Studies in Medical Sciences
Year:2013 | Volume:24 | Issue:2|Papers Count:11

Background and Aims: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are attractive targets for cell and gene therapy, because they can differentiate into many cell lineages. Hence, finding an efficient and suitable method for transferring of genetic materials to these cells is very essential. In this study, we evaluated the efficiency of two methods of gene transferring, viral and nonviral, in transfection of mouse MSCs, comparatively.Materials and methods: MSCs were isolated from mouse bone marrow and their ability to differentiate into osteocyte and adipocyte lineages and their surface markers were evaluated. Then, the efficiency of two methods of nonviral gene transferring; calcium phosphate, and cationic lipid reagents (LipofectamineTM LTX with PlusTM Reagent and TurbofectTM); and also lentivirus vector were examined in transfection of mouse MSCs with green fluorescent protein (GFP) plasmid.Results: The isolated MSCs successfully differentiated to osteocytes and adipocytes. They were positive for CD24, CD29 and CD44; and negative for CD11b and CD45 cell surface markers. Nonviral gene transferring methods were completely inefficient in transfection of mouse MSCs; whereas calcium phosphate precipitate was completely toxic to mouse MSCs and cationic lipids only transfected less than three percent of the cells. In contrast, high transfection rate and GFP expression (above 70%) was seen with lentivirus vector.Conclusions: it seems that mouse MSCs are refractory to nonviral gene transferring methods. In contrast, lentivirus-mediated gene transfer methods may be an efficient tool for transfection of mouse MSCs without any interference on their phenotype and differentiation potential.

Background & Aims: In recent years, many efforts to change the education system to improve medical and paramedical training have taken place. One of the changes incorporated is merging of Education in the Ministry of Health and setting up of community oriented medical education accordingly. The purpose of this study was to compare the rate of community oriented medical education physiopathology students’ perspective in the years 2005 and 2012 in Urmia University of Medical Sciences.Materials & Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on all students in the physiopathology of Urmia University of Medical Sciences during the academic years 2005 and 2012 with convenience sampling. The sample included 47 Pathophysiology students in 2005 and 58 students in 2012.Results: The most proficiency of the students in physiopathology course in 2005 are in Research Methodology of 46.8%, Medical leadership and management of 4.6%, and the Latest Medical Information of 40.4% and from the other hand the most deficiencies of the students in physiopathology course in 2005 are in Latest medical knowledge in the fields of Basic science, Disease prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of diseases. However, the most proficiency of the students in physiopathology course in 2012 are in Research Methodology of 31%, Medical leadership and management of 19%, and the Latest medical information of 19%, and the most deficiencies of the students in physiopathology course in 2012 are in Social, Behavioral, and Human science.Conclusion: Although the University has stress on community-based medical education, but still the University needs attempt to reach satisfaction and desirable points. The physicians need to be inside of community and match their educational needs according the environmental and communities change and need to have more and more community base medical education.

Background & Aims: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is considered as a systemic disease by chronic inflammation with exacerbation episodes. Fibrinogen is a marker of systemic inflammation. The aim of this study was to assess the relation between plasma of fibrinogen level with adverse outcome in COPD patients.Materials & Methods: In this cohort study patients with acute exacerbation of COPD admitted to pulmonary ward were studied prospectively. They were divided into two cohort, patients with high plasma fibrinogen (>400 mg/dl) and less than 400 mg/dl on admission day venous blood. The patients were followed for duration of hospitalization and any adverse outcome (death in the hospital, transfer to ICU, intubation and mechanical ventilation). Relation of fibrinogen level with outcome evaluated.Results : Among 54 patients, 15 had adverse outcome, and 39 good outcomes. Among these two groups, the mean plasma fibrinogen was 530±256.43 mg/L and 155.67±96.55, respectively (p=0.001). In 14 patients plasma fibrinogen level was >400 mg/dl and in 40 patients £400 mg/dl The rate of adverse outcome was 85.7% in 7.5% in those with higher and lower fibrinogen level (p Value=0.001). The mean duration of hospitalization was 13.7±5.27 vs. 5.02±2.06 days in fibrinogen>400 mg/dl and£400 mg/dl group respectively (p value=0.001).Conclusion: Plasma fibrinogen obtained at admission day may assist identification of high-risk patients with acute exacerbation of COPD.

Background & Aims: Type one diabetes mellitus is an autoimmune disorder characterized by very low or absent of internal insulin. In the process of insulin secretion from pancreas, several micronutrients have role and zinc is the most important of them. Some recent studies have shown that serum zinc level is low in diabetic patients because of diuresis. This study aimed to evaluate the serum zinc level of diabetic children six months after insulin therapy.Materials & Methods: In a case control study, serum zinc level of 50 children with type one diabetes mellitus and history of at least six months insulin therapy, compared with 50 non diabetic healthy children.Results: Serum zinc levels were 104.21±19.27 and 105.32±11.47 mg/dl in diabetic and non diabetic children consecutively (P=0.72). There was not any significant correlation between hemoglobin A1C and serum zinc level (P=0.23).Conclusion: Results of this study shows that serum zinc level in diabetic children is similar to those of non diabetics if they receive proper insulin therapy.

Background: Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MSRA) is one of the main causes of serious infections in Iran and other countries. Treatment of these infections has become more difficult because of resistance to most antibiotics. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of methicillin-resistance gene in S. aureus isolates and antibiotic susceptibility to oxacillin and other antibiotics were performed by Disc Diffusion Agar (DDA).Materials and Methods: This study was carried out on SA isolates (n=73) collected from the clinical samples at during 2011 in ICU and Emeregency sections. All S. aureus isolates was identified after performing by routine laboratory procedures including, Gram stain, catalase test, DNase production, coagulase activity and mannitol salt fermentation. In this study used to identify Phenotypic by Disc Diffusion Agar (DDA) and for identify genotypic two pairs of primers designed by AlleleID software (version 6) on the basis of published DNA sequences of the S. aureus gene. Synthesis of primers was carry out by Cinnagen Company, Iran. PCR reaction of mecA with designed primers was optimized and incident of mecA was studied in clinical samples in ICU and Emergency sections.Results: The PCR analysis of 73 S. aureus isolates originated from patients for mecA showed 65 (89%) cases were positive. But only 54 (74%) isolates were methicillin resistant when we used the DDA method.Conclusion: As a conclusion, the resistance to methicillin of S. aureus in Baqiyatallah hospitals has reached to 89% and more than 95% of them were multidrug resistance.

Background & Aims: Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a malignant hematopoietic disorder caused by indefinite proliferation and lack of differentiation of leukemia stem cells. Elucidation of signaling pathways involved in leukemic stem cells are current strategies in treatment of leukemias. In this content, nucleostemin (NS) plays a critical role in proliferation and self renewal of stem and cancer cells. In the present study, effects of NS gene silencing on proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis in NB4 cell line as an APL model have been studied for the first time.Materials & Methods: NB4 cell line was cultured in the presence of 200 nM NS-siRNA and after transfection with Nucleostemin specific siRNA nucleostemin gene expression pattern was evaluated by Semi-quantitative RT-PCR. Trypan blue exclusion test and fluorescent microscopy were used to study growth inhibitory and apoptotic effects, respectively. Differentiation was studied morphologically and biologically using Wright-Giemsa staining and latex particle phagocytic activity, respectively.Results: NS gene was highly expressed in NB4 cells. NS-siRNA transfection into NB4 cells at 200 nM inhibited nucleostemin mRNA level up to 36.1% after 48h when compared to corresponding control cells. Between 12-72 hours after transfection, the cell growth was decreased up to 35.1% and differentiation characteristics such as decrease in nuclear cytoplasm ratio and ingestion of latex particles were observed, confirmed that differentiation toward monocytic/macrophagic Linage.Conclusion: According to differentiating and growth inhibitory effects of NS inhibition in NB4 cells, it can be proposed as a new target for treatment of APL patients.

Background & Aims: Potential Drug Interaction (PDI) is one of the medicine error which can led to undesirable reactions in patients. PDI occures when effect of toxocity of one medicine is affected by another one. This study aims to examination of of PDI freguency, clinical value ranking and risk factors in ICU ward of Urmia Taleghani hospital, Iran in 2011.Materials & Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out amog 193 inpatient of ICU ward. Data were collected retrospectively. Descriptive-analytical methods was used to analyse data including mean, median, standard deviation and t-test. Data were anlysed by SPSS.Results: Frequency of PDI was 73.6% and mean of PDI was 4.07. The most common PDI was Ranitidin+Midozolam with 26 (4.1%) of cases. grade of PDI was mild for 46 (7.9%), moderate for 192 (33%), sever for 51(8.8%), contradicted for 150 (25.8%), (), and unknown for 143 (24.4%). PDI effects manifested immediately for 195 (33.5%) and with delay for 384 (66.5%). 49.95% of PDIs had significant clinical value and 41.19 % higly significant clinical value.Conclusion: Knowledge of drug interaction, replacing of interacting drug with other drugs as much as possible, noticing of highly interacting drugs, deminishing number of prescribed drugs can reduce PDI number and its consequences.

Background & Aims: Staging plays an important role both in defining the prognosis of Hodgkin disease and choosing the best treatment regimen. Moreover, factors such as age, gender, WBC>15000, Hb<10.5mg/dl, and B-symptoms has been also recommended to be influential in the prognosis, which were not completely successful. Nevertheless many studies have investigated the correlation between cellular markers and the prognosis of Hodgkin lymphoma. Among them, CD15, CD30 and CD15 were the most studied markers. In this study we evaluated both the demographic findings and frequencies of expression of the markers CD20, CD30, CD15 and their relation to Staging in Hodgkin lymphoma cases of Imam Khomeini hospital of Urmia, Iran.Materials & Methods: Retrospectively 66 eligible patients from 2005 to 2010 entered the study. For evaluation of the markers CD20, CD30, CD15, Immunohistochemistery preformed on lymph-nods’ paraffin embedded blocks. Staging, demographic findings and Immunohistochemical findings analyzed for possible correlation between Staging and other parameters. In all cases SPSS software and Fisher Exact test were used for statistical analyzes.Results: In our study, median age of patients was 30.6±17 years old and 54.5% of patients were admitted with higher stages of the disease, which is similar to results of other studies in the country. Respectively, 63.6%, 90.9% and 18.2% of cases expressed cellular markers CD15, CD30 and CD20.Conclusion Furthermore, statistical analysis revealed that CD15 was inversely correlated with disease stage. (P=0.027). In contrast, we didn’t find any relation between Staging with neither CD20 nor CD30 positivity that possibly offers the latter markers were not related to disease prognosis.(P=0.482, P=0.376).

Background & Aims: Water Quality Indices are one of the methods can be used in water quality management as a useful tool in decision making, so this study carried out on evaluating the quality of the Aydughmush river by National Sanitation Foundation Water quality (NSFWQI) and River Pollution Indices (Liou).Materials & Methods: In this cross sectional study standard field parameters including dissolved oxygen, temperature, Biochemical and chemical oxygen Demand, Most Probable Number of Coliforms, Fecal Coliform, Turbidity, Total Dissolved Solids, Total Solids, pH, conductivity and others were measured at eight different stations during one year (2010 to 2011). Sampling points were selected on the basis of their importance. The National Sanitation Foundation Water quality (NSFWQI) and River Pollution Indices (Liou) were used for Aydughmush River water quality assessment.Results: Based on NSFWQI and Liou indices, water quality was found within Moderate category in most of studied stations.Conclusion: Despite difference in used parameters and calculation method in the NSFWQI and Liou indices, the results of both methods overlap for water quality assessment.