Iranian blood donors' motivations and their influencing factors.

AIM: One of the challenges faced by blood transfusion services is the motivation of blood donors. The purpose of this study was to define the motivations of Iranian donors. METHODOLOGY: A total of 16 955 volunteers were studied to evaluate their motivation for blood donation in 2003 and 2004. A questionnaire was designed covering socio-demographic characteristics, history of blood donation and a list of reasons for donating. The donor physician determined the donor's motivation after an interview. Motivation was classified as internal (altruistic and religious beliefs) and external motives. RESULTS: The main motivations were 6629 (39.1%) altruistic, 6552 (38.6%) good for one's health and 1931 (11.4%) religious beliefs. It was shown that 8560 volunteers (50.5%) had internal motivations and 8395 (49.5%) had external motivations. Internal motivations were significantly higher in women, regular and educated donors. CONCLUSION: This study showed that internal motives are the main reason for blood donation in Iranian donors, especially in female, regular and high-educated donors. Thus, altruistic and religious messages can be emphasized in recruiting and retaining donors, particularly in this group. Nearly half of the donors were motivated by external factors--mainly to improve their own health status, especially in older donors. This may be due to a psychological impact in which they feel improvement in their general health. As voluntary non-remunerated blood donation is defined without considering the motivational factor, one might consider a new term such as 'internal motivated voluntary blood donors' in accordance with their motivation and efforts could be centered about recruiting these specific donors.

Sequence elements essential for the rapid turnover of Crithidia fasciculata ornithine decarboxylase.

Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) has a very fast turnover in mammalian cells, but is a stable enzyme in T. brucei and other trypanosmatid parasites like Leishmania donovani. However, Crithidia fasciculata, which is a phylogenetically closely related trypanosomatid to L. donovani, has an ODC with a rapid turnover. Interestingly, C. fasciculata ODC, but not L. donovani ODC, is rapidly degraded also in mammalian systems. In order to obtain information on what sequences are important for the rapid degradation of C. fasciculata ODC, we produced a variety of C. fasciculata/L. donovani ODC hybrid proteins and characterized their turnover using two different mammalian expression systems. The results obtained indicate that C. fasciculata ODC contains several sequence elements essential for the rapid turnover of the protein and that these regions are mainly located in the central part of the enzyme.

Turnover of trypanosomal ornithine decarboxylases.

Interestingly, there is a major difference in turnover rate between ornithine decarboxylases (ODCs) from various trypanosomatids. ODCs from Trypanosoma brucei and Leishmania donovani are both stable proteins, whereas ODC from Crithidia fasciculata is a metabolically unstable protein in the parasite. C. fasciculata ODC is also rapidly degraded in mammalian systems, whereas the closely related L. donovani ODC is not. The degradation of C. fasciculata ODC in the mammalian systems is shown to be dependent on a functional 26 S proteasome. However, in contrast to the degradation of mammalian ODC, the degradation of C. fasciculata ODC does not involve antizyme. Instead, it appears the degradation of C. fasciculata ODC may be associated with poly-ubiquitination of the enzyme.