effect of methanol extract of echinops lasiolepis on TNF-alpha production in LPS-activated J774 A.1 mouse macrophages

Background and Aims: Plants as medicines have always played a vital role in human life. Tumor necrosis factor alpha [TNF]- alpha; is one of the macrophage-derived inflammatory cytokine with pleotropic effects in the inflammation process. Some studies have been demonstrated that some of the Echinops species have anti-inflammatory activity. In fact, Echinops lasilepis is introduced as one of the native plants of Yazd. Thus, the present study intended to assess the inflammatory activity of Echinops lasiolepis on TNF-alpha; secretion in J774 A.1 mouse macrophages

Materials and Methods: At first, methanol extract was prepared by maceration. 105 cells/ well were seeded in 96-well plate in triplicate and were treated with different concentrations of extract and 100 ng/ml Lipopolysaccharides. MTT cytotoxicity assay was used to determine the cell viability. Concentrations of extract with cell viability of more than 90% were used to evaluate the level of TNF- and alpha; in the macrophage culture using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

Results: Viability of cells at different extract concentrations of 0.1, 1, 10, 50, 100 and 200 µg/ml were 91.68, 95.27, 94.2, 90.8, 85.38 and 71.38, respectively. Therefore, cells treated with 50 mu;g/ml and lower concentrates of extracts showed more than 90% of viability and their supernatants were used for TNF-alpha; assay. The study results revealed that all concentrations of extract reduced the production of TNF-alpha

Conclusions: Our findings showed that methanol extract of Echinops lasiolepis may have anti-inflammatory activity via reducing TNF-alpha; production

association between single nucleotide polymorphism in interleukin-27 gene and recurrent pregnancy loss in Iranian women

Recurrent pregnancy loss [RPL] has been defined as two or more miscarriages before 20[th] week of gestation. It seems that IL-27 may reduce inflammatory responses and affect the survival of the embryo during human pregnancy. IL-27 polymorphisms may influence RPL by altering the levels or the activity of gene product. We studied for the first time the association of IL-27 -964 A>G single nucleotide polymorphism [SNP] with RPL in Iranian women. A case-controlled study was performed on two groups consisting of 150 healthy women with at least one delivery [control group] and 150 women with two or more primary RPLs history [RPL group]. The -964 A>G SNP in IL-27 gene was determined by PCR-RFLP technique. Genotype and allele frequencies were compared using Chi[2] tests between two groups. There was no difference between the two groups regarding age of women [29 +/- 4.4 [control] vs. 30.84 +/- 5.2 years [case]]. In the RPL group, the genotype frequencies of -964 A>G polymorphism were AG [49.3%], AA [40%], and GG [10.7%], and in the control group, they were AG [43.3%], AA [48.7%], and GG [8%]. There was no significant difference between the genotypes of AA, AG, and GG in two groups [p=0.23]. As the frequency of allele A was 64.7% in the RPL group and 70.3% in the control group, the difference in frequency of allele A in -964 A>G between two groups was not significant [p=0.19]. Our findings indicate that SNP of -964 A>G in IL-27 gene is not a risk factor for RPL in Iranian women

Determination of hepatitis B virus genotypes in Yazd, Central Province of Iran

Background and Aims: hepatitis B virus [HBV] infects the liver and causes acute and chronic hepatitis, hepatocellular carcinoma and cirrhosis. HBV has been divided to eight genotypes [A-H] and subgenotypes of A, B, C and F. For the first time, we determined HBV genotypes in infected samples by INNO-LiPA method in Yazd, central province of Iran

Materials and Methods: this study was performed on samples suspected of HBV infection. The sera of fifteen out of ninety-five samples that had shown positive results by RT-PCR were used for HBV genotyping by using INNO-LiPA HBV genotyping assay

Results and Conclusions: seven [46.7%] out of fifteen samples were female. The mean age of the patients was 37.8+/-14.3 years. The average number copy of HBV in infected samples was 1.04×10[6]+/-4.74×10[5] Copies/ml. All fifteen infected samples had genotype D. Our results showed that HBV genotype D was the only detectable genotype in Yazd, central province of Iran. A further study with a larger sample size in different provinces of Iran is needed to identify HBV genotypes in Iran

efficacy and safety of a high dose of vitamin D in mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus: a randomized controlled clinical trial

During pregnancy and lactation outstanding changes occur in mother's vitamin D metabolism. This study was carried out to evaluate the efficacy of 300,000 IU vitamin D given intramuscularly on body status in new cases of gestational diabetes mellitus [GDM]. This is a randomized clinical trial with the follow-up period of 3 months. Totally 45 participants were randomly divided into intervention group [IG] and control group [CG]. The IG received an IM injection of 300,000 IU of vitamin D, whereas CG did not. The glycosylated hemoglobin A1C [HBA1C], serum 25-OH-D, parathyroid hormone [PTH], serum calcium and phosphorus were measured. Results: Forty five patients including 24 with the mean age of 30.7 +/- 6.2 years in the IG and 21 with the mean age of 29.5 +/- 4.0 years in the CG participated in the study. The median concentration of serum 25[OH]D3 in the IG was to 62.10 nmol/l after the intervention, showing an increase of around 158%, compared to before intervention [24.25 nmol/l] whereas the CG showed a decrease of around 4.5%. Of the patients, 79.2% of IG and 81.9% of CG suffered to some degree from vitamin D deficiency. These figures were 4.2% and 71.4% for the IG and CG, respectively after the intervention.For the IG, the PTH was significantly lower and Ca was significantly higher after the intervention. The serum Phosphorus before and after the intervention in each group or between the two groups was not significant. The single 300,000 IM dose of vitamin D is regarded as an effective and safe to promptly improve vitamin D status in GDM

role of ghrelin and ghrelin receptors in polycystic ovary syndrome

Polycystic ovary syndrome [PCOS] is related to obesity and to major metabolic alterations including both insulin resistance and beta-cell dysfunction. Ghrelin was identified as the endogenous ligand for the growth hormone secretagogue [GHS] receptor. The actions of ghrelin are carried out through interaction with specific receptor, named GHS-R. In a case-control study, we compared the expression of ghrelin and GHS-Rs mRNA by Quantitative Real-time PCR method in studied groups in order to determine the role of ghrelin and GHS-Rs in pathogenesis of PCOS. Follicular fluid samples were obtained at oocyte collection from 22 patients undergoing IVF-ET as control and 11 patients were diagnosed as having PCOS. Total RNA was extracted from isolated follicular fluid cells and 2[micro]g RNA was diluted and reverses transcribed using random primers and Superscript II. Specific primers for the ghrelin, GHS-R1a and GHS-R1b were designed. Samples were run in triplicate on an ABI Geneamp 5700 sequence detection system. They were subjected to 40 cycles of amplification under condition 92[degree]C- 20s and 62[degree]C-1min using 3[micro]l diluted cDNA [1:7], 10[micro]l 2X SYBR green, 3[micro]l diluted cDNA. [beta]-actin mRNA was assayed and then normalized to total RNA measurements for each sample. Age, weight and resulting pregnancies did not vary between PCOS and non-PCOS patients, whereas the BMI and serum testosterone level of PCOS were significantly higher than non-PCOS patients. Quantitative real-time RT-PCR showed that mRNA for ghrelin and GHS-R 1b were detectable in follicular fluid cells from all patients. We failed to find mRNA for GHS-R 1a in any of follicular fluid cells. There were no significant difference in ghrelin and GHS-R1b mRNA expression levels between PCOS and non-PCOS groups. Our findings indicate that ghrelin and ghrelin receptors may not be considered risk factors for pathogenesis of PCOS