Researcher Bulletin of Medical Sciences
Volume:19 Issue: 5, 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of Dorema ammoniacum on PTZ induced seizures in male rats. In chemical kindling، animals received pentylenetetrazol، 30mg/kg/48h، intraperitoneally and five different stages of seizure were appeared gradually and seizure parameters including maximum seizure stage (SS)، stage 4 latency (S4L)، and seizure duration (SD) were measured during 20 min after PTZ injection. Subsequently، the effects of Dorema ammoniacum (50 and 100mg/kg)، injected 30 min before PTZ، on these parameters were evaluated and compared with antiepileptic drug، phenobarbital (30 mg/kg، IP). Results showed that Dorema ammoniacum decreased SS and SD and increased S4L significantly (P<0. 001، P<0. 01، respectively). This antiepileptic effect was as much as 50%-60% of phenobarbital effects. On the basis of obtained results it may be concluded that Dorema ammoniacum has anticonvulsant effect on PTZ induced kindling model of epilepsy. Considering that Dorema ammoniacum increased the latency of seizure stages occurrence and reduced duration of different seizure stages (SD) and seizure stage (SS)، it may prevent spreading of epileptiform activity in the nervous system and contribute to turn off excessive neuronal firing.

Yersinia species are gram negative bacteria that are responsible to cause diarrhea in humans. Due to insufficient knowledge on the effect of pH and temperature in virulence properties of Yersinia spp, this study was conducted to evaluate these factors on virulence properties Yersinia. This was an experimental study performed in two stages on 12 virulence and 7 non-virulence such as Y. enterocolitica, Y. intemedia, Y. fredeniksenii, and Y. kristensenii, which were isolated from different sources. In the first part the impact of pH and temperature on bacterial growth and in the second part of the study the effects of pH and temperature on virulence characteristics of Yersinia spp. were studied by using auto- agglutination test, dependence on calcium, crystal violet, esculin and salicin tests, invasion of Hep-2 cell and RPMI-1640. Temperature and pH were effective on bacterial growth independently without influencing each other. The results showed that temperature was effective on virulence characteristics while pH did not reduce the virulence effect. Furthermore, crystal violet, RPMI-1640 and invasion of Hep-2 cell were more effective in virulence factor. Besides some strains maintained the virulence property during the growth, this might be due to stability of plasmid in such strain. The results showed that both pH and temperature were effective on the growth, but only temperature is effective on virulence properties.

Osteoporosis is a public health problem that affects millions of people worldwide and the growing risk of fracture increases. Increased physical activity is one of the recommendations of World Health Organization for prevention of osteoporosis. This study assesses the determinants of physical activity in prevention of osteoporosis among students, based on health belief model. Students of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences participate in this descriptive-analytical study. The total number of participants in this study was 239 students who were studied with informed consent and voluntary. Instrument for data collection, was a valid and reliable questionnaire (including 9 demographic characteristics questions, 24 questions in health belief model constructs and the 13 question measured the physical activity. Data were analyzed SPSS version 18 Pearson correlation, t-test, ANOVA and multiple regression analysis. Mean degree of physical activity was 223.59±226.41 minutes per week. Between mean degree of physical activity and perceived susceptibility to osteoporosis and perceived barriers of physical activity, there was a significant relationship (P<0.05). In this study there was no significant relationship between physical activity and other constructs of HBM (P>0.05). According to multiple regression analysis, perceived barriers was the strongest predictor for physical activity (Beta=0.032, P<0.001). Based on results of this study, it seems that there are some other factors that contribute to student's physical activity; we recommend future studies with a holistic view to identify other determinants of physical activity.

These nanomaterials are currently under investigation and developing for applications related to cancer therapy. To improve efficiency for targeted treatment of malignant tumors, we compare the two conjugation methods (direct and indirect) for production of bombesin-gold nanorods conjugate against gasterin release peptide receptor as a targeted photothermal therapy agent for breast tumor. Bombesin conjugated with gold nanorods using the direct and indirect methods was used. The attachment of bombesin to gold nanorods and in vitro stability of two conjugates in mouse blood was studied by UV/vis spectroscopy. Cell toxicity for both of conjugate was investigated by MTT test. Selective binding and cellular uptake studies were performed with the T47D cell line. Results obtained of two conjugates compared to introduce best conjugation method. UV-vis spectroscopy confirmed the conjugation of bombesin with gold nanorods in two methods. The stability assessment proved same and high stability of two conjugates in mouse blood up to 4 h. Cytotoxicity study showed higher biocompatibility of indirect conjugate of bombesin and gold nanorods in comparison with its direct conjugate. In vitro studies showed that indirect conjugate of bombesin and gold nanorods have four-fold binding and cellular uptake in comparison with its direct conjugate. These results show that the indirect conjugation was better than the direct conjugation to produce targeted nanodrug with low cytotoxicity, high binding and cellular uptake for photothermal therapy of breast cancer.

The present study aimed to predict alexithymia on the basis of anxiety, temperament and character in high school students. The research design was correlational which is categorized as descriptive research methods. The sample included 300 (152 girls, and 148 boys) high school students of Semnan city, which selected by clustering random sampling. In this research, three questionnaires namely Toronto’s alexithymia, Kloninjer’s temperament and character, and trait and state anxiety questionnaires were administered. Analyzing data indicated that trait and state anxiety, self-directiveness, cooperativeness, persistence of temperament, and character personality characteristics were significant predictors for prediction of alexithymia. On the basis of results it can be concluded that anxiety level and temperament and character of personality characteristics are important variables for identifying people who are affected by alexithymia. Therefore, they can be considered for prevention of problem.

Trauma, burn, neoplastic resections, congenital lesions and etc. cause scalp defects. Full thickness involvement or bone exposure needs coverage with vascularized tissues or flap. Repairing with local flaps causes dog ears. This problem is more prevalent in the base of the transposition scalp flaps. Dog-ear in trunk or extremities can be repaired in the same surgery but in scalp due to possibility of pedicle injury, correction of dog-ear is postponed to second stage. This article explains a new technique to repair dog-ear of scalp flap in the first surgery without injury to neurovascular plexus of the flap. This retrospective study consisted of 16 male patients with scalp defects. The dog-ear of the scalp flaps was corrected by this technique. At first the skin and subcutaneous layers were removed. Galea and neurovascular plexus were preserved, next galea was plicated under the flap and skin defect was repaired. The mean age of patients was 40 years. The mean size of defects was 190 cm. No complication or necrosis was detected during follow up period of at least 6 month. This technique is suggested for dog-ear correction in scalp flaps without sacrifice of neurovascular bundles and in the same surgery.

“Mahyaveh” is a traditional fish sauce that is produced by the fermentation process in Iran. As the microorganisms can grow in fermentation process, safety assurance of this Iranian food condiment is very important. Mahyaveh is produced from Sardinella sp. Fish and the viable cell numbers of total bacteria, halophilic bacteria, fungi, halophilic yeasts and lactic acid bacteria from 7 homemade samples were counted. Test of gram coloration, catalase, oxidase, fermentation of carbohydrate, phosphate, coagulase, nitrate reduction, production of acid and CO2, beside morphological study, used for recognition of the bacteria. The viable cell numbers of total bacteria in the first week of production were determined to be in the range of 8.7±102 CFU/g and after 2 month it reached to 7.2±102 CFU/g. Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus licheniformis showed significant difference by the other bacillus sp. (P<0.05). Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus alimentaria consist 59.9% of total lactic acid bacteria. Micrococcus sp. and Staphylococcus sp. constitute the 70% of the total bacterial community. Micrococcus luteus showed the significant difference by the other species of the micrococcus (P<0.05). Staphylococcus lentus had the highest community in the staphylococcus sp. (P<0.05). Candida sp., Saccharomycopsis sp., Pichia sp., and Mucor was recognized as yeast. High concentration of pathogenic bacteria, coliforms and spore producing bacteria were not recognized in the Mahyaveh and the safety of the Mahyaveh could be confirmed but additional study is essential.

Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxins A and B are the major causes of food intoxication worldwide. S. aureus is colonized in the anterior part of nares in approximately 20-55% of healthy adults. The transmission of enterotoxigenic S. aureus to sweetmeat by pre-contaminated dairy products or nares of processing workers can raise food poisoning risk. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the frequency of enterotoxin A and B genes (sea and seb) among the S. aureus strains isolated from confectionary products and nares of its processing workers in Khorramabad city (2012). In this cross-sectional study, a total of 300 specimens of confectionary products as well as 91 swab samples from nares of confectionery processing workers were randomly collected. The samples were subjected to detect S. aureus according to The Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran (ISIRI) and conventional microbiological tests. The distribution of sea and seb genes among the tested isolates were determined by PCR and analyzed via chi-square test statistically. Our culture results showed that 11.3% of cream-filled pastries (n=150) and 2.6% of cookies (n=150) were contaminate with S. aureus (P<0.05). Furthermore, nasal carriage rate was yielded 16.48%. The prevalence of sea gene among the S. aureus strains isolated from cream-filled pastries, cookies and nasal carriers were 88.2%, 4% and 15%, respectively (P<0.05). While seb gene was only detected in two S. aureus strains (11.8%), which were isolated from cream-filled pastry samples. Consuming cream-filled pastries in comparison with cookies, may increase the possibility of contamination with S. aureus up to 4.6 times (O.R=4.6). Pasteurization and refrigeration of dairy products, constant microbial control of confectionary products and screening of processing workers can decrease the risk of staphylococcal intoxication.