Hairy root cultures of hypericum perforatum l.; a promising method for the high scale production of hypericin

Background: biotechnologic methods are common for secondary metabolites production from the plants and other sources in pharmaceutical sciences. Hairy root cell lines as the biotechnologic method have been used for in vitro production of major plant metabolites

Objective: in this study, hairy roots of Hypericum Perforatum have been prepared using the seeds and bio transformed by bacteria. Finally, the hypericin have been producted by the hairy roots

Methods: first, the seeds have been incubated in the plant media to hairy roots produced. Then, the hairy roots have been dipped in Rhizobium rizogenes suspension for biotransformation of bacterial genes. Morphological and phytochemical features of hairy roots have been determined in order to select the H. perforatum genotypes with higher hypericin contents. The fresh and dry weight of ten lines clones were measured after 30 days. In addition to, methanolic extracts of final hairy roots have been prepared and hypericin has been isolated and assayed by High Performance Liquid Chromatography

Results: according to the observations, one of ten hairy root lines shows 75-fold higher hypericin content [339.27 ppm] compared to non-transformed H. perforatum [4.58 ppm] in the same of body weight of roots. The clone with the most content of hypericin had significant development of biomass of hairy roots and increase the hypericin production. Transformed clones were varied in morphology, growth, and metabolite productivity

Conclusion: the mentioned methods induce the production of hairy root secondary metabolites in high scale to improve the quality and the quantity of pharmaceutical compounds

An investigation on vehicle's fuel consumption and exhaust emissions in different driving conditions

In this paper, vehicle's fuel consumption and exhaust emissions are investigated in different driving conditions based on driving segments clustering. Driving data collection is performed using global positioning systems in real traffic conditions. The driving data is clustered into five groups using k-means clustering technique. Vehicle's fuel consumption and exhaust emissions [i.e. HC, NOx and CO] are investigated in different driving conditions using computer simulations. The relationship between driving features and vehicle's fuel consumption and exhaust emissions is also presented. According to the simulation results, vehicle's fuel consumption decreases as average velocity increases from very congested traffic condition to freeway traffic condition. The most HC is produced is low speeds. The results also demonstrate that high accelerations and decelerations cause high amount of NOx. About the CO emission, a moderate driving in which the velocity and accelerations are not very high or very low, leads to the least amount of CO

[Evaluation of the risk factors of diabetic foot ulcer and its treatment in diabetic patients, Babol, North of Iran]

Diabetic foot ulcer is one of the major complications of diabetes mellitus patients occurring in 15% of these individuals. The aim of this study is to evaluate the risk factors of diabetic foot ulcer and determine its treatment in diabetic patients. This cross-sectional study was performed on 100 diabetic patients with foot ulcer, hospitalized in the Shahid Beheshti and Yahayanejad hospitals in Babol from 2003 to 2004. Information was collected with two questionnaires, one for demographic characteristics and the other covering the risk factors of diabetic foot ulcer and its treatment. Data was analyzed by SPSS software, P values <0.05 were considered significant. There was no significant difference between gender and smoking, or alcohol consumption and obesity [p>0. 05]. Foot ulcer occurred incidentally in 66% of patients and in 18%, foreign bodies were the cause. Seventy-three percent of patients [27 males and 46 females] had abnormal foot structure, revealing a significant difference between sex and abnormal foot structure [P=0. 001]. Although diabetic foot ulcer cannot be prevented, but controlling the risk factors and educating people, can significantly decrease the incidence rate and morbidity

Evaluating correlation between neutrophil and congestive heart failure

Acute myocardial infarction [MI] with inflammatory response is a result of tissue necrosis due to leukocytosis and increased number of peripheral blood neutrophils. To investigate the relationship between neutrophils and congestive heart failure [CHF]. This cohort study was performed on 100 patients affected by acute MI who had two points out of three standard criteria [physical examination, enzyme and EKG findings] during the last 6 months of 2002 in Yahyanezhad hospital, Babol, Iran. CHF was detected through physical examinations, medical history, chest X-ray, and echocardiography using a CFG 750 VinG Med Instrument at the fourth day of admission. Ejection fraction 0.05] when the age of patients taken into account. Our data show that the neutrophilia of admission time correlates significantly with heart failure as an early onset of acute MI. This could be useful both in detection of high-risk people and also diagnostic and therapeutic measures

[Social factors associated with infants' mortality]

Introduction: One of the important health indexes showing health status of a society is health index of mortality rate of children < 1 year. There are many negative parameters weakening potentiality of children in growth and development of which some can be categorized as social factors. This research has tried to investigate some factors as education level, parents' jobs, maternal care, the times of childcare, breast feeding and < 1 year children mortality

Methods: This is a descriptive comparative retrospective study in which there were 121 less then 1 year children [dead and live] referring to Isfahan health centers selected with all including criteria. The data were collected by questionnaires and categorized into two groups, to be investigated and compared. Content validity and standardized fixed forms were used for questionnaire validity and reliability respectively. The data were analyzed by descriptive inferential statistics [X[2], T-test-mantel Hanzel and column chart] through SPSS software

Results: The findings showed that there was a significant association between parents' education, fathers' jobs. mothers' jobs, manner of breast feeding, the times of child care, maternal care and mortality of children < 1 year

Discussion: Regarding the results, it seems that government, organization, and authorities concerning health strategies as well as health provider staffs play a major role in prediction and control of social factors affecting infants' mortality. These roles can be in forms of education, socio economic and cultural status promoting plans among men and women as well as enhancement of public knowledge