Wound Healing Activities of Gundelia tournefortii L Extract and Milk-Cream Ointment on Second-Degree Burns of Rat Skin.

Skin burn is a major health problem in the community and seeking new and suitable treatment is suggested. In this regard, traditional remedies were consider in many countries. Regarding clinical application of herbal medicine in the healing of burn wounds, the present study was designed to evaluate the effect of Gundelia (Gundelia tournefortii L) extract with milk-cream on the healing of second-degree burn in a rat model. Thirty-six male Wistar rats (220 ± 30 g) were divided into 3 groups (n = 12), after establishment of second-degree burn: group1, were left without any intervention; group 2, were treated topically with silver sulfadiazine; and group 3, were treated with Gundelia tournefortii L extract composite with milk-cream once a day for 21 days. Macroscopically and histological examinations were conducted on 7, 14, and 21 days of therapy. Data analyses were done using 1-way analysis of variance and post hoc Tukey tests. Macroscopically, evaluation of wounds' sizes on the 14th and 21st days indicated that the wound surface was reduced significantly (P < .001) in group 3 compared with groups 1 and 2. Histological findings also showed that burn healing was significantly improved in group 3 compared with the other groups. Gundelia tournefortii L extract composite with milk-cream has an effective role on healing of second-degree burn in rat skin and it could a complementary and/or alternative medicine in wound healing.

Incidence, Prevalence, and Mortality Rate of Gastrointestinal Cancer in Isfahan, Iran: Application of the MIAMOD Method.

Gastrointestinal cancers remain the most prevalent cancers in many developing countries such as Iran. The aim of this study was to estimate incidence, prevalence and mortality, as well as time trends for gastrointestinal cancers in Isfahan province of Iran for the period 2001 to 2010 and to project these estimates to the year 2020. Estimates were driven by applying the MIAMOD method (a backward calculation approach using mortality and relative survival rates). Mortality data were obtained from the Ministry of Health and the relative survival rate for all gastrointestinal cancers combined was derived from the Eurocare 3 study. Results indicated that there were clear upward trends in age adjusted incidence (males 22.9 to 74.2 and females 14.9 to 44.2), prevalence (males 52.6 to 177.7 and females 38.3 to 111.03), and mortality (males 14.6 to 47.2 and females 9.6 to 28.2) rates per 100,000 for the period of 2001 to 2010 and this upward state would persist for the projected period. For the entire period, the male to female ratio increased slightly for all parameters (incidence rate increased from 1.5 to 1.7, prevalence from 1.4 to 1.6, and mortality from 1.5 to 1.7). In males, totals of 2,179 incident cases, 5,097 prevalent cases and 1,398 mortality cases were predicated to occur during the study period. For females the predicted figures were 1,379, 3,190 and 891, respectively. It was concluded that the upward trend of incidence alongside increase in survival rates would induce a high burden on the health care infrastructure in the province of Isfahan in the future.

Derivation of ES-like cell from neonatal mouse testis cells in autologous sertoli cells co-culture system.

BACKGROUND: Spermatogonial stem cell (SSC) is a self-renewing population of male adult stem cell. SSCs have a differentiation potential which are similar to embryonic stem cells. These Embryonic stem like (ES-like) cells can be a potential source for pluripotent cells for stem cell-based therapy. OBJECTIVE: This study presents an economical and simple co-culture system for pluripotent stem cells generation from neonatal mouse testis Materials and Methods: Isolated testicular cells were cultured in DMEM/F12. Characteristics of the isolated cells and obtained ES-like cell were immune-cytochemically confirmed by examining the presence of PLZF, vimentin, Oct4 and Nanog protein. Expression of the pluripotency and germ-cell specific genes was analyzed by qPCR in derived ES-like colony and SSCs respectively. RESULTS: The experiment results indicated that our method of obtaining pluripotent ES-like cells from spermatogonial cells (SCs) is simpler than the described methods. ES-like cells were immunopositive for pluripotency markers. ES-like cell qPCR results indicated significant increase in pluripotency genes expression and significant decrease in germ cell-specific genes expression. CONCLUSION: The results indicated that ES-like cell with pluripotency characteristic were generated from freshly isolated spermatogonial cells. The pluripotent stem cells provide a cellular reservoir usable for regenerative medicine instead of embryonic stem cells. This article extracted from Ph.D. thesis. (Setareh Javanmardi).

Effects of failed oocyte activation and sperm protamine deficiency on fertilization post-ICSI.

Sperm premature chromosomal condensation (PCC) has been associated with failed fertilization. Previous studies suggest that protamine deficiency or failed oocyte activation may make spermatozoa prone to PCC. However, it is not clear which of these two factors has a more profound effect on fertilization failure. In order to distinguish between these two phenomena, oocytes that failed to fertilize after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) were artificially activated and the association between protamine deficiency and PCC was evaluated in the remaining oocytes that failed to fertilize. The results of this study reveal that after artificial activation, fertilization rate post-ICSI increased from 59.95 to 87.7% and PCC spermatozoa appeared to be present in over 50% of the remaining oocytes that failed to fertilize. The percentage of sperm PCC was significantly higher in protamine deficient samples, thus suggesting that after failed oocyte activation, sperm PCC induced by protamine deficiency may be considered as an alternative cause of failed fertilization post-ICSI. Furthermore, the results of this study did not show any correlation between pronuclei size asynchrony and protamine deficiency.