The Scientific Journal of Iranian Blood Transfusion
Year:2011 | Volume:8 | Issue:3 (32)|Papers Count:10

Background and Objectives: High fetal hemoglobin (HbF) levels have a major impact on the hemoglobin disorders, i.e. b-Thalassemia. Increased HbF production ameliorates the disease severity. Three loci—HBS1L-MYB intergenic region on chromosome 6q23, BCL11A on chromosome 2p16, and the g-globin gene on chromosome 11 account for up to 50% of the variations in HbF levels in patients with sickle cell anemia, thalassemia and healthy adults. In the present study, we evaluated the relationship between some polymorphisms on HBS1L-MYB BCL11A loci and increased HbF levels in thalassemia patients and normal subjects.Materials and Methods: In this case-control study, three common polymorphisms among 50 b-thalassemia patients with increased HbF and 47 healthy individuals with normal HbF by using PCR-RFLP were genotyped: rs4895441, rs11886868, and rs28384513. Enzymatic digestion was performed by RsaI, MboII, and BstXI, respectively. Correlations with high levels of HbF were performed with a Chi-square test by using SPSS 16 and SNP analyzer2.Results: Mutant allelic frequencies were 0.245, 0.521 and 0.309 in healthy and 0.3, 0.52 and 0.28 in patient for rs4895441, rs11886868 and rs28384513, respectively. Significant relationship was not observed among three polymorphisms studied in healthy volunteers and b-Thalassemia major patients with increased HbF levels and P-value allelic and genotypic was higher than 0.05 at three SNPs.Conclusions: In spite of previous reports, evaluation of polymorphisms at the BCL11A and HBS1L-MYB loci in this study did not show up a significant correlation with increased HbF. Other polymorphisms might have a role in increasing HbF in our population.

Background and Objectives: Many studies have demonstrated that polymorphisms of NQO1 including C465T and C609T are associated with increased risk of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Our aims are to assess incidence of these polymorphisms in Tehran patients and study the influence of low activity of NQO1 in AML.Materials and Methods: In this case-control study, we used PCR and RFLP analyses to study the prevalence of C609T NQO1in 140 patients, and C465T NQO1 in 124 patients; there was also a control group of 80 being age-sex matched. We calculated odd ratio with SPSS 16 to examine if these polymorphisms are associated with AML.Results: No significant association between the two common polymorphisms of NQO1 and risk of AML was observed. C609T odd ratio for TT genotype versus CC was obtained to be 0.91 (CI95%=0.51-1.63) and for CT versus CC it was 1.06 (CI95%=0.57-1.95). C465T odd ratio for TT genotype versus CC was calculated to be 0.22 (CI95%=0.009-5.56) and for CT versus CC it came out to be 3.01 (CI95%=0.63-14.32).Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the NQO1 C609T and C465T gene variants do not have a major influence on the susceptibility to adult AML.

Background and Objectives: Transfusion transmitted malaria is an ever present risk in endemic areas and the real threat for blood safety. There is a need for an effective malaria screening program and development of donor deferral criteria for the country. We evaluated the potential usefulness of Elisa screening for malaria antibody and antigen, thick and thin blood film, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) among Zahedan blood donors.Materials and Methods: A total number of 384 blood donors in Zahedan in 2009 were screened for malaria parasite by thick and thin blood film using giemsa staining technique, Elisa antibody and antigen test, and PCR.Results: The overall malaria antibody prevalence was 4.7%. In blood donors living in endemic regions, where there were reports for local Malaria transmission, the rate was 7.9%. The results of all antigen test, thick and thin blood films, and PCR were negative.Conclusions: The present donor deferral system seems optimal at present; however, a small risk of transfusion transmitted malaria remains. In an endemic region like Sistan and Baluchestan the use of Elisa antibody test was an interesting alternative for the screening of blood donors.

Background and Objectives: Uncontrolled self renewal plays a direct function in different types of carcinoma progression. Here we examined the expression of self renewal regulatory factors such as Oct4, Nanog, Sox2, Nucleostemin, Zfx, Bmi-1 in colon, prostate, bladder and liver cancers in human samples and cancer cell lines.Materials and Methods: We used RT-PCR to examine the expression of these genes in 10 tumors of bladder, 5 tumors of prostate, 5 tumors of colon, 5 normal tissues of colon, and cancer cell lines. The expression of Oct-4 and Nucleostemin at protein level was further determined by immunocytochemical (ICC) analysis in cancer cell lines.Results: We designed specific primers to amplify a segment of Oct4, Nanog, Sox2, Nucleostemin, Bmi and Zfx. As expected DNA fragment of these genes based on designated primer was amplified in the PCR reaction. We detected the expression of these genes in almost all of the examined tumor samples and cancer cell lines that we used. Oct4 and Nucleostemin proteins were expressed in both nuclear and cytoplasmic in cancer cell lines. No immunoreactivity was observed in negative controls, which were incubated in the absence of primary antibody.Conclusions: Collectively, our results indicated that in a tumor population a rare subpopulation of cells within the tumor cell mass has the potential of self renewal, and suggested that their expression can be used as potential tumor markers in diagnosis and/or prognosis of tumors. These results confirm the potential value of the cancer stem-cell theory in cancer therapy.

Background and Objectives: The high rate of anemia in pregnancy is associated with complications of pregnancy and delivery; therefore, to assess the level of hemoglobin (Hb) in women who are at risk can prevent these complications.Materials and Methods: In this descriptive study, 108 pregnant women referred to a medical and educational center in Shiraz in 2006. They were enrolled in three different occasions: first trimester (10-14 weeks), second trimester (25-30 weeks), and third trimester (37-40 weeks). The correlation of blood hemoglobin concentration with the risk of severe nausea, vomiting, and iron supplementation in pregnant women was estimated. Statistical analysis was done with SPSS11.5 and Pearson correlation.Results: The mean age of the participants is 25.74±5.66. In the first trimester of pregnancy 71.9% had normal hemoglobin level and 28.1% higher than normal with no case being anemic. In the second and third trimester of pregnancy, 29.2% of the subjects were anemic. The level of hemoglobin had positive correlation with the total amount of iron intake in the second trimester (p=0.001 and r=0.44), also in the third trimester (p<0.001 and r=0.46) and the whole pregnancy (p<0.001 and r=0.38.(Conclusions: This study indicated that despite regular intake of iron, %29.2 of the subjects had anemia. These findings emphasize the importance of treating these groups of patients and measuring levels of hemoglobin in each trimester together with reviewing other risk factors which are effective on anemia.

Background and Objectives: Coagulation system activation in response to physical activity is already to some extent determined and known, but the effect of eccentric contraction exercise on its activation is not specified. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a single session eccentric resistance exercise on some coagulation factors of inactive malesMaterials and Methods: Twelve male students volunteered to participate in this study and were divided randomly to experimental and control groups. Experimental group performed a controlled return movement from elbow flexion exercise as eccentric contraction. Blood sampling was implemented 30 min before, and immediately after exercise test; it was also done 2 and 24 h after the exercise test.Results: Statistical analysis revealed that plasma fibrinogen elevated significantly over 24 h after test (pre: 2.56±0.23 and 24h post: 2.84±0.24). Prothrombin time did not change significantly but significant decrease was found over 24 h after test for activated partial thromboplastin time (pre: 43.05±3.33 and 24h post: 26.65±0.61). Platelet counts and its indices did not change significantly. Conclusions: Eccentric exercise as defined in our research somehow caused a blood coagulation increase and this activation is probably accomplished through intrinsic pathways and not extrinsic ones. It showed a decrease in activated partial thromboplastin time, without any change in prothrombin time. Insignificant changes in plasma fibrinogen, platelet and its morphologic indices could be related to both inclusion of low volume of muscles and eccentric type of contraction.

Background and Objectives: Thalassemia major is one of the most common genetic blood disorders that passes from parents to children. Since Fars province is one of the most common locations of thalassemia in our country. It seems that the present study can be helpful by identifying main non-clinical factors of the disease.Materials and Methods: This cross sectional study was done on registered data of less than 12 year old major thalassemia patients in Fars province by census method in 1997-2010. Underlying causes of thalassemia are divided into three groups: S1 cases due to hardware problems, S2 cases due to parents carelessness without having a history, and S3 patients born to parents who married when genetic tests were not routine. Data were analyzed by using SPSS16 and ANOVA tests.Results: Analysis showed that S1 with 48 persons (15.38%)'with the mean age of 5.6±3.2, S2 with71 persons (22.75%) with the mean age of 6.8±1.2, and S3 with193 person (61.85%) with the mean age of 8.8±3.30 were the main groups of thalassemia. The least incidence rate was 0.13 per 10000 in 2010.Conclusions: With identifying the main underlying causes of major thalassemia regardless of its main cause which is herediatry from parents, considering levels and different consequences of these causes, and high efficiency of genetic tests before marriage, effective steps can be taken to reduce health-social and economic problems of thalassemia.

Background and Objectives: Exposure to infectious blood and body fluids increase risk of occupationally acquired HIV among nurses. Discrimination in care and treatment of AIDS patient is one of the challenging ethical issues in nursing. The aim of this study was to determine fear of being at risk of acquiring HIV, willingness to care, and discrimination in care and treatment of AIDS patients among nurses.Materials and Methods: In this descriptive –cross sectional study, 165 nurses of internal and infectious wards from four selected hospitals of Tehran and Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences participated. Data were collected by self-administered questionnaires. The instruments used included "demographic data form", "risk perception scale", "willingness to care for people living with HIV/AIDS"questionnaire, and "discrimination against AIDS" questionnaire. Data were analyzed by using SPSS 14, t-test, and pearson correlation.Results: Out of 165 nurses, 36.4% had sever fear of being at risk of acquiring HIV, 81.8% were evaluated to be neutral in willingness to care of AIDS patients, and 54.5% agreed with moderately discrimination practice against AIDS patients. There was a significant correlation between fear of being at risk of acquiring HIV with discrimination in care and treatment of AIDS patients (p=0.003) and willingness to care (p=0.007).Conclusions: It seems that education efforts about universal precautions, ethical issues, and patient rights should be made in order to reduce fear of being at risk of acquiring HIV, decrease discrimination in care and treatment of AIDS patients and increase willingness to care.

Background and Objectives: In Iran, cryoprecipitate is an important plasma product for coagulation factors such as factor VIII (FVIII) to be ensured. As risk of bleeding is associated with FVIII activity, it is important to choose a suitable method for its measurement. In the present study we compared clotting and chromogenic assays on FVIII activity in cryoprecipitate.Materials and Methods: FVIII activity of cryoprecipitate from 48 donors with different blood groups was measured by clotting and chromogenic assays. Then the two assay types were compared with each other.Results: Although the absolute values showed a significant difference, a good correlation was seen between one-stage clot-based and chromogenic assays for measuring FVIII activity in cryo.Conclusions: Although the one-stage clotting assay is a suitable method for measuring FVIII activity, the chromogenic assay has a good correlation with clotting based assay. Also a significant difference was seen between the two methods.