Armaghane Danesh
Year:2016 | Volume:21 | Issue:4 (111)|Papers Count:9

Background & aim: Eotaxin, a pro-inflammatory adipokine is secreted from adipose tissue, which its secretion increases in the obese, plays a key role in the pathogenesis of asthma. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of eight weeks’ progressive resistance training on serum eotaxin, non-HDL-c, insulin resistance and some physiological variables in overweight and obese men.Methods: In the present quasi-experimental study, 20 healthy overweight and obese male (22.75±1.29 yr, 89.22±13.08 kg, 28.36 ±3.98 kg/m²) were participaped and randomly assigned into training (n=10) and control (n=10) groups. Progressive resistance training was carried out for eight weeks (4 d/wk, 60 min/d). Blood samples were taken before, and 48 hours after the last training session to evaluate serum variables. Eotaxin serum concentration were measured by sandwich ELISA method using a special kit manufacturing by Germany ZellBio Company.Dependent and independent t-test and Pearson correlation was employed for data analysis. The criterion of statistical significance was p<0.05.Results: Independent t-test results indicated no significant changes of the eotaxin serum concentration were seen in the progressive resistance training of the experimental group compared with the control group after eight weeks (p=0.65). On the other hand, the amounts of non-HDL-c (p=0.024), triglyceride (p=0.017) and total cholesterol (p=0.032) significantly decreased. However, modifications in other variables, such as insulin resistance index, body weight, body fat percentage, body mass index, waist to hip ratio and maximum oxygen consumption were not significant (p>0.05). The results of dependent t-test showed that after eight weeks of progressive resistance training, changes of all the variables in the experimental group (except LDL, HDL and insulin) were significant (p<0.05). Finally, in basic terms, the correlation between eotaxin with other variables (other than non-HDL-c) was not statistically significant (p<0.05).Conclusion: It seems that eight weeks of progressive resistance training can not have a significant effect on eotaxin serum and insulin resistance. However, it caused significant decrease in non-high-density lipoprotein, triglycerides and cholesterol as cardiovascular risk factors.Perhaps due to the intensity and high volume of this work, further study is suggested.

Background & aim: Medicinal herbs with natural materials can be effective and have fewer side effects than drugs with chemical composition in reducing withdrawal symptoms and are more effective in treating addiction. In recent years, anti-inflammatory, analgesic and anti-anxiety effects of Dill has been reported. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of Dill ethanol extract on some withdrawal syndrome behaviors such as jumping, standing, climbing in male mice addicted to morphine.Methods: The present experimental study was conducted on 21 male NMRI mice with weighting 25 to 30 gr.Animals were divided into three groups: Group 1 received saline+naloxone (SN), group 2 received morphine +saline+naloxone (MSN) and the third group received morphine+ethanol extract of dill (500 mg kg ip) + naloxone (MDN) respectively. Simultaneous with the injection of morphine, the dill extract was injected at the same time. In order to induce the development of morphine dependence, the mice received increasing doses of morphine (10, 20, 30, and 40 mg) during four days for ten times, respectively. To induce the withdrawal symptom, two hours after the last injection of morphine, naloxone at a dose of 5 mg kg was injected intraperitoneally. Two hours after the last injection of morphine, naloxone at a dose of 5 mg/kg was injected intraperitoneally. Jumping, standing on both feet and climbing the walls were counted during 30 minutes. The data were analyzed using the software Graph Pad prism.Results: The results showed that the ethanol extract of plant significantly reduces the number of jumping due to naloxone injection in the addicted rats (p<0.001), but in the rearing behaviors and climb the walls of the container, a significant difference was observed with morphine.Conclusions: The findings suggested that the Dill Ethanolic extract can decrease the jumping number due to Naloxone-induced effect. Therefore, Dill Ethanolic extract may have an impact in reducing of withdrawal induction by morphine.

Background & aim: Esophageal cancer is the eighth most prevalent cancer worldwide and the second in Iran. Annually, esophageal cancer makes up 3.2% of all new cancer cases. Altered expression of stem cells self-renewal genes is of great importance in the tumorigenesis. The aim of this study was to compare the TBX3 gene expression in tumoral samples of patients with squamous esophageal cancer and normal tissue samples of healthy individuals.Methods: The present cross-sectional study was performed on 40 samples, including 20 samples of tumor esophageal cancer tissue and 20 samples of normal tissue samples from Imam Khomeini Hospital in Ahwaz, Iran. After extracting RNA from FFPE tissues and synthesizing cDNA, expression levels of TBX3 and GUSB (as internal control) genes were relatively quantified using qRT-PCR. Data were analyzed using t-test.Results: The results of the qRT-PCR analyses showed that the average relative gene expression in tumor samples was higher than normal samples. Furthermore, TBX3 gene expression exhibited greater expression in the tumor samples of the patients in the 26-50 years age range in compared with the 51-81 years age range Conclusion: According to the cancer stem cell theory, many tumors originated from stem cells leading to the inhibition of apoptosis and resistance to chemotherapy. Considering the role of TBX3 gene in self-renewal of stem cells and its increased expression in patients with squamous esophageal cancer, it seems that TBX3 gene might be used as a biomarker in the diagnosis and prognosis of esophageal cancer in future.

Background & aim: Urinary tract infections are the most common type of nosocomial infection. Escherichia coli (E. coli) is the most common cause of urinary tract infections (UTIs) in the community and in clinics. The treatment of these infections is often difficult due to several virulence factors and drug resistance. Adhesions, enzymes and toxins are important virulence factors which promote colonization and pathogenicity of this organism. In the present study, frequency of hemolysin and cytotoxic necrotizing factor-encoding genes and antimicrobial susceptibility were evaluated inE. coli isolates collected from urine samples in the educational hospitals of Qazvin, Iran.Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted during 2012-2013. Urine samples were collected from patients with urinary tract infection from different wards of Qazvin teaching hospitals. All of the isolates were identified using standard biochemical and microbiology tests. Antimicrobial susceptibility was further evaluated by Kirby-Baure method according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guideline. For the presence of genes HLY and CNF, specific primers was used and then using polymerase chain reaction the strains were analyzed and sequenced. Data were analyzed using statistical tests.Results: Altogether, 49 (38.9%) isolates showed the multidrug resistant pattern in which the highest susceptibility rate was shown to amikacin (91.3%) and imipenem (88.9%) and the resistance rate was reported against cefotaxime (83.3%) and ceftazidime (73%), respectively. PCR assay showed that 40 (31.7%) and 24 isolates (19%) were positive for the presence ofhly and cnf genes, respectively. Hly and cnf -positive isolates were mostly obtained from patients admitted in internal medicine wards.Conclusion: The findings of this study indicated multidrug resistant isolates and a considerable rate of hemolysin and cytotoxic necrotizing virulence factors inE.coli collected from urine specimens in hospitalized patients in Qazvin, emphasizing the importance of these virulence factors in infection prevention and control strategies.

Background & aim: One of the strategies to improve the therapeutic gene is targeting gene therapy. A method which can be considered, is adding code sequences peptide or protein with high tendency to target cells and secreting the therapeutic gene encodes a protein. However, evaluating the effectiveness of such changes in the targeted cell binding protein gene product with the usual therapeutic methods produced in prokaryotic system is directly impossible. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the design methods of cell adhesion proteins based on ELISA usable in-vitro in gene therapy.Methods: In order to target the therapeutic gene Mda-7 by using genetic engineering, peptide coding sequence RGD4C with the tendency to cancerous cell surface integrin were inserted shortly after the artificial signal peptide sequence and the N-terminal coding region of the protein. Then, the modified and unmodified cDNA eukaryotic expression vector pCDNA3.1 were matched. Vectors were transfected in HEK-293 cell line.Then Mda-7 secreted expression levels were measured in cell culture by ELISA. After adjusting the protein concentration of Mda-7 and RGD.Mda-7, in cells transfected media, they were used as a source of protein.Reduce the concentration of these genes was assessed two hours after exposure to the integrin cell lines with HepG2, M21 and lacking integrin Saos-2 were also determined by ELISA. The present study was conducted three times independently. Data were analyzed using t-test.Results: Statistical analysis of the results suggested that the gene product of the gene product RGD.Mda-7 and Mda-7 to connect to HepG2 cells and M21 were more likely to have integrin. While binding to the cell lines of Saos-2, no significant difference were observed.Conclusions: It seems the present ELISA based method was a suitable strategy for cell attachment assay in gene therapy research.

Background & aim: Borderline Personality Disorder is one of the most important health problems of people with undesirable consequences on family councils. The aim of the present study was to compare the executive function and difficulties in emotion regulation in addicted with upper and lower borderline personality traits.Methods: The present causal-comparative study included all male drug abusers who had been referred to addiction treatment centers. 80 addicts were selected by accessible sampling method and using a borderline personality traits (STB). Then, they were divided into two groups of 40 people for drug addicts in high and low.Using The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and the scale of difficulty in the emotional regulation was conducted on two groups. Statistical data using multivariate analysis of variance MANOVA and LSD test were analyzed.Results: The results indicated that compared to drug addicts with high borderline traits, the ones with low borderline traits had lower performance in Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and the number of perseveration errors (p=0.018) and total error (p=0.002) was higher. Moreover, addicts with high borderline traits varied significantly higher scores in difficulty in emotional regulation (p=0.002) of the drug with low borderline personality traits.Conclusion: The results indicated that addicts with high borderline traits, had weaker performance in executive function and higher levels of difficulty with emotional regulation. This may be due to neurological effects of drug addiction on their performance which leads to poorer performance compared with drug people with low borderline traits.

Background & aim: Brucellosis is considered as a significant health threat worldwide. The disease has been reported in more than a half-million people each year in 100 countries, according to the World Health Organization. This study aimed to determine the predictive factors of a needs assessment and prioritization of interventions to prevent brucellosis using the Precede - Proceed Model in Isfahan rural areas in 2015.Methods: The present cross-sectional study (needs assessment by Delphi method) was conducted on 402 people aged 15 years and older in 20 villages of 44 villages which were randomly selected in the rural Regions of Tiran and Karvan county of Isfahan Province. The data were collected through questionnaires and a Self-made checklist based on the Precede-Proceed Model which its content and face validity was approved by experts and pilot projects. Data collected by the survey techniques agreement using chi-square and t tests were analyzed by the use of SPSS version 18 software.Results: This study indicated that the subjects' awareness of the possibility of transmission of brucellosis by skin, breathing contaminated dust, the use of personal protective devices at the time of contact with animals were not appropriate. Increasing the access to veterinary services and vaccination of livestock herders in rural areas and helping in creating storage areas for livestock backcountry villages and moving the livestock to rural areas outside was one of the demands of the population. The present study revealed that between knowledge, attitude and performance of the participants with their educational level was a significant association (p£0.05). Also, there was a significant relationship between enabling factors, reinforcing factors and skill and practice in the prevention of brucellosis and having cattle (P£0.05).Conclusion: Needs assessment performance before implementation of any intervention in the prevention of brucellosis could help the researchers, planners and policy makers to assist the design and implementation of interventions as well as supplying educational materials situation and priorities of influential disease control and prevention considerations to be put into targeted action that will have more impact and also be more effective.

Background & aim: Radiology staffs are exposed to low doses of the occupational ionizing radiation. The long term intermittent exposure to low radiation doses may damage cells and result in various adverse biological effects. The blood cells have been found to be the most radiosensitive cells to ionizing radiation. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between low dose of occupational exposure to ionizing radiations and hematological parameters, including red blood cells, white blood cells and platelet counts of the radiology staffs of Yasuj hospitals.Methods: In the present case-control study, seventeen radiology staffs (8 females and 9 males) and seventeen healthy non-radiation workers were participated. Occupational radiation histories were determined by film badge dosimeter recordings for each radiology staff. The hematological parameters of the participated in the study were recorded by means of cell counter sysmix machine. Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS 21. The statistical analyses were done by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Pearson’s correlation coefficient.Results: The values of total white blood cells and platelet count were significantly lower among radiology staffs compared to the control group, but no significant difference was found between their red blood cells. No significant correlation was observed between gender and work experience with blood parameters. The file badge records for all of the radiology staffs were under occupational dose limits.Conclusion: Platelet and white blood cells parameters were found to be sensitive to low dose occupational ionizing radiation for radiology staffs. We suggest that the radiology staffs should use their personal dosimeters while their hematopoietic system should be evaluated by blood cells count.