Journal of Basic and Clinical Pathophysiology
Year:2016 | Volume:4 | Issue:2|Papers Count:6

Background and Objective: It is well known that fetal distress is one of the important causes of fetus peri-natal morbidity and mortality. In this study, we sought to evaluate the association between umbilical coiling index and fetal distress.Materials and Methods: This research was a case-control study conducted on 90 term pregnant women. Study group had fetal distress (abnormal fetal heart rate, meconium staining, Apgar score less than 7 in fifth minute and pH of umbilical cord arterials<7.2) and control group did not have above complications. After fetus birth, umbilical coiling index was calculated and heparinised blood of umbilical cord arteries was sent to laboratory for checking acidity. Finally, data was analyzed using SPSS software (version 18) using t-test and Pearson correlation test.Results: The mean umbilical coiling index was 0.23 ± 0.13 coils/cm and 0.30 ± 0.13 coils/cm in case and control groups, respectively, which had meaningful difference (p=0.017). However, there was a significant correlation (p=0.03) between umbilical coiling index and bradycardia, but there was no significant association between umbilical coiling index and meconium staining, tachycardia, and acidity of umbilical cord arterials (p>0.05). Roc curve demonstrated that umbilical coiling index had the ability to be used to predict fetal distress and the best point for predicting fetal distress was 0.23 coils/cm Conclusion: Fetal heart bradycardia had significant association with umbilical coiling index and it could be used to predict fetal distress.

Background and Objective: Interleukin-2 (IL-2) as a T helper type 1 (Th1) cytokine has an important role in activation, growth and differentiation of several immune cells. Moreover, IL-2 is known as a pro-inflammatory and anti-tumoral cytokine. In addition, deysregulation of IL-2 in some diseases such as autoimmunity has been shown. The present study was conducted to evaluate the patterns of IL-2 production in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and human leukemic T cells lines (Molt-4 and Jurkat).Materials and Methods: Human PBMCs and leukemic T cells were cultured in complete RPMI-1640 medium. The cells were then seeded at a density of 106 cells/ml and were incubated with different concentrations of phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) (1-25 ng/ml) or phytoheamagglutinin (PHA) (2-10 mg/ml) for 48 hours. Then, the cell-conditioned media were collected and used for IL-2 assay. Statistical comparisons between groups were made by analysis of variance (ANOVA).Results: PHA/PMA significantly and dose-dependently increased IL-2 level in human PBMCs and leukemic T cells (Molt-4 and Jurkat) after 48 hours of incubation compared with untreated control cells.Conclusion: We conclude that human PBMCs and leukemic T cells (Jurkat and Molt-4) could potentially secrete IL-2 with different degrees. Thus, these cells could offer a proper system to study the mechanisms regulating IL-2 production in diseases in which IL-2 production is disregulated. Also, these cells could be useful for screening the IL-2 modulators.

Background and Objective: Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is a chronic neurological disorder with spontaneous recurrent seizures and abnormal intracranial waves. Since the role of oxidative stress in the occurrence of epilepsy is inevitable, it seems that the use of antioxidants can prevent some of the complications resulting from this disease. This study was designed to assess the protective effect of carvacrol on seizure behavior and intracranial electroencephalographic (iEEG) recordings.Materials and Methods: In this study, male Wistar rats were randomly allocated into four groups: Sham-operated, carvacrol (10 mg/kg) pretreated-sham-operated, kainic acid (0.8 mg/ml), and carvacrol (10 mg/kg) pretreated-kainic acid. In this study, we evaluated the status epilepticus and seizures according to Racine΄s scores and recorded iEEG for investigating the antiepileptic effect of carvacrol in kainite injected rats.Results: The seizures behavior (status epilepticus and spontaneous seizures) appeared in kainate-injected rats and iEEG amplitude increased as compared to sham group (p<0.01). Pretreatment of kainate-injected rats with carvacrol significantly reduced their Racine΄s scores of seizures behavior and intracranial waves amplitude (p<0.05).Conclusion: Collectively, the results of this study indicate that carvacrol is able to prevent some of the epilepsy disease complications in an experimental model of temporal lobe epilepsy.

Background and Objectives: Ziziphora tenuior is one of the traditional medicinal herbs; the main active chemical composition of this herb is an ingredient named as Pulegone which is known-well for its anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects. Considering the side effects of synthetic drugs, researchers’ attention has been attracted to the use of herbal medicines. The aim of the present study was to compare the anti-inflammatory effect of hydro alcoholic extract of Ziziphora tenuior L. and dexamethasone in adult male rats.Materials and Methods: In this study, after inducing ear edema via xylol, the antiinflammatory activity of hydro alcoholic extracts on vascular permeability in NMRI rats was studied. Sixty rats were divided into 6 groups of 10 as follows: control (no treatment), sham (receiving physiological saline), groups 3, 4, and 5 treated with Ziziphora tenuiorextracts which received doses of 20, 50 and 100 mg/kg, respectively, and groups 6 through 10 which received dexamethasone at a dose of 10 mg/kg. Thereafter, the data were collected and analyzed using SPSS 17 statistical software and one-way ANOVA test.Results: The results of the present study showed that intraperitoneal injection of Ziziphora tenuiorextracts at doses of 50 and 100 mg/kg, results in a significant decrease in inflammation induced via xylol in male rats (p<0.05), that was similar to dexamethasone at a dose of 10 mg/kg. Furthermore, the group receiving 100 mg/kg of Ziziphora tenuior extract showed less inflammation as compared to the group receiving dexamethasone. However, no significant difference was seen.Conclusion: Ziziphora tenuior extract dose-dependently and significantly decreases inflammation of ear edema test induced via xylol. Probably, the presence of flavonoids found in the herb causes its anti-inflammatory effects. However, more research is required to achieve the therapeutic effects of the herb.

Background and Objective: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a multifactorial disease with debilitating consequences and few therapeutic strategies exist for it. With regard to antioxidant capacity and anti-b-amyloid polymerization potential of ellagic acid, this study was conducted to evaluate the effect of this substance on enhanced acetyl cholinesterase reactivity in an experimental model of Alzheimer′s disease induced by beta amyloid25-35 in the rat.Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, 32 male Wistar rats were divided into 4 equal groups, i.e. sham, treated-sham, Alzheimeric, and treated-Alzheimeric. For induction of AD, 2 ml of b-amyloid 25-35 (10 mg/2 ml) was microinjected bilaterally into CA1 of the dorsal hippocampus. The daily treatment with ellagic acid was done for one week at a dose of 100 mg/kg (i.p.) till 1 h presurgery. At third week after surgery, histochemistry for acetyl cholinesterase reactivity was performed.Results: Alzheimeric group showed enhanced reactivity for acetyl cholinesterase in dorsal hippocampus that was significant as compared to sham group (p<0.005) and treatment of Alzheimeric rats with ellagic acid significantly prevented this abnormal change versus Alzheimeric group (p<0.05). There was also no significant change in ellagic acid-treated sham group versus sham regarding acetyl cholinesterase reactivity.Conclusion: Pretreatment of beta amyloid-induced-Alzheimeric rats by ellagic acid could ameliorate acetyl cholinesterase reactivity in the dorsal hippocampus and this could possibly improve memory deterioration in AD.

Objective: To investigate the correlation between lower and higher order sensory functions and manual dexterity as well as to identify the sensory measures that could predict manual dexterity in patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD).Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study, 55 patients with idiopathic PD by mean age of 59.85 ± 11.89 years, and mean Hoehn and Yahr stage of 2.76 ± 1.37 were non-randomly selected. Lower order sensory function (i.e., light touch threshold), higher order sensory functions (i.e., tactile acuity, weight and texture discrimination, haptic performance and wrist proprioception) as well as gross and fine manual dexterity were measured in both hands.Results: The results showed that light touch threshold and tactile acuity (measured by static two point discrimination (TPD) were not significantly associated with gross or fine manual dexterity in dominant or non-dominant hand. Tactile acuity (measured by moving TPD), weight discrimination and wrist proprioception were weakly correlated with gross and fine manual dexterity in both hands. A weak to moderate significant relation was found between texture discrimination and haptic performance and both type of manual dexterity in both hands. Haptic performance predicted the largest proportion of variance in the gross manual dexterity of both hands as well as fine manual dexterity of dominant hand.Conclusion: This study showed the low to moderate correlation between higher order sensory functions and manual dexterity in patients with idiopathic PD. Haptic performance seems to be the most influential higher order sensory function associated with manual dexterity in these patients.