Treatment of ankyloglossia with carbon dioxide [CO[2]] laser in a pediatric patient

Laser surgery as an alternative for conventional surgical procedure has gained special attention. Using Carbon Dioxide [CO[2]] laser has some benefits like less post-operative pain, swelling and infection, decrease in risk of metastasis and edema, and less bleeding providing dry sites for surgery. A 12 years old boy with lingual frenum with indication for excision was referred to the laser department of Tehran University of medical sciences dental school. CO[2] laser was used with 10600 nm wavelength, 1.5 W output power, 100 Hz frequency and 400 micro sec pulse duration in non-contact mode. The result of using CO[2] laser was dry and bloodless field during operation, no post operative swelling, no pain or discomfort, with normal healing process. We suggest and stimulate the use of CO[2] laser for soft tissue surgery because of elimination of suture, convenient coagulation, time saving, patients' comfort and easy manipulation

Design a chimeric promoter containing Survivin-like core promoter in order to transcriptional targeting of breast cancer

The greatest challenge in cancer gene therapy is to achieve the high specificity and efficiency in targeting of cancer cells. Because the goal of cancer gene therapy is to eradicate cancer cells, many therapeutic genes could be detrimental if unintentionally expressed in normal cells. Using promoter of the genes which are expressed specifically in cancer cells or have much more expression in cancer cells than normal cells, is very noticeable tool in cancer gene therapy [CGT]. In this study we were searching for cancer specific promoter which could highly express therapeutic gene. In order to apply a cancer specific promoter for creating a CGT construct, a promoter which have 34% similarity to Survivin core promoter was amplified from human genome by using Nested-PCR. Survivin is a member of anti-apoptotic gene and its over-expression was observed in up to 70% of breast cancers. This gene fragment contains two transcriptional binding sites which were similar to Survivin promoter according to the evaluation of Promoter Scan, EPD, Transfac, Compel and TRRD program. These binding sites were recognized by STAT1 and E2F transcription factors. This promoter was cloned into pCDNA3.1/Hygro plasmid in along with hypoxia and estrogen modules and pro-apoptotic gene tBid. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR results of transfected cancer cells showed that this gene fragment [Survivin like promoter] have relatively same potential as CMV promoter to direct tBid gene expression. Utilization of chimeric promoter containing Survivin like promoter could be a promising tool in killing cancer cells naturally by inducing apoptosis. This construct is highly effective in transcriptional targeting of tBid in comparison to control construct