Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of central nervous system. In this disease the blood brain barrier (BBB) is damaged by an unknown factor, so that macrophages and lymphocytes which infiltrate the central nervous system cause the demyelination of nerves, and produce some disorders in the normal functions of the neurons.Because of the special importance of T lymphocyte in MS pathogenesis and regarding the old hypothesis of spirochetal basis of MS due to close similarities between clinical manifestation and pathogenesis of MS and spirochetallyme disease, for investigation of the probable role of bonoeliain MS manifestation we decided to study the response of MS patient's T lymphocytes, against borrelia antigens. For this purpose the proliferation response of T lymphocytes from 45 MS patients against borrelia antigens was compared with 38 ages and sex matched normal persons using the lymphocyte transformation test (LTT). Two outer surface proteins of borrelia (OspA & OspD) that were prepared by recombinant technology were also included in the study.Our results showed that, however there are some differences in proliferation response of T lymphocytes from MS patients and normal individuals, against borrelia whole antigens, but these differences are not statistically significant. However comparing with proliferation response to PHA which showed that T lymphocytes from MS patiants are from low responder groups, in response to Borrelia antigens MS patiants'T lymphocytes were proliferated more than normal controls. There was no statistically significant difference in proliferation response to OspA and OspD between patients and controls.Considering the obtained results in this study and similar studies including an investigation in the year of 2000 for comparing the MS patients derived spirochets and lyme spirochets and a lot of similarities in pathogenesis and clinical manifestations of lyme and MS, as well as geographical overlap of MS and borrelia and association of MS and environmental factors it supposed that however the role of borrlia in MS pathogenesis is not completely confirmed but the spirochetal basis of MS cannot be simply rejected as well.Multiple factors like variability in Osps expression between borrelia specieses, and abundance of recombination in osps genes, are among the factors that can explain the obtained results.

Objective: CREB1 is an important downstream protein for many signaling pathways. By designing efficient siRNAs against CREB1, it may be possible to assess the role of molecules involved in signaling pathways in different cell types. In this research the efficiency of CREB1 knockdown by two different siRNAs in K562 cells has been studied. Materials and Methods: siRNAs have been designed according to the criteria suggested by Reynolds et al. K562 cells were transfected by siRNA using Lipofectamine 2000. The efficiency of CREB knockdown has been assessed by quantitative relative Real-time PCR. Results: Our results have shown that only one of the siRNAs has a high level of inhibitory effect on CREB1 gene expression. The expression of CREB1 by this siRNA was knocked-down by 87% in K562 cells. Conclusion: In this research, although two siRNAs were designed according to the Reynolds et al. criteria, only one showed an inhibitory effect. Reasons other than the aforementioned criteria may be involved in effectiveness of siRNAs.

The aim of this study was to investigate the association of bovine leukocyte antigen-DRB3 alleles with peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) proliferation in response to Staphylococcus aureus. The animals included in this study (n=347) were approximately of same age and comprised of F2 Holstein-Friesian  Charolais (n = 155), Holstein-Friesian backcross (F0 Holstein-Friesian dams crossed with unrelated F1 sires, n = 60), Charolais backcross (F1 dams crossed with F0 Charolais sire, n=46) and pure Holstein-Friesian (n = 86). A sequence-based typing method was used in order to determine the genotype of the animals at BoLA-DRB3 locus and a linear mixed model was used to evaluate the association of bovine leukocyte antigen-DRB3 alleles with peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) proliferation. Beside the BoLA-DRB3 alleles, fixed effects of genetic group and gender and random effect of sires were included into the statistical model. In this research, 27 alleles were found for BoLA-DRB3 gene. The results showed that alleles BoLA-DRB3*0101 and BoLA-DRB3*0902 significantly affected on the stimulation index of S. aureus– induced peripheral blood mononuclear cell proliferation (P<0. 05). The results may be useful for investigating the biological mechanism of immune response against S. aureus.

One of the factors that can be the link between our intentions and actions and their external consequences is human agency, which indicates the conscious design and intentional execution of actions by the individual in order to influence future events.Objective and Method: This research with a developmental approach of psychometric method and method 1, examines the psychometric indices of the Human Factor Characteristics Scale using the classical theory of test score measurement and the graduated question-answer theory. The purpose of this study, which included high school students in Tehran, was selected by cluster sampling of 500 people as a sample size and statistical analysis was performed on 481 data. To collect the data, the ion Human Agent Characteristics Scale (2011) was used and the research questions were evaluated using IRTPRO and SPSS software.Results:The assumption of local independence based on Pearson x2 index was established by applying Simjima's calibrated question-answer theory and the assumption of being one-dimensional based on the analysis of multidimensional question-answer theory. Diagnosis parameters with question-answer approach and classical approach Test score Both item 25 approach had the lowest and item 2 had the highest diagnosis parameter. The answer thresholds for all the questions were so far apart that no option was covered by the other option, and the options were independently selected by individuals at intervals of theta. The total scale was calculated with Cronbach's alpha of 0.945, intentionality of 0.894, foresight of 0.780, self-reactivity of 0.871 and rethinking of 0.762. Also, the role of each item in internal consistency was investigated by the loop method, which all questions had a favorable role in internal consistency of this scale. The value of the validity coefficient obtained from the question-answer theory was obtained by marginal method for intentionality 0.92, forethought 0.85, self-reaction 0.91, rethinking 0.83..

Optimization of medium components in in vitro cultures is very difficult because of having multifactor nature. To optimize the plant growth regulator concentrations (BA, IBA, GA3) for shoot proliferation of apple cv. 'Abbasi' a threefactor experiment was designed and performed in 20 points (20 treatments) using Design Expert software based on the response surface method. A completely randomized design using eight auxin combinations (IBA+NAA) was also carried out for in vitro rooting of microcuttings. Proliferated shoot number was linearly and positively affected by the BA factor, while the response of the leaf number was linearly and negatively affected by BA. The effect of GA3 on proliferated shoot length was negative and linear. The abnormal shoot percentage in a quadratic model was influenced by all three types of PGRs, i. e. BA, IBA and GA3; positively and linear by BA, positively and quadratic by IBA and negatively and quadratic by GA3. According to the results of this experiment, the optimum concentrations for BA, IBA and GA3 combination were 1. 5, 0. 1 and 0. 02 mg L-1, respectively, which resulted in the proliferated shoots with a rate of 2. 5 shoots per explant, with 0. 9 cm in length, 4. 3 leaves per shoot and 4% abnormal shoots. The percentage of shoot-tip necrosis was not affected by the evaluated factors. NAA was more effective than IBA for rooting microcutings. The medium supplemented by 1 mg L-1 IBA or 0. 5 mg L-1 NAA can be used successfully for rooting of apple cv. 'Abbasi' shoots in vitro.

Introduction: Kojic acid with the chemical structure of 5-hydroxy-2-hydroxymethyl-ˠ-Piron is an organic acid that is biologically produced through aerobic fermentation process by using various substrates and via the function of variety of fungi. This study was aimed to study the optimization of Kojic acid production by Locally Isolated Fungi Aspergillus sp., using ‘Response Surface Methodology’.Materials and Methods: Kojic acid was produced by fermentation of isolated strain of genus Aspergillus in submerged culture medium. Initial investigation in Kojic acid production process was performed via Plackett-Burman method and by using different nitrogen sources such as yeast extract, peptone, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, urea as well as different carbon sources, including fructose, sucrose, glucose, lactose and maltose.Results: Based on our study, peptone and glucose were the most effective factors with carbon and nitrogen sources in production of kojic acid (P<0.05). The next step was production of 34.4g/L kojic acid by optimizing the effect of environmental factors such as temperature, pH, glucose and peptones, such as carbon and nitrogen sources, used in production of kojic acid and by employing ‘Response Surface Methodology’.Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, the maximum production of kojic acid can be achieved by using; glucose (%8.71), peptone (37.4%), temperature (29.9oC) and adjusting pH to 6.75 in the production process.