Increased nuchal translucency and pregnancy outcome

To study the outcome of cases with nuchal translucency [NT] >/= 95th centile in the first trimester of pregnancy. This cross sectional study was performed at Iranian Fetal Medicine Foundation [FMF] between January 2009 and December 2011. Totally, 186 cases with NT >/= 95th centile who attended for the first trimester screening were studied. All cases with increased NT including those with normal karyotype were followed up with anomaly scan at 18-22 weeks and fetal echocardiography at 22-24 weeks. Pregnancy outcome was extracted from delivery records and pediatrics notes and telephone interviews. Of screened cases, 186 fetuses had an NT >/= 95th centile, of them 19.8% were abnormal karyotype, including 29 cases of trisomy 21, three of trisomy 18, two of trisomy 13, three of Turner syndrome. 77.8% did not show any abnormalities on follow-up examinations. 4.6% of cases were found to have malformation antenatally and 4% cases postnatally. 11.4% women elected termination of pregnancy without further follow up. There were 4.6% fetal loss and 1.3% hydrops fetalis. In this unselected population, the study showed one out of four fetuses with enlarged NT had an adverse pregnancy outcome [miscarriage, fetal loss, and fetal abnormalities], however the chance of having a normal child after exclusion of chromosomal abnormalities and adverse pregnancy outcome was 95%

Influence of bioaugmentation in biodegradation of PAHs-contaminated soil in bio-slurry phase reactor

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons [PAHS] are important pollutants which have toxic, carcinogenic and mutagenic properties and are considered as a serious hazard to human health and environment. Bioremediation of PAHs contaminated soil was studied in the soil slurry phase bioreactor. For enhancement of biodegradation, bioaugmentation [which is the process of adding microorganisms with the potential of pollution biodegradation to the bio-slurry reactor] was applied. Phenanthrene [C[14]H[10]], a three-benzene ring PAHs, was added in concentration of 100mg/kg soil. Two isolated species and consortium of bacteria were inoculated to the medium in density of 7_10[7] CFU/mL. The analysis of variance [ANOVA] was used for finding of optimum levels of type of bacterial culture and presence effect of endogenous factors. The base of the bacteria was petroleum-contaminated soil from around Tehran petroleum Refinery. Control reactor [killed bacteria] showed 5% loss of phenanthrene and biodegradation in the non-augmented reactor [endogenous microorganisms] in a slurry bioreactor was about 17%. In the case of bioaugmentation with Pseudomonas.spp, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and consortium, phenanthrene degradation efficiency were 87.8%, 85.5% and 92.8%, respectively, presenting the positive effect of biodegradation in consortium augmented compared to the isolated one. Colony forming units [CFUs] variation showed good conformity and agreement with the performance of the reactors with respect to phenanthrene degradation. Hence, the results of this experiment show that bioaugmentation may be considered as an effective method to enhance the bioremediation in removal of PAHs from contaminated soils

cytotoxic effect of chelidonium alkaloids on cells isolated from adult rat liver

Alkaloids of the aerial parts of chelidonium were extracted in the salt form, and their aqueous solutions were prepared in different concentrations. Rat hepatocytes were obtained by liver perfusion. The alkaloidal solutions were added to suspensions of hepatocytes in petri dishes and the mixtures were incubated. Two types of controls have been used; in one type, no alkaloidal extract was added to the media, and in the other, alkaloidal extract of datura which has no cytotoxic activity was added to the hepatocytes. Intracellular LDH activity as well as the activity of leaked LDH into the media, the glucose uptake by the cells, and the glycogen contents of the cells were determined after incubation. The results indicate that 0.05 ml of the alkaloidal solution of chelidonium has no detectable effect on LDH activity during a 240 minute incubation period. With 0.1 ml doses, detectable changes were observed only after 240 minutes of incubation. When 0.2 ml doses were used, the intracellular LDH activity was lowered by 3.23,6.79 and 30.89% after 60,120 and 240 minutes of incubation respectively, as compared with the controls. The activity of leaked LDH into the media was, on the other hand, increased as the duration of incubation was increased. Determination of glucose in different media showed that the uptake of this sugar by the hepatocytes incubated with chelidonium decreased as the dose and incubation periods increased. On the other hand, as the glycogen content of the hepatocytes incubated with chelidonium was the same as that of the controls, we believe that the hepatocytes lost their viability in the presence of chelidonium-derived cytotoxic alkaloids