Research in Medicine
Year:2014 | Volume:38 | Issue:1|Papers Count:13

Background: To the best of our knowledge, no study has examined the effects of vitamin D-calcium co-supplementation on inflammatory biomarkers and adipocytokines in vitamin D insufficient type 2 diabetics. This study was performed to assess the effects of vitamin D and calcium supplementation on inflammatory biomarkers and adipocytokines in vitamin D insufficient people with type 2 diabetes.Materials and methods: Totally, 118 diabetic patients were enrolled in this randomized placebo controlled clinical trial. After matching for age, sex, body mass index, type and dose of hypoglycemic agents and duration of diabetes, subjects were randomly assigned into four groups receiving: 1) 50000 IU/wk vitamin D + calcium placebo; 2) 1000 mg/d calcium+vitamin D placebo; 3) 50000 IU/wk vitamin D + 1000 mg/d calcium; 4) vitamin D placebo+calcium placebo for 8 weeks. Blood sampling was done for quantification of inflammatory biomarkers and adipocytokines at study baseline and after 8 weeks of intervention.Results: Joint calcium-vitamin D supplementation resulted in a significant reduction in serum leptin (changes from baseline: -92±19 vs. -9±18 ng/mL in placebo, P=0.01), IL-6 (changes from baseline: -4±1 vs. -3±1 pg/mL in placebo, P<0.001) and TNF-alpha concentrations (changes from baseline: -3.4±1.3 vs. 0.1±1.2 pg/mL in placebo, P=0.04) compared with placebo. Individuals who only received calcium supplements tended to have a greater decrease in serum hs-CRP levels compared with placebo after controlling for baseline levels (changes from baseline: -0.07±0.25 vs. 0.02±0.24 ng/mL in placebo, P=0.09).Conclusion: Joint calcium-vitamin D supplementation might improve systemic inflammation through decreasing IL-6 and TNF-alpha concentrations in vitamin D insufficient people with type 2 diabetes.

Background: Diabetes is a metabolic chronic disorder that makes it difficult to heal wounds because of its complications. To this point, many studies on the use of mesenchymal stem cells in wound healing process particularly diabetic ulcers have been done. In this study, we evaluate the impact of mesenchymal stem cells-derived conditioned medium (MSC-CM) on diabetic wound strength.Materials and methods: The type of study is experimental. 24 rats were divided into four groups: normal control, diabetic control, diabetic placebo (culture medium treated) and diabetic experimental (treated with MSC-CM). Diabetes mellitus was induced in the diabetic rat groups by intraperitoneal injections of alloxan. One full-thickness skin incision was made on the dorsal region of each rat. Conditioned medium were obtained from human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. 24 hours after wounding, diabetic experimental rats received 200 µl of conditioned medium, and diabetic placebo rats received 200 µl of of culture medium intravenously. 15 days after wounding, the wounds were sampled and biomechanical testing of elasticity (tensiometery) was performed on them and strength of wounds was evaluated by ANOVA test.Results: Body weight and blood glucose difference of diabetic rats was significantly higher than the control group (P=0.00). Maximum force of experimental group was 3.45±1.05 while this criterion in diabetic control was 1.76± 0.56 and in diabetic placebo was 2.30±0.62, which was significantly increased (p<0.05). Morover, the maximum stress of experimental group was 0.34±0.1, which compared to the diabetic control group (0.18±0.05) showed a significant increase. In addition, standard elastic stiffness of the experimental group was 3.19 ±1.07, which compared with diabetic placebo group (2.2 ±0.19) significantly increased.Conclusion: It seems to be human mesenchymal stem cells-derived conditioned medium has significant effect on wound strength in diabetic rats.

Background: There are contradictions about the immune modulating properties of chitin in comparison with chitosan. To respond to these contradictions, we investigated stimulatory effects of chitin micro-particles in comparison with chitosan micro-particles on L.major infected cell suspensions.Materials and methods: In this experimental study, Balb/c mice were intradermally infected with 2´105 stationary phase of L.major promastigotes into their base of the tail. Two weeks later infectivity were confirmed by PCR then leishmania infected lymph nodes cell suspensions of the mice were isolated. Chitin micro-particles were prepared by sonication and passing the filter and after size determination by mastersizer, used for cell stimulation. Finally, ELISA measured concentrations of TNF-a and IL-10 in cell culture supernatants.Results: We observed chitin micro-particles significantly increase TNF-a and also IL-10 production (P ≤0.001) in compare with chitosan.Conclusion: Chitin micro-particles can stimulate production of TNF-a and IL-10 in leishmania infected cell suspensions. Chitin seems to be utilized as an immunomodulator in Leishmania vaccine or treatment.

Background: Regarding to the impact of childhood and adolescence obesity on incidence of most of chronic adulthood diseases, determination of the predictors of obesity can play an important role in human health. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to compare body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist to hip ratio (WHR), waist to height ratio (WHtR) and skinfolds as predictors of percentage body fat (PBF) and diagnosis of excess adiposity in Iranian adolescents.Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study, all anthropometric measurements and PBF using the bioelectrical impedance analysis of 133 adolescents (65 boys and 68 girls), aged 10-18 years, were taken. Linear regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis were used to analyze the data, adjusting for potential covariates including sex, age, and pubertal stage.Results: BMI explained 67% of between-subject variance in PBF and R2adj of models revealed that prediction of PBF by BMI was better than other indices (P< 0.001). The AUC value for BMI to differentiate between the excess adiposity and normal PBF was 0.92 (P< 0.001), which was significantly higher than those for WC, WHR, and WHtR (P< 0.05).Conclusion: The performance of BMI is better than other anthropometric indices in predicting PBF and diagnosing excess adiposity in Iranian adolescents.

Background: Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is one of the most common diseases in the world that not only has surgical treatment, but also numerous medical drug treatments. The object of this study is to assess the effect of two medical treatments with use of mixture of oxygen-ozone and hyaluronic acid on pain and disability of patients with KOA.Materials and methods: In a randomized clinical trial, 60 patients with KOA (30 in O2-O3 mixture group and 30 in hyaluronic acid group) were assessed. In ozone group 8ml mixture of O2-O3 with 15 mic/ml and in hyaluronic group, 2 ml solution with 2 million units hyaluronic acid was injected intra-articularly. This procedure was repeated 3 weeks and VAS score and WOMAC questionnaire were completed for them. The data were analyzed with SPSS 16 software and with the use of MANN-U WHITNEY with a p<0.05 were assessed.Results: The severity of base pain (VAS Base) at O2-O3 group was 8.3+/-0.8 and at hyaluronic group was 8.07+/-0.13 (p<0.05). The severity of pain at first and second months after the last injection in O2-O3 group was 5.43+/-1.43 and 2.63+/-1.12 (p<0.0001) and in hyaluronic group was 5+/-1.31 and 2.97+/-1.24 (p<0.0001), but no difference between two groups. The number of WOMAC base at O2-O3 group was 62.7+/-8.3 and at hyaluronic group was 60.3+/-10. This number at first and second months after the last injection in O2-O3 group was 42.2+/-9.8 and 24.8+/-8.5 (p<0.001) and in hyaluronic group was 42.13+/-10.9 and 26.6+/-9.8 (p<0.001), but no difference between two groups.Conclusion: It is assumed that use of medical treatments for pain and disability control due to KOA are effective but there is no difference between two methods of O2-O3 mixture and hyaluronic acid.

Background: Due to the high prevalence of leishmaniasis andthe importance of the culture method in Leishmania research, and the vital need to the fetal calf serum (FCS), which is normally used in the media and difficulties associated with the use of this material such as the high cost, the possibility of viral contamination and the difficulty of import, the potency of bovine, sheep or mouse serums to enrich the medium in the culture of L.major was studied and compared with FCS.Materials and methods: using an experimental method, 1 million of L. majorpromastigotes obtained from Razi Vaccine and Serum Institute, were cultured in 5 flasks containing DMEM medium enriched with 10% fetal calf serum, 10% bovine serum, 10% sheep serum, 10% mouse serum and DMEM medium alone respectively. The number of parasites were counted and compared on days 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 21 and 24.Results: The results showed that the parasite growth in the medium containing 10% mouse serum was higher than others on days 2 and 4. The parasites survival in the medium containing 10% sheep serum was longer (more than 24 days) compared to other flasks, which had no live parasite on that time point.Conclusion: In conclusion, for short time cultures (less than 7 days), media enriched with the mouse serum shows higher performance but the survival of the parasite is higher in media containing sheep serum. However, further studies are still recommended.

Background: Lupus is one of the most common autoimmune diseases. IFN-α as an important factor in the pathogenesis of lupus has been introduced. Also, CD26 with its enzymatic activity has many roles in the regulation of immune responses. In the current study, we investigated the level of CD26 and IFN-α in the serum of SLE patients.Materials and methods: In this case-control study, 46 SLE patients and 44 sex and age-matched controls enrolled. Patients were grouped into subgroups of active patients (n=24) and inactive (n=22), or nephritis patients (n=17) and non-nephritis patients (n=29). Serum level of sCD26 and IFN-α were measured by ELISA and the Mann-Whitney test was used for statistical analysis.Results: Difference between patients and controls in serum levels of CD26 (438.96±137 vs. 579.66±409 ng/mL) and IFN-α (73.93±31.7 vs. 62.36±7.5 pg/mL) was not significant. Additionally, the concentration of sCD26 between active and inactive patients was not significant. A significant elevated level of sCD26 was observed in patients with nephritis vs. non-nephritis patients (771.4±553 vs. 467.26±243 ng/mL, p<0.05).Conclusion: In regards to the roles of sCD26, significant elevation in sCD26 level in lupus nephritis patients could be considered as a sign of anti-inflammatory responses. Therefore, measurement of serum sCD26 as a biomarker can define new criterion for measuring anti-inflammatory responses.

Background: According to the importance of GH/IGF-I axis and reported effects of physical activity on this axis among healthy children, this study was conducted to determine the effect of a prolonged physical activity program on growth mediators in children with idiopathic short stature (ISS).Materials and methods: fourteen pre-pubertal short stature children were randomly allocated to physical activity or control group (7 children in each group). Children in physical activity group performed 8 week physical activity program. Simultaneously, children in control group participated in a drawing course. IGF-I and IGFBP-3 levels in blood were determined after 5 and 8 weeks. Repeated-measure analyses of variance were performed statistical analysis. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: A significant decrease was observed in IGF-I levels of physical activity group but not in control group after 8 weeks. IGFBP-3 fluctuations were not significant in both groups.Conclusion: Brief endurance-type physical activity program seemed to have resulted in catabolic rather than anabolic responses of the growth axis despite the fact that physical activity led to improved cardiorespiratory responses to physical activity. It is suggested that prolonged physical activity program (>8 weeks) may result in anabolic responses of the GH/IGF-I axis.