Maturity impact on physicochemical composition and polyphenol properties of extra virgin olive oils obtained from Manzanilla, Arbequina, and Koroneiki varieties in Iran.

This study investigated the physicochemical properties and polyphenol composition of extra virgin olive oils (EVOOs) extracted from three olive cultivars. The investigated cultivars were Arbequina, Koroneiki, and Manzanilla, grown in Olive Research Station in Rudbar county, Gilan province, Iran, at three ripening stages. Several parameters were analyzed, including peroxide and acidity values, unsaponifiable matter, oxidative stability, total aliphatic alcohols, fatty acids (FAs), sterols, and triacylglycerol composition. The results showed that as maturity increased, parameters such as oil content, acidity value, and iodine value, rise, while parameters including peroxide value, oxidative stability, aliphatic alcohols, and unsaponifiable matter decreased (p < .05). The saponification value was slightly reduced in the developing ripening process (p > .05). The MUFA/PUFA ratio and total sterol content declined during the olive ripening stages (p < .05). The triterpenes decreased in Arbequina and Koroneiki cultivars but increased in Manzanilla cultivar during the maturity stages. According to the data, oleuropein decreased while oleuropein aglycone, oxidized aldehyde, and hydroxylic form of oleuropein increased for all EVOOs during maturation. Apigenin, quercetin, ligstroside aglycone, aldehyde and hydroxylic form, ferulic acid, caffeic acid, and catechin decreased during the ripening of fruits (p < .05). The main triglycerides were triolein (OOO), palmitodiolein (POO), dioleolinolein (OOL), and palmitooleolinolein (PLO) in all EVOOs. In addition, the olive cultivar and harvesting date influence the physicochemical properties and polyphenol composition of EVOOs extracted from olive varieties grown in one region. In conclusion, the results can present helpful information to determine the optimum maturity stage for the investigated olive cultivars.

Investigating Surgeons' Reactions to Patients' Death: A Phenomenological Study.

The main purpose of this study was to scrutinize the reaction of surgeons towards patients' death. This study enjoyed a qualitative approach using a phenomenological lived experience. 12 surgeons who had witnessed patients' death were selected through purposive sampling until data saturation was achieved. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews and were analyzed through the Colaizzi's method. The main concepts extracted from the analysis of the participants' experience comprised three main themes, six sub-categories and 19 initial sub-categories. The main themes were (a) emotional-mental reactions including the sub-themes of emotional distress, mood disorder and mental distress, (b) death encounter including the sub-themes of rational encounter and pre-emptive measure and (c) post-traumatic growth covering the concepts of optimism and performance improvement. The obtained findings imply that the patients' death can sometimes make surgeons aware of the post-incident growth although such deaths affect their personal, family, social and professional lives.

Comparative Physicochemical, Microbiological, Antioxidant, and Sensory properties of pre- and post-fermented yoghurt enriched with olive leaf and its extract.

This study investigated the comparative effect of yoghurt samples enriched with different concentrations of olive leaf powder (OLP) (0.1, 0.5, 1, and 1.5 mg/ml) and its extract (OLE) (0.5, 1, 3, and 5 mg/ml) on the microbiological, sensory, physicochemical, and antioxidant properties of pre- and post-fermented samples during 21 days of storage. Sensory evaluation showed that concentrations lower than 1.5 and 5 mg/ml of OLP and OLE, respectively, were acceptable. Adding OLP or OLE did not have an influence on yoghurt starter culture bacteria (p > .05). All enriched samples significantly showed higher acidity and lower pH compared with control samples (p < .05). The most important polyphenols were oleuropein (from 0.132 to 0.224 and 0.373 to 0.413 mg/g for 0.5 and 3 mg/ml of OLE, from 0.194 to 0.321 mg/g and 0.413 to 1.280 mg/g for 0.5 and 1 mg/ml of OLP, respectively) and catechin (from 0.369 to 0.382 and 0.461 to 0.477 mg/g for 0.5 and 3 mg/ml of OLE, from 0.386 to 0.405 mg/g and 0.310 to 0.710 mg/g for 0.5 and 1 mg/ml of OLP, respectively) in enriched yoghurts. Adding OLP or OLE increased shelf life, antioxidant activity percentage (AA%), and total phenol content (TPC) of enriched samples (p < .05). During 21 days of storage of all samples, TPC, AA%, and pH decreased and TTA increased.

Targeting of oxidative stress and inflammation through ROS/NF-kappaB pathway in phosphine-induced hepatotoxicity mitigation.

AIMS: Poisoning with aluminium phosphide (AlP) commonly has a high rate of mortality and morbidities. Phosphine gas is the main cause of AlP poisoning that has deleterious effect on multi-organs especially heart, kidney, and liver. Furthermore, several studies reported that resveratrol has cytoprotective effects through its pleiotropic property. The purpose of this study was to estimate the dose-dependent role of resveratrol on phosphine induced acute hepatic toxicity in rat model. MAIN METHODS: The rats have been exposed to LD50 of AlP (12 mg/kg) by gavage, and resveratrol doses (20, 40, and 80 mg/kg) were injected 30 min after intoxication. After 24 h, the serum and liver tissue were collected for present study. KEY FINDINGS: The results indicated that phosphine causes an alteration in oxidative stress markers including elevation of ROS, and GSH level, MPO activity, reduction in SOD, catalase and G6PD activity as well as reduction in SOD1 and catalase expression. Furthermore, phosphine significantly induced phosphorylation of IkappaB, NF-kappaB and up-regulation of TNF-α, IL-1ß, IL-6, and ICAM-1 expression. Also, phosphine induces markedly reduced hepatocytes lives cell and elevated apoptosis and necrosis. Co-treatment of resveratrol in a dose-dependent manner reversed aforementioned alterations. All in all, histological analysis indicated a deleterious effect of phosphine on the liver, which is mitigated by resveratrol administration. SIGNIFICANCE: The results of the present study suggest targeting ROS/NF-kappaB signalling pathway by resveratrol may have a significant effect on the improvement of hepatic injury induced by phosphine. It also may be a possible candidate for the treatment of phosphine-poisoning.

The concurrent use of probiotic microorganism and collagen hydrogel/scaffold enhances burn wound healing: An in vivo evaluation.

Treatment of burn wounds is technically demanding and several attempts have been taken to improve wound healing. Silver sulfadiazine antibiotic has been shown to have some beneficial effects on wound healing via reduction in infection. This study was designed to investigate the impact of collagen hydrogel-scaffold dressing with or without topical use of Saccharomyces cerevisiae on cutaneous burn wound healing in rat. Four circular 1cm cutaneous wounds were created in the dorsum back of rats, 48h post-burning. Thirty male rats were divided into the three major groups (1-3, n=10), then the wounds in each group were equally divided into two subgroup treatments (6 treatments), (1) including (a) silver sulfadiazine (SSD) as positive control (PC) and (b) untreated wounds as negative control (NC) (2) including (c) S. cerevisiae and (S.C.) and (d) collagen scaffold (CS), (3) including (e) collagen hydrogel-scaffold (CH-S) and (f) S. cerevisiae with collagen hydrogel-scaffold (CH-S-S). In each group, the animals were euthanized at 12 and 22 days post-injury (DPI) and the skin samples were used for histopathological and biomechanical investigations. Collagen scaffold and hydrogel modulated the inflammation, especially when combined together. Moreover, they increased wound healing, epithelialization and biomechanical performance of wound area and also reduced the scar size. The best results gained when the combination of collagen scaffold and hydrogel were mixed with probiotic. The CH-S biological dressing along with probiotic microorganism (S.C.) significantly increased collagen content compared to the negative controls. Moreover, the CH-S-S treated lesions demonstrated greater ultimate load and stiffness compared to the untreated wounds. In conclusion, application of S. cerevisiae with a bi-phase biological dressing (CH-S) improved the morphological and biomechanical characteristics of the healing burned wounds in rats and the results were comparable to the positive control.

Efficacy of Tiotropium Bromide and Rehabilitation Treatment on Pulmonary Function of Patients With Sulfur Mustard Lung Injury.

BACKGROUND: Chronic pulmonary complication is the most common delayed toxic effect of sulfur mustard (SM) and it has no treatment so far. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate short-term therapeutic effects of inhaled tiotropium bromide and pulmonary rehabilitation on pulmonary function of patients with SM induced lung injury. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In a randomized clinical trial, using convenient sampling method, 54 patients with chronic lung disease due to SM exposure were recruited in Baqiyatallah General Hospital, Tehran, Iran for a period of 2-month study. They were randomly divided into 3 groups of 18 participants each. Group 1 received routine drugs (Serevent, Flixotide), pulmonary rehabilitation 30 minutes/2 times a week, and tiotropium bromide 18 µg/day. Group 2 was treated with routine drugs and pulmonary rehabilitation and group 3 was only on the routine drugs. cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET), plethysmographic measurements, and respiratory symptoms evaluation were performed before and after medical intervention. RESULTS: In group 1, compared to group 3, significant differences were found with regard to symptoms of cough ([difference between the first and last visit in group 1: Diff 1] = -1.6, Diff 3 = -0.3, P = 0.01) and nocturnal dyspnea (Diff 1 = -1.9, Diff 3 = 0.0, P = 0.01), likewise, compared to group 2, significant differences were found with regard to lung function parameters of forced vital capacity (Diff 1 = 3.0, Diff 2 = -3.5, P = 0.03), forced expiratory volume in one second (Diff 1 = 3.9, Diff 2 = -5.6, P = 0.009), maximal mid-expiratory flow rate 25% - 75% (Diff 1 = 1.5, Diff 2 = -3.2, P = 0.007) and peak expiratory flow (Diff 1 = -2.06, Diff 2 = -4.3, P = 0.04). Total lung capacity (Diff 2 = 9.28, Diff 3 = -12.07, P = 0.02) and residual volume (Diff2 = 32.1, Diff3 = -27.6, P = 0.04) were increased in group 2 compared to group 3. There were no significant differences with regard to CPET results among all groups (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Inhalation of tiotropium bromide in combination with pulmonary rehabilitation could improve some plethysmographic lung volumes and clinical outcomes in patients with chronic pulmonary disease due to SM. Short-term prescription of pulmonary rehabilitation has no effect on CPET of patients.

Effect of propolis on dentin regeneration and the potential role of dental pulp stem cell in Guinea pigs.

OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of the effect of Propolis as a bioactive material on quality of dentin and presence of dental pulp stem cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: For conducting this experimental split-mouth study,a total of 48 maxillary and mandibular incisors of male guinea pigs were randomly divided into an experimental Propolis group and a control calcium hydroxide group. Cutting the crowns and using Propolis or calcium hydroxide to cap the pulp, all of the cavities were sealed. Sections of the teeth were obtained after sacrificing 4 guinea pigs from each group on the 10(th), 15(th) and 30(th) day. After they had been stained by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E), specimens underwent a histological evaluation under a light microscope for identification of the presence of odontoblast-like cells, pulp vitality, congestion, inflammation of the pulp and the presence of remnants of the material used. The immunohistochemistry (IHC) method using CD29 and CD146 was performed to evaluate the presence of stem cells and the results were statistically evaluated by Kruskal-Wallis, Chi Square and Fisher tests. RESULTS: In H&E stained specimens, there was no difference between the two groups in the presence of odontoblast-like cells, pulp vitality, congestion, inflammation of the pulp and the presence of remnants of used material(p>0.05). There was a significant difference between the quality of regenerative dentin on the 15(th) and 30(th) days (p<0.05): all of the Propolis cases presented tubular dentin while 14% of the calcium hydroxide cases produced porous dentin. There was no significant difference between Propolis and calcium hydroxide in stimulation of dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs). CONCLUSION: This study which is the first one that documented the stimulation of stem cells by Propolis, provides evidence that this material has advantages over calcium hydroxide as a capping agent in vital pulp therapy. In addition to producing no pulpal inflammation, infection or necrosis this material induces the production of high quality tubular dentin.