ABSTRACT
Parkinson's disease is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders. There are many documents about the effects of oxidative stress in Parkinson's disease etiology. Angiotensin II activates NADPH dependent oxidases and causes superoxides formation. Peganum harmala L. extract, which has angiotensin converting enzyme [ACE] inhibitory effect, is considered to evaluate oxidative stress inhibition and Parkinson's disease improvement. Male rats weighting 200-250 g were divided into 5 groups: Control, Neurotoxin [injection of 6-hydroxydopamine into left hemisphere substantia nigra], Peganum harmala's seedsaqueous extract [10 mg/kg] and captopril [5 mg/kg]. Peganum harmala and captopril were injected intraperitonealy -144, -120, -96, -72, -48, -24, -2, 4 and 24 h relative to 6-hydroxydopamine injection time. Muscle stiffness, apomorphine induced unilateral rotation, amount of brain's protein oxidation and lipid peroxidation, ACE activity and histology of substantia nigra were assayed in all groups. Peganum harmala improved Muscle stiffness and one-direction rotation behavior significantly. It also reduced brain's lipid and protein oxidation levels in neurotoxin-injected rats significantly. In Peganum harmala group compared to control group, brain's ACE activity was significantly inhibited. In histological study, Peganum harmala prevented degeneration of dopaminergic neurons, too. In conclusion, aqueous extract of Peganum harmala could prevent symptoms and reduced oxidative stress markers in rats with Parkinson's disease induced by 6-hydroxydopamine
Subject(s)
Animals, Laboratory , Oxidative Stress , Oxidopamine , Parkinson Disease , Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A , Rats, WistarABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: To determine and compare the fracture resistance of endodontically treated maxillary central incisors restored with different posts and cores. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty-eight upper central incisors were randomly divided into four groups: cast post and core (group 1), fiber-reinforced composite (FRC) post and composite core (group 2), composite post and core (group 3), and controls (group 4). Mesio-distal and bucco-lingual dimensions at 7 and 14 mm from the apex were compared to ensure standardization among the groups. Twelve teeth were prepared for crown restoration (group 4). Teeth in other groups were endodontically treated, decoronated at 14 mm from the apex, and prepared for posts and cores. Resin-based materials were used for cementation in groups 1 and 2. In group 3, composite was used directly to fill the post space and for core build-up. All samples were restored by standard metal crowns using glass ionomer cement, mounted at 135degrees vertical angle, subjected to thermomechanical aging, and then fractured using a universal testing machine. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Fracture resistance of the groups was as follows: Control (group 4) > cast post and core (group 1) > fiber post and composite core (group 2) > composite post and core (group 3). All samples in groups 2 and 3 fractured in restorable patterns, whereas most (58%) in group 1 were non-restorable. CONCLUSIONS: Within the limitations of this study, FRC posts showed acceptable fracture resistance with favorable fracture patterns for reconstruction of upper central incisors.
Subject(s)
Aging , Cementation , Crowns , Glass Ionomer Cements , Incisor , ToothABSTRACT
Helicobacter pylori has been strongly associated with peptic ulcer diseases, chronic gastritis, ulcers, and reported as a risk factor for gastric cancer, too. The vaculating cytotoxin [vacA], the cytotoxin associated genes [cagA], the induced by contact with epithelium factor antigen [iceA gene], blood adhesion binding antigen [babA2], and outer membrane protein oipA have been described as different virulence factors of H. pylori. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of the vacA, cagA, cagE, iceA, babA2 and oipA genotypes of H. pylori isolates from patients with upper gasterointestinal problem or dyspepsia. H. pylori isolated from endoscopic biopsies obtained from 222 studied patients. PCR was done only on cultured positive samples. The vacA alleles, cagA, cagE, iceA, babA2 and oipA genotypes were determined by PCR. The isolation rate of H. pylori strains from culture of gastric biopsies was 16.7%. The vacA alleles s1, s2, m1 andm2 were detected in 20 [54.1%], 14 [37.8%], 9 [24.3%] and 23 [62.2%] isolates, respectively. VacA s1c genotype was detected in 70.3% of isolates. s1m2 was the most frequent vacA allelic combination in the examined H. pylori strains. ThecagA gene was detected in 62.2%, cagE in 40.5%, iceA1 in 48.6%, iceA2 in 16.2%, oipA in 81.1% [95% CI: 0.0902-0.1798] and babA2 in 94.6% [95% CI: 0.113- 0.207]. A significant correlation was observed between vacAs1 and cagA genotypes [P < 0.008], vacAs1/cagE [P = 0.001], vacAs2/cagA [P < 0.047], and vacAs2/cagE [P = 0.016] with Non-ulcer dyspepsia; but there were not observed any correlation between other virulence markers. No significant correlation was found between the existence of vacA, cagA, cagE, iceA, babA2, and oipA genes with peptic ulcer diseases and non-ulcer dyspepsia groups of studied patients
ABSTRACT
Streptococcus pneumoniae is an important problem worldwide and nasopharyngeal colonization plays significant role in pneumococcal infections. The aims of this study were to determine the nasopharyngeal colonization rate, serotyping, antibiotics susceptibility and study the risk factors for nasopharyngeal colonization with S. pneumoniae in students in Kashan, Iran. A cross-sectional study was conducted on children aged 7 to 19 years from December 2011 to November 2012. Nasopharyngeal swabs were plated onto brain heart infusion agar plates with 5% sheep blood and 4 micro g/ml of gentamycin. Antimicrobial susceptibility profiles were determined on Mueller-Hinton agar in accordance with CLSI. S. pneumoniae strains were investigated for the presence of the most common pneumococcal serotypes using a multiplex polymerase chain reaction. 13.9% were found to be carriers. The most prevalent serogroups were 19F [30%], 6A/B [18.9%], 15A [16.5%], 11 [11.3%], 23F [8.2%], 1 [6.2%], 19A [3.4%], and 35B [2.4%]. Nine strains [3.1%] were non-typeable. The carrier rate was significantly higher in 12 to15 year old age group. Upper respiratory tract infections within the last month [OR=1.5, P<0.011], previous hospitalization [OR=1.6, P<0.001], previous antibiotic usage last two weeks [OR=1.89, P<0.001], rhinorea [OR=1.9P<0.001], male sex [OR=3.5 P< 0.001] and passive smoking [OR=1.56, P< 0.001] have been determined to be risk factors for S. pneumoniae carriage. The highest pneumococcal resistance was to tetracycline [25.4%]. All strains were susceptible to linezolid and levofloxacin. Our information leads to an important source to screen the future impact of pneumococcal vaccination on bacterial colonization
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Members of the transforming growth factor-beta superfamily, including bone morphogenetic protein 4 [BMP4], have been implicated as regulators of neural differentiation. The aim of this study was to establish whether BMP4 could influence neuronal differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells [MSCs]. Therefore, neuronal differentiation of MSCs was induced by basic fibroblast growth factor [bFGF] and epidermal growth factor [EOF] and treatment. The expression of neuronal specific markers such as Nestin, MAP2, p-Tubulin III and NKX6.1 were detected by RT-PCR, flow cytometery and/or immunostaining. While the percentage of Nestin positive cells was increased significantly during treatment, the addition of BMP4 during the first 4 days of treatment with bFGF and EGF reduced Nestin expression as showed by flow cytometry. This observation was further confirmed by relative gene expression which showed the reduction in expression of neural markers such as Nestin, MAP2 and NKX6.1 following treatment with BMP4. The results of this study suggest that BMP4 downregulates the neural fate of induced mouse MSCs
ABSTRACT
Allergic granulomatous angiitis[Churg-Strauss syndrome] is a variant of systemic vasculitis characterized by pulmonary and systemic small vessel vasculitis, extra-vascular granulomas and eosinophilia. Clinical features include presence of asthma and/or allergic rhinitis with constitutional symptoms such as fever and weight loss. Multisystem involvement includes pulmonary infiltrations, monoeuritis multiplex, purpura and cutaneous nodules. Churg-Strauss syndrome is an uncommon condition, occur even more rarely in association with pregnancy and usually have a poor prognosis with increased risk of fetal death. In this article a 23-year-old patients who had developed signs and symptoms of the disease during pregnancy is reported. The full-flown picture of disease was revealed in peripartum period