The effect of bee prepolis on primary dysmenorrhea: a randomized clinical trial

OBJECTIVE: Primary dysmenorrhea typically occurs with no associated pelvic pathology and is common in adolescents and young women. This study evaluated the effect of bee propolis on relief of primary dysmenorrhea. METHODS: The study was performed in 2018 in Hamadan, in western Iran, among female students with primary dysmenorrhea. Participants were randomly divided into two groups, using balanced block randomization, and were administered a placebo or bee propolis capsules for 5 days during two menstruation cycles. The number of participants required was estimated to be 86 in total, with 43 students in each group according to the inclusion criteria. We used the visual analog scale to assess pain severity. The independent t-test was conducted for comparing between two groups, using SPSS 16.0. RESULTS: A significant change was found in the mean pain scores during the first (P<0.001) and second (P<0.001) months after using bee propolis in comparison with placebo. The means of the pain scores in the bee propolis group were 5.32±2.28 and 4.74±2.40 in first and second months after the intervention, respectively, whereas the means of the pain scores in the placebo group were 7.40±1.21 and 7.17±1.24 in first and second months after the intervention, respectively. CONCLUSION: Our study showed that the use of bee propolis for two months compared with placebo reduced primary dysmenorrhea during the first and second months after use, with no adverse effects. Therefore, it could be used as an alternative to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for relief of primary dysmenorrhea.

Cerium lanthanide effect on growth of AGS cell line with the presence of transferrin in vitro

Cerium is a trace element and a member of the lanthanide group. Cerium cation is similar to ferric ions with regard to transferring binding, suggesting transferrin-receptor mediated transport could be possible to uptake the element. Therefore the aim of the present study was to survey of cytotoxic activity of cerium in the presence of transferring on growth of adenocarcinoma gastric stomach [AGS] cell line in vitro. Adenocarcinoma gastric stomach cells obtained from Pasteur institute were cultured on RPMI-1640 medium and the effect of cerium lanthanide with 0.1, 1, 10, 100 [micro M] concentration with and without transferrin in 24 h and 48 h incubation periods was investigated by 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-Yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide [MTT] and lactate dehydrogenase [LDH] assay. The results obtained from LDH assay showed that cerium without transferrin and cerium with transferrin decreased survival AGS cells significantly. Also results obtained from MTT assay showed that cerium without transferrin and cerium with transferrin decreased survival AGS cells significantly. In our results cerium could induce the inhibition of cell growth but the percent of growth inhibition could be higher with presence of transferrin. Our results indicate that at a certain concentration, the cerium compounds could inhibit the growth of cancer cells