Prenatal Methamphetamine Hydrochloride Exposure Leads to Signal Transduction Alteration and Cell Death in the Prefrontal Cortex and Amygdala of Male and Female Rats' Offspring.

In the last decade, there has been a great increase in methamphetamine hydrochloride (METH) abuse by pregnant women that exposes fetus and human offspring to a wide variety of developmental impairments that may be the underlying causes of future psychosocial issues. Herein, we investigated whether prenatal METH exposure with different doses (2 and 5 mg/kg) could influence neuronal cell death and antioxidant level in the different brain regions of adult male and female offspring. Adult male and female Wistar rats prenatally exposed to METH (2 or 5 mg/kg) and/or saline was used in this study. At week 12, adult rats' offspring were decapitated to collect different brain region tissues including amygdala (AMY) and prefrontal cortices (PFC). Western blot analysis was performed to evaluate the apoptosis- and autophagy-related markers, and enzymatic assay was used to measure the level of catalase and also reduced glutathione (GSH). Our results showed that METH exposure during pregnancy increased the level of apoptosis (BAX/Bcl-2 and Caspase-3) and autophagy (Beclin-1 and LC3II/LC3I) in the PFC and AMY areas of both male and female offspring's brain. Also, we found an elevation in the GSH content of all both mentioned brain areas and catalase activity of PFC in the offspring's brain. These changes were more significant in female offspring. Being prenatally exposed to METH increased cell death at least partly via apoptosis and autophagy in AMY and PFC of male and female offspring's brain, while the antioxidant system tried to protect cells in these regions.

The prevalence of educational burnout, depression, anxiety, and stress among medical students of the Islamic Azad University in Tehran, Iran.

BACKGROUND: Psychological disorders have negative consequences on students' learning and academic performance. In addition, academic burnout is one of the common challenges that affects students' motivation and academic eagerness; however, the determinant is not clear. Medical students, meanwhile, demand special attention due to their professional responsibilities. In this regard, this study is conducted to investigate the academic burnout, rate of depression, anxiety and stress as well as related factors among undergraduate medical students at the Tehran Medical Sciences Islamic Azad University. METHODS: This cross-sectional and descriptive study was performed on medical students of Islamic Azad University of Tehran in 2017. In phase I, conducted on all stager students, Maslach Burnout questionnaire was used. In phase II, the DASS-42 questionnaire was provided for 123 students, 120 of whom met the inclusion criteria. In addition, another questionnaire including gender, age, lifestyle, marital and financial status, nutrition style, vitamin D deficiency, smoking, study hours per week, work efficiency and distance from the place of residence to the teaching hospital was used. Finally, the data extracted by SPSS version 23 was analyzed at the significance level of 0.05. RESULTS: In phase I of the study, 17 subjects showed academic burnout (16.3%). Out of all, 76.5% of students with academic burnout did not focus on the study and students' academic burnout was associated with a decrease in their focus (P < 0.05). However, the relationship between academic burnout and other factors was not significant. In phase II, the prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress was 37.5, 41.1 and 30.3%, respectively. The prevalence of severe and very severe degrees that required psychiatric follow-up were 10.5, 10.5 and 7% for depression, anxiety and stress, respectively. According to statistical analyzes, there is a significant direct relationship between anxiety and the distance from the place of residence to the teaching hospital (P = 0.040). CONCLUSION: The present study estimated the prevalence of academic burnout to be between 9.2 and 23.4%, considering the 5% error in the calculation, and the level of anxiety was related to the distance from the place of residence to the hospital.

Wound Healing Effect of Arnebia euchroma gel on Excisional Wounds in Rats.

BACKGROUND: Wound healing is a complex process leading to regeneration of damaged skin tissue. Arnebia euchroma (AE) have many effective activities such as anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antioxidative, and anti-tumoral effects. The extract of AE has positive effects on burn wounds. This study is designed to investigate the healing effects of AE on excisional wounds in rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty six rats with the age of 8 weeks divided into three groups. One group (E1) was treated with AE gel at a concentration of 10%. Control group (C1) received normal saline and the vehicle group (C2) was treated with carboxymethyl cellulose gel as the vehicle for 14 days. Stereological analysis was done to investigate the collagen bundle and hair follicale synthesis, vascularization, fibroblast proliferation. Pathological evaluation was also conducted. RESULTS: In this study, pathological evaluation showed severe acute inflammation in C2 group, chronic and acute inflammation in C1 and also more wound contraction in E1 in comparison with other groups. There was a meaningful difference between E1 and C1 regarding fibroblast proliferation (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Results of this study revealed the healing effect of AE on excisional wounds and recommend its administration after further clinical investigations.