the center and edges for TLD placement. Dosimetry was carried out using LiF; Mg, Cu, P small chips due to their relatively tissue equivalence, high sensitivity convenient annealing procedure and the non-complex glow curve.Results: Results showed that CTDI for Head is 52.85 mGy and for Body is 68.15mGy. CTDLW for Head is 13.67 mGy and for Body is 16.94 mGy.Conclusion: In comparison with other radiographical procedures, patient absorbed doses in CT imaging are usually very high. Content of dose is increased by increase of mAs.

Background: Natural radioactivity exposes radiation so that it goes whole body through different ways and causes diseases leading to death, if it is more than standard amount by ICRP. The aim of this study was to measure the amount of radioactivity in the soil, water and air of Chabahar city in Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iran.Material and Methods: A few locations of city were chosen as a sampling station. The study of drinking water radioactivity was performed in Bandargah and city square. Soil’ radioactivity tested in Tiss village and Shillat. Radioactivity measurement of air was performed in the above-mention places. The radioactivity of drinking water and soil were measured by using a coaxial detector Germanium with high purity.Results: Average concentrations of Ra-228, Th-222 and K-40 in soil; and Ra-228 in piping drinking water and in consumed plant were 450±34.5 Bq/Kg, 28.5±2.5 Bq/Kg, 24.3±2.6 Bq/Kg and<2 Bq/L, respectively. The overall results demonstrated low levels of radioactivity (<2 mBq/L), and less levels of K-40, Ra-228 and Th-232 in soil. The Ra-228 concentrations measured in piping and underground water were generally below the detection limit. As there was lower radioactivity in comparison with international standards, there was not probably any disease. Absorbed dose in air was 485.5±20 nanoGy/h and effective dose was 596±24.5, 5 mSv.Conclusion: It is found that there is a significant difference in average of 228Ra, 40K and 232Th in the area relative to some points in the world that may be because of organic matter and microbial biomass. Different factors effect on radioactivity of samples. This region shows the least ionizing radiation.

Background: Oral allergy syndrome (OAS) characterized by oral IgE-mediated symptoms, which is caused by cross-reactivity between proteins in pollens, fresh fruit and vegetables. OAS is presents in 40% to 80% of Allergic rhinitis patients. Association between oral allergy syndrome and duration of seasonal allergic rhinitis is not well known. Early treatment of Patients with OAS caused improvement in quality of life and relief of their symptoms.Material and methods: In this prospective cross-sectional study between March 2012 to September 2012, 103 consecutive patients with seasonal allergic rhinitis were entered to this study. Their sensitizations to common aeroallergens were confirmed by skin prick test (SPT) by three mm more than negative control. According to food allergy history and prick-to-prick test results, we considered 63 of 103 patients for single-blind oral food challenge test. Data analyzed bty SPSS software (ver 11.5), and by Chi squeare test and paired T test. P-value lower than 0.05 was considered as significant.Results: Among studied cases, 63 patients (61.2%) with 28.8±10.6 years old had OAS and 40 (38.8%) with 26.8±13.2 years old not OAS. We found that there was significant difference between duration of seasonal allergic rhinitis in OAS group (7±5.9 years) and non-OAS group (5±4 years) (P=0.03, CI=0.03-0.04). This syndrome was more in women and patients who had concomitant asthma and allergic conjunctivitis but statistical association was not significant.Conclusions: This study showed that all of the patients with hay fever do not develop OAS. Duration of seasonal allergic rhinitis was associated significantly with oral allergy syndrome. However, further studies with more sample size and double-blind placebo controlled methods might be needed.

Background: Septicaemia is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality of infant’s and childerens espicially in first week of their life, both in developed and underdeveloped countries.The aim of this research was to study of bacterial agents causing septicaemia and to determine their antibiotic suseptibility patternes.Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive study, it was performed during eight months from October 2011 till May 2011.In total 216 blood culture samples of children suspected of septicaemia in children health centre hospital were send to the laboratory for investigation. The bacterial identification was carried out by culturing and conventional biomedical tests. The antibiotic sensitivity tests were performed by disk diffusion method. These data are analyzed by SPSS and the results Expressed as relative frequencies.Results: Out of 216 tested samples 55 (25.6%) were positive and 161 (74.54%) negative. The dominated bacteria was Escherichia coli (31.42%), followed by Staphylococcus aureus (22.86%), Klebsiella pneumonia (20%)), Staphylococcus epidermidis (14.28%), Streptococcus pneumonia (2.86%), Salmonella typhi (2.86%), Enterobacter cloacae (2.86%) and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (2.86%). In general gram-negative bacteria were isolated more than gram-positive. Staphylococcus bacteria were more resistant to antibiotics than other isolated bacteria, and were 100% resistant to penicillin. The enterobacteriaceae were more sensitive to norfloxacin, amikacin, tobramycin, and they were 100% resistant to ampicillin.Conclusion: The results obtained in this study showed that gram-negative bacteria are more responsible in septicaemia in children ward, and norfloxacin is the more effective antibiotic in comparison with others.

Background: The presense of women in workplace is an unavoiding issue in modern world. The women work in different media. Occupational activities are suspected of having an adverse impact on outcomes of pregnancy. Premature delivery is a catastrophic event in course of pregnancy. The aim of the study was to define the incidence of premature delivery in occupationally involved pregnant women.Material and Methods: A total of 287 primigravida women in an urban society with singleton pregnancies at 22 to 24 weeks gestation were enrolled in a prospective study. They worked in industrial manufactures. The patients reported the number of hours worked per week and answered specific questions designed to determine the following 5 sources of occupational fatigue including: 1-posture, 2-work with industrial machines 3-physical exertion 4-mental stress and 5-environmental stress.Results: The risk of preterm delivery increased with standing more than 3 hours during activities in work place (p.value=0.019). There was not a statistically significant relationship between premature delivery and other sources of occupational fatigue. There was not a statically significant relationship between premature rupture of fetal membranes and the sources of occupational fatigue. There was not a statistically significant relationship between premature delivery and increasing number of hours worked per week.Conclusion: The relationship between premature delivery and occupational fatigue may provide guidelines according to pregnant women and their employers can be advised.